Come On Manitoba Let’s Get With the Program

I wasn’t surprised when the Child Care Coalition of Manitoba called a news conference recently to expose the provincial government’s ineptitude in distributing the new federal subsidy for daycare.  

Susan Prentice from the Child Care Coalition of Manitoba speaks about the fact that daycare fees in Manitoba have not changed by even a cent for most parents. The chart behind her shows how in contrast rates in Ontario and most of the other provinces have fallen considerably for all parents. photo by Ian Froese for the CBC

I wasn’t surprised to learn Manitoba wasn’t getting the federal dollars for daycare into parents’ hands because I have two granddaughters in daycare, one in Saskatchewan and one in Manitoba.  My children in Saskatchewan noticed a substantial drop in their daughter’s daycare fees, as did all Saskatchewan parents, shortly after their province signed a childcare agreement with Ottawa, but….. my children in Manitoba have received no price reduction at all in the fees for their daughter’s care.

In September I was visiting my niece in Ontario who owns a private daycare facility.  She spoke positively about how the federal subsidy was lowering rates for all her clients.

My anecdotal family evidence had me wondering why Manitoba daycare fees hadn’t been reduced like those in other provinces.  Now I know.  

Apparently, the Manitoba government wanted to be sure the federal money went to the neediest families. That’s admirable.  But they set the bar for what was needy at a level that meant few families could qualify.  

Then they failed to advertise properly, so most parents weren’t even aware they qualified, and finally, they made the red tape and paperwork for both parents and daycares so onerous that applying for the subsidy was a challenge. 

My member of Parliament Leah Gazan spoke to the House of Commons on November 30th about the importance of federal funding for daycare being used to improve wages and benefits for childcare workers, – From Leah Gazan’s Instagram page

The province also didn’t use the money to add more childcare workers, increase their wages, or improve their working conditions and benefits.  My member of Parliament Leah Gazan raised that concern in the House of Commons just last week. 

So…. most of the federal money Manitoba received to lower daycare fees and improve the quality of child care is sitting in the bank untouched, while in places like the Yukon they have already fully implemented a maximum $10 daily fee for all families, have created 236 new childcare spaces with their federal funding and have increased the wages of fully qualified childcare workers to $30.00 an hour.  

Some people have speculated Manitoba’s Conservative party didn’t want to make the Liberal leaders in Ottawa look good so they deliberately took steps to insure the daycare program the Trudeau government funded wasn’t successful.  

I don’t buy that, because as my family’s experience proves, Conservative governments in Saskatchewan and Ontario have successfully lowered all daycare fees.  In fact, it would probably be wise for the Stephenson government to consult with their politically aligned counterparts in other provinces, for guidance on how to make better use of the federal daycare subsidy. 

Image from the Toronto Star illustrating the labour shortage across Canada

The news is filled with stories about businesses and medical facilities and hundreds of Manitoba employers who are having trouble finding workers for vacant positions.

Many parents were forced to quit their jobs during the pandemic to care for their children. If we want to encourage them to return to work, we have to insure daycare in our province is affordable and high quality.  Doing so makes economic sense. 

I’d like to believe the daycare fee subsidy was ineffectively implemented in Manitoba due to a lack of planning and organization which can happen when you are trying to figure out how to administer a new program.

Political cartoon by Chuck Chukry speculating on why the province isn’t spending the federal daycare subsidy to reduce fees for parents

I’d prefer to discount the nefarious political motivations some social media sites have suggested for the botched rollout.  

However, now that the shortcomings of the Manitoba plan have been clearly exposed and other provinces and territories are providing models for more efficient and successful ways of lowering daycare fees and improving services for all families, we should expect our province to move quickly to make the necessary changes required. 

Hopefully, soon the parents of my Manitoba granddaughter will see the same reduction in daycare fees the parents of her cousin in Saskatchewan are already enjoying. 

Other posts………..

Kids of Career Moms Are Okay

I Shook Her Hand

Universal Child Care A Wise Investment for Canada

Cora Hind- The Wheat Oracle Who Wore Pants

In a new exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery called Headlines: The Art of the News there is a photographic portrait of Ella Cora Hind. Later she dropped the Ella from her name and came to be known as Cora Hind. When I toured the Headlines exhibit with curator Riva Symko she told us Cora had been an agricultural reporter known for her uncanny way of correctly predicting wheat prices.

Cora often dressed in men’s pants, something quite shocking for a woman at the time, and tramped through Manitoba grain fields to collect information to write her agricultural stories for the paper.

Cora was born in 1861 in Ontario. Both her parents had died by the time she was five and so she and her two brothers went to live with their grandfather who taught Cora all about farming. Cora wanted to become a teacher but she failed the algebra part of her qualification exam. So together with her Aunt Alice, she decided to move to Winnipeg in 1882 where they’d heard there might be employment opportunities.

This photo of William Luxton who refused to hire Cora is in the Headlines exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery

Cora had always dreamed of becoming a journalist so when she arrived in Winnipeg she went to see William Luxton the editor of the Manitoba Free Press. He was a friend of one of Cora’s uncles and so welcomed her warmly to his office, but was shocked when she said she wanted to write for the paper. Luxton told Cora women didn’t write for newspapers. Being a reporter was rough work often involving interviewing less than-savoury people. It wasn’t for a woman.

This old typewriter is part of the Headlines exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. When the Free Press editor wouldn’t hire her Cora learned to type and got another job.

Cora wasn’t deterred. She heard about a new office machine called a typewriter. She rented one, learned to type and got herself a job working for the lawyer Hugh John McDonald. But she was still interested in farming and grain growing and in 1898 started making crop predictions. Farmers came to trust her expertise and knowledge and she would submit articles about farming to the newspaper under the name E. Hind.

This portrait of John Dafoe who hired Cora as a reporter is also in the Headlines exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery

In 1901 the brand new editor of the Winnipeg Free Press John Dafoe hired her as an agricultural reporter.

Cora would go on to earn an international reputation as an agricultural journalist and her predictions about harvest yields soon were the accepted source for establishing the price of Canadian wheat. She became known as kind of an ‘oracle of wheat’ for her accurate crop predictions.

She was also famous for the way she strode through grain fields in riding breeches, high leather boots and a Stetson hat. She went across Canada inspecting farms. In 1924 she travelled more than 10,000 kilometres checking out crops.

Cora played an important role in getting the vote for women in Manitoba

Cora founded the Winnipeg branch of the Canadian Women’s Press Club and helped form the Political Equality League with other Winnipeg suffragettes campaigning for women to get the right to vote in Manitoba which they did in 1916.

This photo shows the vest made by a Cree woman from Norway House for Cora. The vest is in the collection of the Manitoba Museum and Cora is wearing it in the portrait on display in the Headlines exhibit at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. In an exhibition at the museum showcasing the vest visitors were reminded that while Cora helped win the vote for Manitoba women in 1916 Indigenous women would not be allowed to vote until 1952. – photo by Lyle Dick

Cora Hind was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Manitoba in 1935.

This sculpture of Cora Hind by Miguel Joyal is included in the Winnipeg Citizens Walk of Fame in Assiniboine Park

When Cora died in 1942 they halted trading at the Winnipeg Grain Exchange for two minutes in her memory.

Other posts……..

What a Woman!

Finding Nellie’s House

Grain is King

All Those Mennonite Names!!

I was doing some research for a writing project and wanted to know what the most common last names in the province of Manitoba were. I found this site called Forebearers: Names and Genealogy Resources and it had a page for most common surnames in Manitoba.

I couldn’t believe it! At least 10 of the top 20 most common surnames in Manitoba were Mennonite names like Penner and Klassen and Reimer. Four other names that have English as well as Dutch Mennonite roots like my own maiden name Peters and names like Martin and Miller and Brown which are often considered Mennonite names, were also in the top twenty.

From what I could find online there are about 80 or so Mennonite churches in the province but of course not all attendees would have names traditionally considered Mennonite and many people with Mennonite names might not attend church at all.

Apparently in 1998 there were 60,000 Mennonites in the province but I couldn’t find any statistics for 2022. I did read that Winnipeg is the city in Canada with the most Mennonites.

I knew Mennonites had a big presence here in Manitoba but I was still very surprised to discover that the top twenty list of most common surnames in our province is dominated by traditional Mennonite names.

Other posts………..

Mennonite Humour

Mennonite on the Titanic

What Does a Mennonite Look Like?

Hutterite Life- Stunning Photography

Children playing tag on straw bales after a shower
Spring Valley Colony – 2010

Last week my friend and I went to visit The Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery on the Canadian Mennonite University Campus to see the exhibit In the World, But Not Of It. In a series of absolutely stunning photographs Tim Smith reveals the intimacies and intricacies of life on Hutterite colonies. Smith has spent thirteen years building relationships with Hutterite families and photographing them at many different moments on their life’s journey.

Chantel Hofer plays with her niece in a wheat field. -Deerboine Colony- 2015

Hutterite colonies are patriarchal and so what struck me about the collection on view at the gallery is the way Smith has captured Hutterite women. He presents them as daring, capable, independent, happy and quirky.

Kelly Waldner on her quarter horse- Baker Colony – 2016

Hadassah Maendal practices headstands on the Baker Colony in 2016

A young Hutterite woman displays a henna tattoo she designed -2018

Doria Waldner from the Green Acres colony on a midway ride at a fair in the city of Brandon-2018

Lissa Wurtz head gardener on the Deerboine Colony- 2018

Hadassah Maendal takes her horse for a swim- Baker Colony -2016

This is just a tiny sample of the wonderful photos you can see in the exhibit at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery. The exhibit will be there till November 12.

You can also view Tim Smith’s stunning photography on his website.

Note: I took the photos of Tim Smith’s photos used in this blog when I visited the gallery.

Other posts……..

Hutterite Artists

Could I Be A Hutterite?

Finding Fossils at the Art Gallery

I pose with an interesting fossil on the wall at the Winnipeg Art Gallery

Last week I gave a tour of the Winnipeg Art Gallery to about thirty adults from many different countries who were students at a private college offering intensive English courses here in Winnipeg.

Fossil embedded in the staircase at the Winnipeg Art Gallery

The thing I think the international group found most fascinating about the tour were the fossils I showed them in the Tyndall Stone which composes the floor and walls of many parts of the gallery. It is unique to Manitoba.

The Gillis Quarry near Garson Manitoba – photo Wiki Commons

Tyndall Stone is a kind of dolomitic limestone quarried near Garson, Manitoba by Gillis Quarries which has been owned and operated by four generations of the same family since 1910. It is cream-coloured limestone and is mottled with darker dolomite which gives the rock a tapestry effect.

Fossil on the Eckhardt Hall floor in the Winnipeg Art Gallery

One of the reasons Tyndall stone is so appealing aesthetically is because it contains numerous fossils.

More fossils on the stairs at the Winnipeg Art Gallery

Over 400 million years ago southern Manitoba was covered with a shallow sea called Lake Aggasiz and its muddy sea floor was home to many different kinds of creatures who became a part of that floor when they died.

What kind of fossil is this?

As limestone was formed underwater by the action of organic and chemical agents the remains of corals, snails, cephalopods, trilobites, and brachiopods became part of the sedimentary layers.

Due to the receding of Lake Agassiz and glacier movement, the limestone deposits under the lake were raised to dry land creating a limestone belt about 100 miles wide that extends diagonally across Manitoba.

I am thinking this could be a coral fossil hiding in the shadow of a step at the Winnipeg Art Gallery

Tyndall Stone has been used in many different buildings of note in Winnipeg including the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

I suspect I could find literally hundreds of fossils in the art gallery’s walls and steps and floors if I ever took the time to count them.

There are many very interesting-looking fossils on the gallery walls

Other posts………..

Autumn Cruise Fit For a Queen

Writer or Palaeontologist?

Dinosaurs in Saskatchewan

 

Meeting Isaac the Ox

Not long ago I did some research and a blog post about the Red River cart that stands at the entrance to Assiniboine Park here in Winnipeg. So I was delighted to find another Red River Cart in the little Manitoba community of Oak Lake last week. The cart is being pulled by Isaac the Ox.

The Red River Cart was an invention of the Manitoba Metis and played a key role in the settlement of Manitoba. Indeed Metis settlers were the first to build homes in the Oak Lake region in the 1870s. The southern branch of the Fort Ellice Trail which ran through the area had huge bur oak trees which were used to repair the Red River carts before they headed off full of furs to trade further west.

I discovered that Isaac the Ox is the official mascot of the town of Oak Lake. At one time there was a real Isaac the Ox which was purchased from the Mennonite Heritage Village Museum in Steinbach. He lived in a pasture in Oak Lake and was taken to fairs and parades and other community events to give ox-cart rides. Eventually, he passed away and a decision was made to not replace him and just have a statue of Isaac in town.

An antique store just across the street from the Red River cart features a mural that depicts Oak Lake decades later when trains and cars had replaced Red River carts.

The town has also preserved this bell tower which was installed in 1913. When a fire started the bell rang and everyone in town ran to get buckets and hoses to help put out the blaze. The bell also rang at 9 o’clock each night to announce a curfew for all children under the age of 16.

We were in Oak Lake for a family holiday but on a trip into town to replenish a few groceries it was interesting to discover some bits of local history and to meet Isaac the Ox.

Other posts………..

A Different Kind of Folk Festival

Golfing At A Hudson’s Bay Outpost

Dog Transportation

Getting To Know Mr North

Statue of Tom Lamb by Leo Mol in the Richardson Building Winnipeg

I’ve passed this statue hundreds of times as I walk through the Richardson Building on my way to work so I decided I wanted to find out more about Tom Lamb the man whose name is on the statue’s plaque.

Tom, who would eventually earn the nickname Mr North was born in 1898 in Grand Rapids Manitoba. His British parents went to the north as Anglican missionaries. Tom’s family moved to Moose Lake in 1900 where his Dad built a log cabin and began a fur trading business with local traders.

Tom grew up with Cree children as his companions and learned to speak their language fluently. Tom quit school at the end of grade three to help his Dad with a fish hauling operation he had started.

Tom married Jean Armstrong in 1924 and together they raised six sons and three daughters. Eventually, his children helped operate the fur trading and fishing businesses Tom took over from his Dad.

Photo of Tom Lamb by Richard Harrington from Library and Archives Canada- Photostories Canada site- National Gallery of Canada

Tom instituted a conservation and development plan to increase the declining muskrat and beaver population in the north and in 1935 bought an airplane to help haul fresh fish. He hired a pilot who soon was as busy doing charter work for the government, the RCMP, geologists, oil rig operators and medical evacuations as he was transporting fish.

Tom Lamb with his six sons who all became pilots and worked for Lambair- photo from Wikipedia– They learned to fly sitting on their Dad’s lap in the cockpit

In 1937 Tom became a pilot himself and a decade later had purchased a fleet of aircraft with floats and skis that became a thriving northern airline called Lambair. All six of his sons got their pilot licences and flew charter operations throughout the Arctic including Greenland, the Yukon and Alaska.

Lamb Air passengers are ready for a flight. The company motto was “Don’t ask us where we fly. Tell us where you want to go.”- Photo Lamb Family Archive- from Vintage Wings of Canada

By 1959 Lambair had logged more than 1,500,000 air miles, owned twenty planes and employed 40 pilots.

Photo by Richard Harrington from Library and Archives Canada- Photostories Canada site- National Gallery of Canada

At the same time as his airline flourished Tom maintained the fishing and shipping business, his Dad had founded. In the photo above one of the Lamb’s boats is transporting lumber as well as cattle for a ranching operation another one of Tom’s initiatives in the north.

Tom Lamb’s portrait in the Aviation Hall of Fame was created by artist  Irma Sophia Coucill.

Tom Lamb was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Manitoba and has been inducted into the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame. He died in 1969 and his children carried on his airline business for another decade. He had twenty-four grandchildren. His son Jack chronicled his Dad’s life in the book My Life in the North.

Statue of Tom Lamb in the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden in Assiniboine Park

Although the Leo Mol statue in the Richardson Building bears the date 1991, the original piece was poured in 1971. There is another copy of the Tom Lamb statue in the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden in Assiniboine Park. A fibreglass version sits in the airport at The Pas and there is another copy in the Canadian embassy in Washington DC. 

Leo Mol said he wanted to show Tom Lamb as a young pilot and he made the propeller in his hands look a bit like a clock because he wanted the statue to take people back in time to the era when Mr Lamb helped open up the north as an aviation pioneer.

Other posts………..

His Dream Came True

Come Take A Trip in My Airship

Dave the Navigator Meets Henry the Navigator

15 Ways To Use A Métis Sash

Next week I start giving Winnipeg Art Gallery tours of A Hard Birth or Kwaata-nihtaawakihk the exhibit’s name in Michif, the Métis language. A Hard Birth tells the story of Manitoba becoming an official province of Canada 150 years ago.

One of the pieces I am excited to show young visitors is this sash. Saencheur Flayshii is its name in Michif, the Métis language. The sash is on display thanks to the National Gallery in Ottawa. They think it was made in the first half of the 1800s. This kind of sash was very popular in the Red River Valley and orginated with the voyageurs. They were French workers employed to transport furs for the Hudson’s Bay company.

The sashes could be up to three meters long and were made from brightly coloured wool. The one currently on display at the Winnipeg Art Gallery has a popular flame design with diamonds at its centre.

Shooting the Rapids 1879 a painting by Frances Anne Hopkins. The lead paddler is wearing a Metis sash.

Making a sash could take up to two hundred hours. Until the 1800s the sashes were handwoven and sometimes made with plant fibres. It was only later they were woven on looms with wool.

Once when I took a tour of the St. Boniface Museum the guide showed us the heavy bales of fur and told us how the sashes helped to ease the burden of carrying them

The sashes have been used for many things. Here are fifteen I found. There are probably more.

1. As a support to your back while carrying bales of fur that could weigh more than a hundred pounds. This helped prevent hernias.
2. As a tumpline to lash your canoe or supplies to your head during portage
3. Firestarter bags, tobacco pouches, knives and first aid kits were tucked into the sash for carrying
4. A tourniquet for broken bones
5. A scarf for your face in winter
6. A washcloth or towel
7. A saddle blanket or emergency bridle for your horse
8. You could tear off the fringes to get pieces of thread to mend your clothes
9. You could tie keys to the fringes so didn’t lose them
10. Storing pemmican or other foods
11. A belt to keep your coat closed.
12. A rope to tie up your canoe
13. To mark a bison as someone’s property after it was killed
14. As a gift to give someone
15. A symbol of Metis pride at ceremonies and events

This statue on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature shows Louis Riel wearing a Métis sash

In Shelley Niro’s woodcut series Resting With Warriors she shows a woman wearing the traditional sash. I photographed this piece when it was on display at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in the spring of 2017.

Today the sash is worn by both men and women although originally only men would have worn them.

Other posts…….

An Award Winner Inspires Teens

What A Sash

It’s Louis Riel Day

Louis Riel Day- Ten Images

A statue of Louis Riel faces the river on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature in Winnipeg. Riel is wearing a traditional Metis sash and holds the Manitoba Act in his hand. The act admitted Manitoba as the fifth province to the country of Canada on May 12 of 1870.

It’s Louis Riel Day a holiday first celebrated in 2008 to honour a man who was the leader of the Metis people on the prairies in the 1870s and 1880s and is considered the founder of our province. Louis Riel wanted to preserve and protect Metis land rights and culture from undue influence and direction from the federal government of Canada.     He was elected to Parliament several times.

I decided to search my albums for photos related to the man our province is celebrating today.

The Diaries of Louis Riel is one of the books featured in a sculpture at the Forks in Winnipeg that celebrates the writing of Indigenous authors. The artwork is called Education is the New Bison and was created by Val Vint.

Deeds are not accomplished in a few days, or in a few hours, a century is only a spoke in the wheel of everlasting time.  – Louis Riel

This Louis Riel quote in the shape of a wheel was displayed as a touchstone at the heart of a groundbreaking exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario I visited in 2017 that celebrated the artwork of the Metis as well as other minority groups in Canada. It was called Reframing Nationhood.

Louis Riel’s Metis sash

Louis Riel’s Metis sash is on display at the St. Boniface Museum in Winnipeg. The sashes were first used by the French voyageurs who transported furs for the Hudsons Bay Company. The Metis, a people with both a French and Indigenous heritage, adopted these sashes from the voyageurs and called them ‘un ceinture fleche’ or ‘arrowed belts.’ Today the sash is worn by members of the Metis nation as a symbol of pride. 

Also on display at the St. Boniface Museum is one of Louis Riel’s three coffins.

The esplanade which walkers use to cross the Provencher Bridge in Winnipeg is called The Riel Esplanade in honour of Louis Riel.

At the end of the Provencher Bridge is Joseph Royal Park. It honours Joseph Royal a journalist and lawyer who defended Louis Riel in court when he was accused of treason. He also defended Louis Riel in editorials in his newspaper.

This statue of Louis Riel on the grounds of St. Boniface College once stood on the Manitoba Legislature grounds but was considered too controversial and was replaced by a more conventional one in 1995.

A third Winnipeg statue of Louis Riel sits on the grounds of the St. Boniface Museum. The museum is housed in a former nunnery for the Grey Nuns. The Grey Nuns provided Louis Riel with his early education and they facilitated him going to Montreal to study further at a college there. Louis Riel’s sister Sara joined the order of the Grey Nuns.

Louis Riel is buried on the grounds of the St. Boniface Basilica. According to documentation some 700 people gathered for Louis Riel’s burial service on December 9, 1885. It was a bitterly cold day Eight men wearing Metis sashes and buffalo coats bore his coffin on a six-mile walk from St. Vital to the basilica. By the time they arrived their beards were covered in frost. The pallbearers were followed by a cavalcade of some 75 sleighs.

In 2008 when Manitoba wanted to add another provincial holiday to its calendar school students across the province were invited to submit suggestions for what this day should be called. The winning submission came from Acadia Junior High. Thanks to those young people we are celebrating Louis Riel Day today.

Acknowledgments Are Important

One of the progressive things Kelvin Goertzen did during his short time as the premier of our province was insure there will be a treaty acknowledgment at the start of Manitoba legislative sittings in the future. It will recognize the fact that the land on which the legislature meets was once the home of Indigenous people. 

Kelvin Goertzen

Right after his appointment Premier Goertzen struck a committee to provide a report on the best way to carry out such an acknowledgment and admitted as House Leader he probably should have made that happen sooner. In a CBC interview, Goertzen said the discovery of the unmarked graves at residential schools was a significant event for him and his family that crystalized the need for a treaty or land acknowledgment. 

My church created a brochure to explain why we have adopted a treaty acknowledgment

Of course, many organizations and institutions have been doing these acknowledgments for a long time.  My church instituted the practice about five years ago.  After we began to have a treaty acknowledgment in our bulletin, on our website, and frequently announce it at the start of our services, we created a colorful brochure to explain our rationale.  I was asked to write the text for the brochure, and it was a good exercise for me. 

I had to research the history of our province and find a way to articulate our church’s goal to recognize the important contributions Indigenous people have made to the geographical area where we worship. In my text, I expressed our church’s desire to learn from the spirituality and culture of our Indigenous neighbors and to work at building a strong respectful relationship with them that would result in reconciliation.        

An art piece called Treaty One by artist Robert Houle – photographed at the Winnipeg Art Gallery

I am employed as a guide by the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and we have done treaty acknowledgments at the start of each of our tours since 2016.  The gallery staff participated in training sessions where we learned all about Treaty One signed in 1874 between Indigenous leaders and the British Crown. 

The Dakota Boat by W. Frank Lynn shows indigenous people observing the arrival of a boat carrying immigrants at the Upper Fort Garry site in Winnipeg- photographed at the Winnipeg Art Gallery

The two groups had very different ideas about what the treaty meant. While the Indigenous leaders thought it would protect their way of life and provide a framework for sharing land, the British thought the land was being ceded to them. I was glad for this training because it helped me provide an explanation when gallery guests asked me why I did a land acknowledgment before my tours. 

In my job with the education department at the University of Winnipeg, I visited many schools in the Winnipeg One School Division which began to do treaty acknowledgments each day in all their schools beginning in 2017. 

Land acknowledgment sign at the Morinville Community High School in St. Albert, Alberta

It was good to read recently that the Hanover School Division where I taught for decades has approved a treaty acknowledgment statement as well. Superintendent Shelley Amos says it is a way to show honor and respect for Indigenous people and their land and express the division’s desire to move forward in constructive ways in their relationship with Indigenous people. 

While school divisions like Winnipeg One have made treaty acknowledgments a requirement Hanover will leave it up to individual schools to decide on what occasions and in what situations the division’s official acknowledgment statement would have the most impact.  A plaque with the acknowledgment will be placed on all properties owned by the school division. 

We have been hearing land and treaty acknowledgments at sporting events, cultural events, business events, and religious events for many years now. It is good to know that both the Hanover School Division and the Manitoba Legislature are joining the effort to recognize the contributions of our Indigenous neighbors and to express our willingness to work towards reconciliation in our province. 

Other posts…….

Indigenous Canadians and Mennonite Canadians

Old Sun and Emily Carr

Who Are the Wendat?