Alumna brings “Discovery: A Comic Lament” to our community
Muriel Bechtel, Rockway Class of ’64, is leading a local collaborative ecumenical effort to bring Ted & Company’s “Discovery: A Comic Lament” to our community. The culmination of this work is four upcoming performances. On the eve of these performances she shares in her own words her inspiration and personal participation in truth and reconciliation.
What/who has inspired me?
For a number of years (during my early feminist awakening), I had a poster on the back of my office door with a picture of a rag doll in an old-fashioned wringer washer and this quote: “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.” The poster usually elicited a chuckle from those who saw it but we all knew that under the humour was an important truth. While the poster is long gone, the words have never been truer than in our present day.
My first personal acquaintance with indigenous people was at Warden Woods in Toronto where I was the pastor to a family whose mother was a survivor of the residential school system. She never talked about her experiences and I didn’t learn about that aspect of her life until after I had moved on. She finally broke the silence and told the pastor who followed me about her experiences. I had no idea, though her daughters were gradually reconnecting to their indigenous culture and spirituality.
It was some years later through attending the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Toronto that I began to realize the awful truth – that the residential school system had happened in my time and I was oblivious to what was happening. I had questions about “mission work” among the “Indians” but kept my misgivings and questions to myself. I credit my pastor, Claire Osinkosky, with exposing us as a congregation to the plight of indigenous peoples and helping me to take a closer look at the stories of my pioneer ancestors who settled this land along the Grand River. My son, Greg, also an alumnus of Rockway (Class of ’90) exposed me to writers who challenged the view of history I had grown up with. He often used Thomas King’s quote, “The truth about stories is that’s all we are,” and for Christmas one year gave me a copy of J. Edward Chamberlin’s book, “If This is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?”
The more I learned, the more I realized that remaining silent and uninformed was not an option for Christians committed to love of God and neighbour, and my journey began in earnest. We hosted a Blanket Exercise at our church and invited other churches in the area to participate which opened our ears to a new telling and hearing of our own history.
Through the storytelling at the TRC, the Blanket Exercise and events at Six Nations and with MCCO‘s Indigenous Neighbours, I became convinced that we as a church have an obligation to learn more about how our colonial mindset still keeps us from addressing the injustices and understanding the perspectives of our Indigenous neighbours and their relationships to this land.
How I got involved:
When I read in the Canadian Mennonite about the Discovery play being performed in Winnipeg by Ted and Company, my interest was piqued immediately. This play is a response to the Calls To Action from the TRC asking churches and governments to educate ourselves about and repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery. A number of denominations including Mennonite Church Canada have repudiated the Doctrine but the underlying attitudes and assumptions can still motivate our actions and failure to join Indigenous-led initiatives for healing and justice.
Would it be possible to bring “Discovery: A Comic Lament” to this area? I raised it with our Mission Committee and with the neighbouring Wanner Mennonite congregation. There was cautious interest but also the realization that for our two small congregations it would be a big stretch financially. I made some calls to folks I knew were interested in indigenous issues – Gladys Bender (Rockway Class of ’70) and Josie Winterfeld, and a fellow volunteer from the United Church who suggested other partners such as Mennonite Church Eastern Canada (MCEC), Conrad Grebel and Rockway and connected me to their networks of ecumenical contacts. The rest is history.
Why is this important?
As Ted Chamberlin reveals, “the stories we tell each other reflect and shape our deepest feelings… We love and hate because of them; we make homes for ourselves and drive others out on the basis of our stories.” The truth of his words became increasingly evident when we hosted the Kairos Blanket Exercise and in some follow up conversations in an adult discussion class at our church. I discovered that below the surface of politeness there were still deep biases and strong resistance to seeing the story of our history in any other way than the one that bolstered our pride and made us feel good about our past. I see the play, “Discovery: A Comic Lament” as an opportunity for us to be able to talk about our complicity and what decolonization might mean for us in Cambridge, which sits at the confluence of the Speed and Grand Rivers where, so the story goes, the first Mennonites came to get their land assignments and where a
prominent Mennonite owned a large grist mill and later a distillery.
There is another version of the saying that I began with: “The truth will set you free, but not until it is finished with you.” I believe it’s significant that this play has brought together not only Christian churches who claim Jesus’ words, “The truth will make you free,” but also representatives of the Indigenous and Islamic communities, because as Emma Lazarus once said, “until we are all free, we are none of us free.” My hope is that this experience will open up new ways for us all to join our voices and efforts in service of the common good and the freedom and healing of all the Creator has given us.
Muriel Bechtel, Class of ‘64
Come to a Show
Ticket Information
There are multiple opportunities to see this important show in Kitchener Waterloo, including one performance at Rockway. Ticket information can be found here. Current Rockway students will be seeing a few excerpts as part of chapel this week, however, they are encouraged to attend a full performance along with their families.
