May 5thA Lifetime of Reconciliation, Still Going Strong
Henry Neufeld (Springstein) has spent a lifetime engaged in relationship-building and reconciliation efforts with Indigenous people—and, at 96 years old, he is still going strong.
Henry and his wife Elna moved to Moose Lake, Manitoba, in 1952 to teach together in a two-room schoolhouse. Two years later, they moved to Little Grand Rapids where Henry conducted church services and taught at the day school. Mennonite involvement in Indigenous day schools is a complicated, and in some cases negative, story, but Henry and Elna stood out in their efforts to respect Ojibwe culture, learn the Anishinaabemowin language, and establish genuine relationships with their neighbours. In fact, they were so respected in the area that an elder from nearby Pauingassi saw how they lived and invited them to establish a new school in their community. With the support of southern Manitoba Mennonite churches and Mennonite Pioneer Mission (later called Native Ministries, now Indigenous Relations with Mennonite Church Canada), they did so.
All this was the beginning of a long career of teaching and church ministry in Indigenous communities, building significant, life-long relationships—and Henry’s reconciliation work continues today, decades after his retirement and 15 years after Elna’s passing.
Since the 1990s, Henry has run monthly woodcraft sessions at the KeKiNan Centre, an assisted living facility for Indigenous seniors in Winnipeg’s North End (see image). He instructs a faithful group of residents, making tea light holders, lamps, and ornaments. He loves the opportunity to speak Anishinaabemowin with those for whom this was their first language or who want to reclaim their language. Some see him as the local “expert” in Anishinaabemowin due to the loss of the language for so many.
Henry also leads monthly worship services at the Southeast Personal Care Home, an Indigenous owned and operated residence near the University of Manitoba. He has a record of 103 sermons he has preached there over the past ten years or so. Twenty to thirty people attend regularly, including some from Pauingassi with longstanding relationships with Henry—one woman was baptized by him, and he officiated at her wedding. Henry’s strong voice continues to lead songs accompanied by his drum (see top image), and to read poetry, pray, and preach, alternating between Anishinaabemowin and English.
In a recent visit to the care home, Henry presented Indigenous author and scholar Niigaan Sinclair with a table stand talking stick and tri-fold picture honouring his late father
Murray Sinclair, the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba and the chief commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, for his contribution to our collective learning (see image).
We give thanks to God for Henry’s life of relationship-building and reconciliation efforts with his Indigenous neighbours—indeed, his friends—and may we all seek to follow in his footsteps in this holy work in the ways God lays before us. If you would like to financially support the ongoing reconciliation work of Mennonite Church Manitoba and Mennonite Church Canada, see www.mennochurch.mb.ca/giving.