The Assistant Curator at the Mennonite Heritage Village has a unique opportunity to be reminded every day of the sacrifices made by his forefathers to build a better life in Canada. 

Garth Doerksen says the museum is in possession of a pair of ice skates that have a special story that goes along with them. 

“These skates were donated by my grandfather, and they belonged to my great-great-grandfather who was born in 1825 in Russia, and he brought them along with him as they came across to Canada in 1875. The story goes that as a father, with these skates that he made, these old skates, he pulled his kids around on the ice and played with them. So, kind of appropriate for a reflection on Father's Day.” 

This pair of homemade ice skates do not look like the type of skates one would find in the stores today. 

“The blades themselves are steel and whether they were made from some used equipment or something, I'm not sure, but they're certainly neatly crafted. And then onto the metal are some wooden platforms that the feet would have gone onto and then leather bindings that would have tied their boots, or whatever they were wearing, onto the states themselves.” 

@steinbach_online Happy Father’s Day! Garth Doerksen at Mennonite Heritage Village is #thankful for the father’s who came before us and the sacrifices they made. Read more about #fathersday at #SteinbachOnline @mennoniteheritagevillage #mennonite #skates ♬ Surrounding Love - Omar Diaz

Doerksen notes there were around 7,000 people who came to Manitoba between 1874 and 1876, and the journey was rather difficult for these families. 

“Fifteen thousand kilometres would typically take them about 45 days to make that journey,” he notes. 

They would leave their village in Russia, likely on wagon, and head for the train station. For most of them, this would have been the first time ever seeing a train. 

It would take a few trains and ships to get them to Canada where they would head through the Great Lakes and then get on a train to Fargo Moorhead. At that point, they would head up the river on a paddlewheel river boat. Then they would need an ox cart from the landing site to the land that would become their new home. 

“So, a long arduous journey,” says Doerksen. 

His great-great-grandfather, Gerhard B. Doerksen, lost one of his children along the journey. Along with mourning the loss of his son, his wife also became quite ill during the trip. 

Doerksen says there was a lot of hardship for many families who made such journeys. 

“It was not uncommon for families to have to have deaths accompany them along the way. Unfortunately, that was part of this very, very difficult journey. And so, to have made that decision, to leave what was familiar and to come to something so foreign in a strange land, was a huge, tremendous sacrifice for these families. And of course, working at the museum, I get to reflect on this every day and see the artifacts around me that remind me of the journey; of the time in Russia, first of all, and of course the very difficult journey, and their eking out an existence at the beginning in their settlement.” 

This particular great-great-grandfather, Gerhard B. Doerksen, also wrote poetry in German. 

Some of his writings have been translated by Ernie Braun. 

One of the poems depicts their journey to Canada and he paints a sorrowful image as he writes about leaving his home and everything familiar, while carrying hope and faith along the way. 

After arriving in Manitoba, he writes a poem titled “Warning from a Mennonite in America” and sends a cautionary note to his family and friends back in Russia, urging them to sit tight and wait for a while because the promised land does not seem as welcoming as they had been told. 

“The first winter that when they arrived, it's still one of the three coldest days in recorded history in this area. Of course, at the very beginning, they lived in Semlins, right? These sod huts, similar to the one that we have on the grounds here and their farm animals were inside the little Semlins with them. And it was so cold, in fact, that people wrote about the fact the cows' tails froze off... and that's inside where you're living. And then the next spring, there was an unprecedented grasshopper plague, it wiped out everything that they had planted and so then they faced starvation.” 

Doerksen says it’s amazing to think about what they all survived during their first years in Manitoba. 

“So, I reflect on Father’s Day and the gratitude... I think it makes sense to look back and to be grateful for the things that have occurred before us.” 

He is reminded of a quote from a German pastor and theologian. 

In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer 

“I think that speaks a lot to those that came before us, our forefathers, mothers,” Doerksen says. “You have to reflect and be grateful.” 

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