How is Canada Day different for someone born in this country compared to someone who moves here? Canada officially became a country on July 1st, 1867 and on Monday Canada will turn 146 years old.
Roland Sawatzky, Curator at Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach feels Canada Day has different significance depending on how long you've lived here.
"When you're born into the country and you're a fifth generation Canadian, I think it has a very different meaning from when you are a recent immigrant and you are starting life in a country that welcomes you," says Sawatzky. He adds someone who moves to Canada has an emotional attachment and may even then portray more patriotism.
For Mennonites, they've been recognizing Canada Day for almost as long as there have been Canada Days to celebrate. Sawatzky says the first Mennonites moved to southern Manitoba in August, 1874. He notes the scene in Russia was rapidly changing in the 1860's and early 1870's. Sawatzky says government was pushing for Russian citizens, including colonists to take part in military service and was also instituting a Russian public school system.
"The Mennonites had issues with both of these things because their education was taken out of their control and also of course the military service was against their religious beliefs," says Sawatzky.
So, a group of Canadian delegates visited Russia with hopes of trying to convince the Mennonites to settle in Manitoba. But Sawatzky says the Russian government caught wind of this and tried to persuade them otherwise.
"There were fifty-five thousand Mennonites," says Sawatzky. "They considered them very good settlers and productive citizens and they didn't want them all to leave so they made some concessions right away on the military service and said alright you can do alternative service in the forestry." Sawatzky says that was enough to convince about two-thirds of the Mennonites to stay.
But for those still interested in leaving, they sent a group of delegates to Manitoba to check out the land. "Their experiences weren't entirely positive," chuckles Sawatzky. He says the first stop was a tour of Winnipeg, which struck them as a small city, containing only about five thousand people.
Next, they hit the East Reserve around Steinbach and found a lot of mosquitoes. "It was very marshy and this wasn't they figured a nice place to farm," adds Sawatzky.
Following that, Sawatzky says they headed west of the Red River but the driver of one of their wagons got into an argument with a group of Metis men who scared them into staying in a hotel overnight. "Their host protected the Mennonites with a revolver and a knife standing by the door all night."
Sawatzky says because their experience wasn't entirely positive, many Mennonites decided to settle in the United States. Of the seventeen thousand Mennonites that left Russia, ten thousand settled around Kansas, Nebraska and Minnesota while the rest came to Manitoba.
The Mennonites that came here didn't come with much, according to Sawatzky. He says they sold much of what they had in Russia in order to gain capital. "Certainly they brought clothing and tools with them and their favourite dinnerware and special china and stuff, gifts from the past," he says. But heavy furniture and implements will have been left behind. Because the Mennonites came with little, Sawatzky says they headed straight for Winnipeg when they arrived, which set off a short lived economic boom in 1874-75.
The trip from Russia to Manitoba took about six weeks, says Sawatzky. He notes when the Mennonites first arrived, they weren't here alone. Sawatzky says Scottish Clearspring settlers had come a few years earlier while Metis and French settlers had already been here for decades.
Mennonite Heritage Village will be celebrating Canada Day on Monday with free admission.
Wed, Apr 17, 7:30 PM
Transport, Full-time
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