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Chris Gareau, The Carillon, October 17, 2024 Farmland surrounds the Choritz Heritage Church and the Mennonite Cemetery across Randolph Road. It is the kind of site the original group of Mennonites were hoping to see when they came to settle the area, but it was not what they found. Swarms of grasshoppers greeted the east reserve settlers in 1875, as described by guide Ernie Braun during the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society’s (MMHS) East Reserve tour Oct. 10. “They talked about there being an eclipse of the sun. There were so many locusts that the sun was blocked out. The area these locusts affected was 500 square miles of land,” Braun told the 40 who road the bus to hear the history of the people who first set foot on Manitoba soil 150 years ago. “And they ate everything: your crops, your gardens, even the clothes drying on the line. Braun read a letter that showed the settlers’ desperation, with not enough food to last the winter. Money was borrowed from Swiss Mennonite friends in Ontario. The Swiss asked the federal government for help, and despite some resistance the government agreed to lend $100,000 if the Swiss cosign. The Manitoba Mennonites used that money to buy food, machinery and seed, split on the west and east sides of the Red River. Canals were built starting in the 1880s to drain marshland and make the land more arable, with the Manning Canal making the biggest difference after its construction from 1906-08. “By 1892, the bread debt is paid off,” said Braun. That was the beginning of an earned reputation that had a cascading effect and would result in a future wave of Russian Mennonites arriving in Canada thanks to a belief that a loan would surely be paid back in full, according to the guide. This was just one of a series of historical anecdotes and lessons learned during the day-long tour led by Braun and MMHS president Conrad Stoesz. The tour bus took off from Canadian Mennonite University, picking up the rest of the passengers at the Mennonite Memorial Landing Site where the Red and Rat Rivers meet and about 3,500 Mennonites arrived between 1874-76. From there it visited the Shantz immigration sheds cairn, the Red River Cart in Niverville, the Choritz Church and cemetery, the Schoensee Cemetery, and former village of Bergfeld near Grunthal. The idea of learning who walked the same ground before him drew Andrew Klassen Brown to the tour. Originally from Piney, the archivist for Mennonite Central Committee could not help but return to the Southeast for the tour. “My ancestors are from the 1870s Mennonites, but they settled along the West Reserve. So I signed up for both of these tours,” said Klassen Brown. The West Reserve tour on the other side of the Red River is happening Oct. 22 and will stop at Fort Dufferin, Edenburg Cemetery, the former village of Neuanlage, Neubergthal Commons, Altbergthal School, and Friesen Housebarn. Klassen Brown appreciated learning family and faith history close to home. “It’s good to experience stuff in your backyard,” said Klassen Brown. “These are good things to know. The history of the land that we’re on; the history of the people that came before us. It stretches back of course millennia, but how our story connects to this, why we are here kind of informs our lives today. “I also think there’s an element of fun.”

Svjetlana Mlinarevic, The Carillon, October 10, 2024 The year is 1924 and a Mennonite woman is walking across the hard packed snow of Southeast Manitoba. It is cold as the naked cottonwoods leave their inky shadows on the snow. The woman’s breath hangs in the air as she makes her way to the warmth of a house barn. When she enters the main living quarters she is met by a group of young Mennonite women making a quilt. She sits down and begins to tell them the tale of how 50 years earlier, their families came over from Imperial Russia and the journey they endured. With each story a new patch representing that tale is sewn into place by the women. This is the opening of the documentary Where the Cottonwoods Grow. “It’s quite complex. There’s a lot of information. I learned so much doing this documentary but it’s actually quite riveting,” said filmmaker Dale Hildebrand, who co-wrote the script for the documentary with Eleanor Chornoboy. “The title is Where the Cottonwoods Grow and it’s all about planting seeds and you are what you sow metaphorically as a farmer and metaphorically as quilting a quilt.” Hildebrand is from the village of Halbstadt, near Altona. He was raised Mennonite and said his wife had always wanted him to do a film about the Mennonites. When his sister told him it was the 150thanniversary of the Mennonites landing in Manitoba, he knew he had to do something to mark the occasion. It took him two years to complete the documentary. “The documentary focuses on the migration of 1874 and that was our premise,” said Hildebrand. “And we wanted to focus on the journey, but as I did it, I wanted this documentary to not just be for the Mennonites in Southern Manitoba or the United States or Anabaptists, I wanted it for everybody.” The movie starts off with a brief history of the Mennonites in Switzerland and their migration to the Netherlands, Poland, and the Ukraine. It also touches on their persecution and need to have freedom of religion, exemption from military service, and land to cultivate. In 1873, a delegation of 12 Mennonite men went to the United Sates and Manitoba to see where villages can be established. Some within the delegation felt the United Sates would be a perfect fit while the more Conservative members felt Manitoba was the perfect place to live. It cost $60 to make the trip to Manitoba from the Ukraine with 7,000 Mennonites travelling 22,000 miles through perilous conditions by train, steamboat, and ox cart to make it to their final destination. Conditions were cramped with disease running rampant through the crowds. A lot of people died, including many children. The stories told in the documentary come from journals of the travelling Mennonites. “Even though we have a lot of journals from men we do also have journals from women. I wanted to give it a female’s perspective as well,” said Hildebrand. There was a screening of the documentary on Oct. 4 at the University of Winnipeg during a conference on the Mennonites. After the screening, there was a question and answer period where one viewer was astonished by the risk the Mennonites took in coming to Canada. Altonian Linda Neufeld, said watching the movie brought back a lot of memories of growing up on a farm and having a big family. She said she was amazed by the determination of the Mennonites. “It must have been absolutely tough for them to cross the ocean with so many obstacles and not knowing where you’re going and what’s at the end of it,” she said. “They were very determined people and hardworking. They made things work.” One of the historians interviewed for the documentary was Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society (MMHS) chair and Mennonite Heritage Archives archivist Conrad Stoesz. He said the MMHS was involved with the production because it furthered the organization’s mission to tell the Mennonite story in Manitoba and it opened doors for Hildebrand. “I think so often in our books we say, ‘They just came to Canada,’ and we carry on. And a few times we do have examples of diaries where they give a day-by-day of what was happening but Dale was able to put that together in a visual way and it hits you in a different way,” said Stoesz. Hildebrand used CGI to create three different geographical areas in his film: the grasslands of Russia and Manitoba, the trip over the ocean by steamship, and sailing down the Red and Rat Rivers. “I think people will have to watch this documentary five different times just to absorb half of it. It’s information heavy at the same time it’s information that people from all walks of life can access and absorb. It’s inclusive and it also represents the immigrants journey no matter what nationality you come from,” he said. Where the Cottonwoods Grow will show in Steinbach in early December.

Svjetlana Mlinarevic, The Carillon, October 7, 2024 The year was 1929 and the stock markets in North America just took a hit that brought the economies of the United States and Canada to its knees. What became known as the Great Depression saw unemployment hit 30 percent with people standing in lines for food and work. Farmers were some of the hardest hit because not only did they face financial hardships but they faced a drought that decimated their fields. Yet, while all around people were finding it hard to make ends meet Steinbach was an exception. “Steinbach was different partly because of where it was,” said Steinbacher Ralph Friesen, who has written a book about the Mennonites during the depression titled, Prosperity Ever, Depression Never: Steinbach in the 1930s. “It was a combination of many different factors that allowed Steinbach (to survive). I would say the first half of the 1930s they were just holding the line, and then they actually started to build quite extensively and grow quite quickly from 1935 onward.” Friesen said the communities surrounding Steinbach were situated on land that made grain farming more difficult compared to communities around Altona and Winkler, which relied heavily on grain. Because of this, farmers had to diversify by raising livestock. What allowed the City of Steinbach to also survive the Depression was that the people in the city also kept livestock. Another factor that made Steinbach survive was the risk taking by Mennonite businesses. There were three car dealerships at the time and one of them opened in the 1930s. Finally, the willingness of people to take low paying jobs was another factor in the success of Steinbach. “The wages were very poor but they accepted it. ‘I’d rather work for a poor wage than not work.’ These factors came together to keep the economy going,” said Friesen. Friesen, whose great-grandparents came over in the first migration of 1874, said part of the reason he took on the writing project was because he had research left over from his previous book, 2009’s Between Earth and Sky: Steinbach the first 50 years, and this current book was in a way a sequel to Between Earth and Sky. Another reason the book was written was that it’s now the 150th anniversary of the Mennonite landing in Manitoba and the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, who is publishing Prosperity Ever-Depression Never, wanted something to commemorate this historic milestone. “What I would like people to know about the book is that it contains a lot of stories that are just human interest about human beings. I tried to bring various memoires that I’ve collected from all over the place published in different places and just have the story of those people tell the story…to reveal the humanity of the people who lived in that era,” said Friesen. “I think what the reader can expect is not just a survey or abstract about the town and what was going on, but also insight into the lives of the people who lived there.” Friesen will have a book launch on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. at the Mennonite Heritage Village where he will give a presentation. His book can be purchased at McNally Robinson for $28.

Adi Loewen, SteinbachOnline, October 6, 2024 The Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society has just released its fifth printing of “Historical Atlas of the East Reserve“, and Ernest Braun, Mennonite historian, and co-editor of the book was at the Mennonite Heritage Village Museum on Tuesday, September 27th, to share the updated hardcover book with visitors. Braun, together with Dr. Glenn Klassen, a retired biology professor from the University of Manitoba, along with five others, calling themselves the *Atlas Team, took what started as a project to simply update the existing East Reserve Atlas, eventually becoming a whole new entity. Braun explained the motivation behind the book, saying, “In the late 1980s, John Rempel and William Harms did an Atlas of the East Reserve. It was a start, but we felt it needed an upgrade. So in 2006, we decided to take that on. It took us about nine years to finish it.”  The atlas aims to compile everything known about the East Reserve’s history up to around 1930. Braun shared a personal connection to the project, recalling how his mother would use unique place names during his childhood. “I grew up hearing these strange words—‘south of Shoensie’ or ‘out by Old Barkfield’—and I had no clue what they meant. After my teaching career, I thought it was time to find out.” As he researched, Braun discovered that many of these names were actually on historical maps. “Every existing map of the East Reserve is in here (in the book), as far as we know. I made it my mission to visit every disputed site, driving around daily to check them out. In some cases, we couldn’t confirm a location, so we noted that it was based on family legend. But most of the time, the evidence pointed to specific areas.” Braun notes that the atlas has already gone through five printings due to popular demand. “We’ve just ordered another 350 books. I’m set for the rest of my life.” He smiled.  You can purchase the book at the Mennonite Heritage Village Museum or at CommonWord, a bookstore located at Canadian Mennonite University.  Braun believes the growing interest in the book reflects a wider trend. “As baby boomers get older, we start to care more about our history. Places like Steinbach, Niverville, and Grunthal have people who’ve moved away, but many come back. They see this book and say, ‘This is great!’”  For anyone interested in Mennonite history or family roots, Braun encourages them to check it out. “This is for anyone curious about their heritage or local history.” If you’re looking to dive into the rich history of the East Reserve, this atlas is definitely worth a look.

Chris Sumner, PembinaValleyOnline, October 5, 2024 The Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society is organizing two unique events that will give you an on the ground perspective of the 150th anniversary of Mennonite settlement in the province. October 10th and 22nd, tours of the East and West Reserve respectively will be taking place, with Ernie Braun leading the East event and Conrad Stoesz the west. “This year is the 150th anniversary of Mennonites in the province, and there’s conferences and there’s books and there’s a film that’s coming out, but there’s still something unique about being there on location where some of these things happen,” explained Stoesz. “We thought this would be a great opportunity to take a a bus tour, and see if there’s interest. To show people some of the areas, and get a different sense of the story when you’re there in location.” The West Reserve tour (Oct. 22nd) will include stops at Fort Dufferin, Edenburg cemetery, former Neuanlage village, and the national historic site of Neubergthal. The East Reserve Tour (Oct. 10th) will visit Mennonite Memorial Landing Site, Chortitz Church, Shantz Sheds Cairn, and former Bergfeld village. Tours to be mix of storytelling and exploring “Sometimes there is nothing left to see, but we can say, ‘In this area this happened,’” he said. “Other times we’ll say, ‘Look, there is something left in the ground here. You can see where this well was dug,’ or we’ll see this monument or here is the junction of the Red and Rat Rivers or Fort Dufferin where our people got off, and started their journey in the province.” Stoesz offered a couple of the stories and locations he’s particularly looking forward to sharing with participants. “On the east side, there’s a story about a well being dug,” he started. “The Mennonites get to the landing site, and then go to the Shantz Sheds and they don’t have water. You don’t last long without water, so they managed to decide to dig a well. They’re down, you know, 20 to 30 feet digging away and then the well caves in on them. The two guys are covered with dirt, and thanks to fast thinking, Mr. Redekop, they are saved. That depression where that well was dug is still there. You can still see where that is.” In the West Reserve, Stoesz pointed to a couple. “Fort Dufferin is a hidden gem,” he said. “I’m looking forward to being there again, and the whole Post Road thing. I started doing tours when I was doing research for the Post Road, and that was 25 years ago when we were celebrating the 125th anniversary, doing the research about the Post Road, and the different stops along the Post Road. Going along that again, I’m looking forward to that.” The cost is $60 per person per tour, and you can do that online by clicking here. You can listen to our entire conversation with Conrad Stoesz, below.

Brenda Sawatzky, Niverville Citizen, October 3, 2024 On October 10 and 22, local history buffs will be treated to two special events in honour of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Mennonite people in Manitoba. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society (MMHS), guided bus tours will carry participants to all the major points of significance on both the East and West Reserves. Tickets for the all-day excursions are selling for $60 per person. They include a seat on a chartered bus, a Mennonite-inspired lunch, and the historical storytelling of Conrad Stoesz, president of the MMHS, and Ernie Braun, MMHS board member. “Being on location, you get a better sense of [the story],” says Stoesz. “It’s a different way of learning history, a little more tangible than just a textbook or listening to stories or even seeing it on film.” The October 10 event will cover the territory known as the East Reserve, which runs from the banks of the Red River eastward to Steinbach. Participants will be picked up at the north grounds of the Canadian Mennonite University at 8:30 a.m. and returned by 5:00 p.m. The first stop will be the Mennonite Memorial Landing site located near Niverville at the confluence of the Red and Rat Rivers. Participants can also choose to begin their ride from this location. The tour will include the Schantz sheds cairn, a stop in Niverville at the site of the ox cart used by early settlers, as well as a series of other significant sites en route. At the halfway point, participants will break at the Chortitz Heritage Church for lunch. This church in Randolph is the gathering place of one of the first Mennonite congregations in western Canada. The building dates back to 1897. The West Reserve tour will follow on October 22 and focuses on the eastern half of this territory. The first point of interest will be the Fort Dufferin National Historic Site of Canada, located near Emerson. Established in 1872, this site served as a port of entry to Manitoba and gateway to western Canada. For years, it also functioned as an immigration station to many newcomers, including Mennonites. From there, the tour bus will trek west along Post Road. “If you can imagine a flat, almost treeless plain, in the dark, in a winter snowstorm, you’re going to get lost,” says Stoesz. “In 1878, the Mennonites decided to put in posts every 250 feet along the most commonly used road. It went from Emerson, which was the economic hub at the time, to Mountain City, which was just south of Morden.” Post Road, also known as Provincial Road 243, is believed to be the trail taken by the Mennonites from Fort Dufferin to all points west. Other stops along the West Reserve route will include a cemetery in Edenberg, cairns at Neuanlage, and the community of Neubergthal, the nationally recognized site of the historic Mennonite house-barns. Participants travelling with either tour will enjoy far more than just interesting historical sights. Both Stoesz and Braun are storytellers who plan to keep participants engaged through the telling of heartwarming and tragic Mennonite migration stories. Stoesz recounts one story of young Margaretha Esau. At the tender age of four, Margaretha went down in history as the first Mennonite immigrant to die on Manitoba soil. As the story goes, Esau’s family was on a train, headed from their home in Ukraine to England where they would board a ship bound for Canada. “On the train, she gets yanked by the conductor off the train and she falls and hits her head on a stone,” Stoesz says. “From then on, her health is not good. The [family] arrives by ship at the Red and Rat junction on August 1 and goes to the immigration sheds. Margaretha dies on the third of August in 1874.” With no cut wood to build the young girl a coffin, the family solicited the help of local swimmers to retrieve a plank which was afloat on the Red River. With only bare essentials, they fashioned a box in which to lay her body. According to Stoesz, 30 unmarked graves lie at an unknown location somewhere just west of Niverville. This site holds some of the earliest Mennonite immigrants, like young Margaretha. Another story with a less tragic ending is that of 67-year-old Johann Schroeder. Schroeder and his family were also at the English port that day, ready to board for their trip to Canada. Schroeder, having very poor eyesight, relied on the guidance of his young son Jacob to help him navigate the busy port. Over the father’s shoulder was slung a huge bag of dried bread known as reischja, which would sustain the family on their arduous journey across the ocean. Unfortunately for Schroeder, his young son became so transfixed by the busyness of the port, the ships, and the machinery that he failed to vigilantly guide his father along the way. “Johann is walking up the plank [to the boat] carrying this bag of reischja and holding Jacob’s hand,” Stoesz says. “Johann missteps and he falls off the plank and into the water below, pulling his son in with him. Jacob is able to grab hold of a bar, and he’s looking around for his dad who doesn’t know how to swim. But because Johann is holding the bag of reischja, it acts like a life preserver and so he is saved by it.” Stoesz says stories like these have been trickling down from generation to generation since the time of the first Mennonite’s arrival. Thanks to the work of the Mennonite Heritage Archives (MHA), where Stoesz is employed, these stories are being written down for posterity. “This is the 150th anniversary of Mennonites in Manitoba, but there were commemorative events for the 25th and the 50th and the 100th too, and all of those events were times when people would gather stories and write them down,” says Stoesz. “Because

About 25 people including direct descendants of the first Mennonites took in what organizers called a soft opening of the Peace Trail at the Mennonite Landing. It was on that site that on Aug. 2, 1874, those Mennonites left the paddlewheel, The International, to start their new life. It began as a five mile walk to the Schantz Sheds, before moving on to start villages in the East Reserve. Held on June 1, Manitoba Trails Day, the ceremony also included an introduction to the Peace Trail itself, highlighting the ten waypoints designed to allow people to reflect on the Mennonite experience. Glen Klassen, EastMenn Historical Committee chair told the crowd the land they were on is important. “We are now standing on a place where my great-great-grandfather Johann Koop and his family and his church family got off the paddleboat in 1874,” he said. “They stepped off the boat here and entered the promised land.” As he shared the waypoints on the trail, Klassen remarked on the final stop, the Dirk Willems Peace Garden at the Mennonite Heritage Village. Willems was famously escaping prison across a frozen river when he returned to rescue a guard that fell through the ice, even thought that meant he would be caught and later executed. “He was a giver,” Klassen said. “We on the other hand by settling on prairie soil were takers. How ironic then that we should take, albeit legally, so much land for ourselves.” “Maybe walking, cycling or driving the Peace Trail is one way of saying thank-you to the previous owners, the Indigenous peoples and the Metis.” A new pamphlet allows people to drive the peace trail, though some waypoints are reached only by dirt roads so caution is recommended. Waypoints include the Mennonite Landing site, river lot panels, Hespeler Park Niverville, Shantz Immigration Sheds Cairn, Tourond Discovery Centre, Gruenfeld Cemetery and Cairn, Chortitz Church and Cemetery, Rosenthal Nature Park, Blind Creek Trailhead and Keating Cairn, and the Dirk Willems Peace Garden at the Mennonite Heritage Village. Klassen said some work remains to be done as panels are planned for some of the stops. Memorandums of Understanding are still required between the four municipalities which the trail flows through.

Dan Vadeboncoeur, CTV News Winnipeg, August 11, 2023 A new documentary is telling the story of how Mennonites first came to Manitoba nearly 150 years ago. The Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society (MMHS) has received a $65,000 grant from the Province of Manitoba to help fund the project. The documentary is being written and directed by Toronto-based filmmaker Dale Hildebrand, who grew up in Halbstadt, Man. MMHS president Conrad Stoesz said it’s been a long time since a movie about Mennonites has been made in our province. “I think 1999 was the last time a documentary was made, and those documentaries tended to focus on who the Mennonites were at that time, in 1999, and very little about the early years in Manitoba. Stoesz said the film will focus on the migration of the Mennonite peoples to Manitoba, and the first few years spent here. “The leaving of imperial Russia in 1874, the crossing of the ocean, and the establishment of communities here in the province,” he said. The documentary will be made up of interviews with historians, as well as documents and photographs from the MMHS archives, and computer-generated re-creations of life in the late 1800s. Stoesz said it will be a challenge to tell this story visually, due to a lack of pictures from the era. “They didn’t have money or time to be taking photographs, they were trying to eke out an existence on the prairie,” he said. “So we don’t have a lot of photos, and that’s why the computer-generated materials and re-enactments are important.” Filmmakers will be shooting re-enactment scenes at the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach. Filming is slated to begin in the fall, with the movie to be released next year. Stoesz said the government grant has put them at about 75 per cent of funding. A sample script has been written by Hildebrand and his sister Eleanor Chornoboy, who has been researching the topic tirelessly at the Mennonite Heritage Archives. “Collecting materials, collecting stories, finding information,” said Stoesz. The documentary will premiere at the Mennonite Heritage Village next summer. After that, Stoesz hopes to screen it for schools and other community groups. “Commemoration is important, it builds community, it builds identity,” said Stoesz. “It provides momentum and a reason to care about a person’s past.”

Lori Penner, The Carillon, May 15, 2023 The Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society (MMHS) Annual General Meeting (AGM) drew a large crowd of members and visitors to the historic Commons Barn in Neubergthal on April 29. Since it was founded in 1958, MMHS has continued to foster an understanding of and respect for the history and beliefs of the Mennonite people in the past and present, and to challenge them to give new expression to this heritage in the future. The MMHS works with communities to promote historical research and publications, search out and preserve historical sites and Mennonite cemeteries. They also organize lectures and provide resources for school and organizations and encourage the expression of the Mennonite experience in various areas, such as literature, drama, history, fine arts, music, geography, sociology, and religion. They also work in cooperation with various Mennonite archives and museums, to collect, preserve, and exhibit articles and documents of historical value, and interpret and promote the religious convictions of the Anabaptist-Mennonite people, past and present. Members and standing committees come from across the province. MMHS President Conrad Stoesz reflected on 2022 and how things are becoming busier as they move out of pandemic restrictions and have finally been able to resume many of their activities. This included the unveiling of a plaque near Niverville, which marks the buildings that Jakob Schantz built to house the Mennonite pioneers for the first few weeks as they prepared to build new communities east of the Red River. Their society magazine, Heritage Posting, under the guidance of Glen Klassen, continues to thrive, and this was the first time in several years that MMHA representatives were able to attend national meetings in Saskatchewan. Stoesz noted a number of important anniversaries in their communities. “This past year marked the 100th anniversary of the move of 7,000 Mennonites to Mexico because of heavy handed assimilation policies of the provincial government in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. MMHS members were active in helping Mennonite Heritage Village, MHSC, and the Plett Foundation bring to fruition traveling exhibits to mark the anniversary.” That exhibit is on display at the MHC Gallery in Winnipeg and will spend the next two years traveling through Ontario and Western Canada. Stoesz also noted that next year is the 150th anniversary of Mennonites in Manitoba, 2025 is the 500th anniversary of the Anabaptist Movement, and 2026 the 100th anniversary of Mennonites in Paraguay. The MMHS is encouraging congregations, conferences, families, and communities to consider marking Manitoba Mennonite 150th, through special services, reunions, publications, websites, dramas, or possibly a cairn or plaque. “Commemorating anniversaries and important events within a community is crucial in preserving and understanding the shared history and values that shape its identity,” he said. “It provides an opportunity for community members to come together, reflect on the past, and consider a legacy they wish to leave for future generations. It also helps to keep the memory of key moments and individuals alive, which can be a source of inspiration and pride.” Stoesz said that the ongoing war in Ukraine is a reminder of the importance of the work they do in their historical societies, archives, libraries, museums, and institutes. As part of Russia’s effort to reclaim Ukraine, he fears that cultural sites such as libraries, museums and archives will be targeted. “This war is not only about land and resources, but it is also about the past and who gets to define it.” He told the audience that despite challenges such as lack of volunteers, increased costs and reduced income, the work that the MMHS does is essential to the communities they serve. “Let’s remember that we’re not just collecting dusty books, torn documents, or broken furniture, but we are helping our communities to define their identity – our identity.” Stoesz also acted as keynote speaker at the AGM, transporting guests back 130 years as he revisited the split of the West Reserve Bergthal in Manitoba, and the formation of the Bergthaler and Sommerfelder churches in the 1890s. Based on his extensive research, he brought events and personalities that shaped this pivotal time in Manitoba Mennonite history to life. The AGM also included a viewing of the movie, Conform: The Mennonite Migration to Mexico. The thought-provoking documentary explores the challenges Mennonites faced in Canada and their journey to Mexico after World War One. Director Andrew Wall fielded questions from the audience, to gain a deeper insight into this important story. “The idea for the film started in 2019. It took about a year to put together, do all the interviews and the re-enactments. It’s a complicated sort of nuanced story, based on the research that’s been done, and from the archives. We just try to tell the story of how it was.” Wall has produced and directed several other award-winning films about the Mennonite experience through Refuge 31 Films. Conform: The Mennonite Migration to Mexico gleaned a Best Documentary Feature award at the 2023 Winnipeg Real to Reel Film Festival. “This is a story that needs to be told and shouldn’t be forgotten. It was a complicated story, and I think both sides didn’t really know what they were getting into. There was a portion of the communities who moved away because of the school issue, but the other half remained and adjusted and moved on. Their viewpoints were all valid and their perspective was worth remembering and looking at.”

Zach Driedger, PembinaValleyOnline, April 12, 2023 The Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society (MMHS) invites everyone to join them at their Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Saturday, April 29, 2023, at 1:00 PM in Neubergthal, Manitoba, as they gather at the historic Commons Barn for a day of learning and networking! Admission is free, although donations are welcome. At 2:00 PM, keynote speaker, Conrad Stoesz, will transport us back 130 years as he revisits the split of the West Reserve Bergthal in Manitoba. Based on his extensive research, Conrad brings to life the events and personalities that shaped this pivotal time in Manitoba Mennonite history. This is your opportunity to discover the fascinating story of the formation of the Bergthaler and Sommerfelder churches in the 1890s. And that’s not all–at 3:00 PM, sit down to watch Conform: The Mennonite Migration to Mexico (2022), a thought-provoking documentary that explores the challenges Mennonites faced in Canada and their journey to Mexico after World War One. You’ll also be able to ask questions of the film’s director, Andrew Wall, and gain deeper insight into this important story.   Morning Show Host/Producer Zack Driedger took some time to catch up with MMHS President Conrad Stoesz over the phone and you can enjoy their conversation below!