Canadian Mennonite
Volume 11, No. 17
September 3, 2007
Looking back, looking forward
Winnipeg
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A visually striking mural covers the west wall of the Sargent Avenue Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Thrift Store in the west end of Winnipeg. In the foreground, vibrant colours depict future generations of the earliest Mennonite settlers in Manitoba. These offspring look across the river at a black and white scene of Mennonite migrants arriving by steamship more than a century ago.
The subject matter was a collaboration of ideas from West End Biz, a non-profit business improvement organization in the west end neighbourhood, the MCC Thrift Store and artist Annie Bergen’s own interests. Bergen was born in a Mennonite colony in Paraguay and migrated with her family to Winkler, Man., in 1986, when she was six.
“We try to build on the strengths, traditions and cultures of the area,” said Gabrielle Hamm, communications assistant at West End Biz. “We only stipulate that the mural must reflect either a culture or heritage or a famous person or hero.”
“We wanted something that would fit into the neighbourhood, not be just Mennonite,” said Thrift Store president Delores Lohrenz. “In our discussions with Annie, we came up with the boat from Minneapolis to Winnipeg that carried the first wave of new Mennonite immigrants.”
For Bergen, it was a perfect match. “It just so happened that I was hired by my former history prof at the time, Royden Loewen, to do research on the migration of Mennonites from the Prairies to Latin America and vice versa. This was the migration my grandparents were part of when entire villages moved to Latin America. My parents with their young family migrated back in later years because of greater opportunities.”
At first, the mural “was just an image in my head that showed the significance of the future generations looking back at the early settlers fleeing persecution in their homeland and starting a new life in Canada.”
However, the river has taken on greater significance since completing the mural, said Bergen. “It represents for me the gap between the generations. The new generations look back and try to understand. They look with awe and try to live up to the risks that were taken for the sake of future generations. Being raised here is a lot different than being raised in an isolated South American colony. It comes to a point where we begin to understand and to respect the decisions of past generations.”
For Bergen, the mural is more than the story of group of people; it is a personal story. But it is also a story that will speak to the neighbourhood, a community that is predominantly first-generation Canadians and recent immigrants.