"Money that is owing." Four Canadian Mennonite churches pay reparations to Indigenous people

In many Canadian churches today, it is common to hear a land acknowledgment at the start of a service. It’s a way to recognize the First Nations people who originally occupied the land. 

Now three Mennonite churches in Winnipeg, Man., and one in Kitchener, Ont., have taken that a step further by deciding to pay reparations to Indigenous people on whose land their buildings are located.

The way they are doing this is by annually donating 1% of their budgets, or of the value of their properties, to local Indigenous-led organizations. It is a way symbolically recognize what was lost by the original occupants of the land through broken treaties.

For Esther Epp-Tiessen (photo above) of Home St. Mennonite Church in Winnipeg, it “isn’t about a charitable donation from our benevolence. It’s a powerful symbol of a commitment to be treaty people. It is money that is owing.” 

Read my story about these churches and their reparations in Anabaptist World.