COLUMN: Life of pioneers serves to inspire

The celebration of Pioneer Days at Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach each year gives southeastern Manitoba residents the opportunity to reflect on life the way it was when our forefathers and mothers settled on the Prairies. Of course, reflection of this sort should be, and is, carried on at other times, but human nature is such that it needs a direct reminder to mark certain events, even those of great significance.

The cynical among us may question the value of regurgitating year after year the life of the pioneer—and every year there are comments of this nature in neighbourly conversations and online chats. Who is really interested in the lifestyle of early Steinbach residents? The answer is anyone who is even the least little bit curious, anyone who is interested in life and how the world came to be the way it is, anyone who likes a good story. Life is a story—the real story—with fiction being only a faint facsimile of the real thing. Who among us has not wondered what it would be like to build a log cabin from scratch, to rely completely on our own resources to feed the family, to function without television, computers or even books?

However, there are more compelling reasons for remembering the pioneers. Like it or not, people are a product of their past. They can never fully understand themselves until they uncover and explore the choices made by previous generations, and the events that shaped them. That history together with genetic makeup determines who one becomes.

Record has been preserved

And certainly when one looks at the history of Mennonite immigration and settlement in Manitoba—thankfully a record has been preserved in memoirs, journals and letters—one can’t help but feel inspired. It is a tale of extreme hardship—the abandonment of all that was familiar, the long weary journey when the young and old often succumbed to death, the sheer physical difficulties of building homes and raising food amidst the hazards of a northern climate.

And yes, they baked bread in ovens they built themselves, they butchered pigs which will not have been a pretty sight, they buried the dead—many dead—in simple wooden boxes of their own making. But with faith in God’s sovereignty and goodness, they persevered and survived. What an awe-inspiring model these courageous men and women serve for generations that follow them. And it may be stated that other ethnic groups who immigrated to the New World’s untamed wilderness have similar stories of settlement and survival.

We dare not forget—to forget is to scorn the sacrifices they made and the example they set. While activities at Pioneer Days allow us only a small glimpse of life the way it was long ago, may the celebration spur us on to a spirit of deep thankfulness. Let it bring an acknowledgement that pioneers to southeastern Manitoba paved the way for the luxuries enjoyed by the population today. Once a year is not too often to remember.