In response to Canada’s Truth & Reconciliations Commission and the invitation for churches to engage in reconciliation of past wrong, MDS is partnering with Woodlands Cultural Centre and Mennonite Central Committee Ontario in their Save the Evidence campaign to respond to the human and social disaster of the Canadian Residential School System.
MDS will be assisting in restoring parts of the Residential School in Brantford, which operated for 142 years from 1828-1970. The school building had to be evacuated in 2013 due to a wind storm, damaging the roof and uncovering significant structural issues in the original construction. This former residential school is being turned into a memorial to preserve its dark history. This project is not only focused on the restoration of a building and its contents, but also about learning the indigenous culture that the “settlers” had intentionally tried to destroy over many decades, of which the residential school system was part of, and the history of the Six Nations of that region.
MDS Volunteers will be staying at the Expositor Place in Brantford (part of the Wilfrid Laurier University campus). There will be various work projects on site which may include building wooden desks, building museum displays, building a reception desk, and doing some restoration work to the building itself.
Brantford is one of the Summer Youth Program project locations for Summer 2019 where youth groups will come together to serve on a project. Scroll down for recent photos of the project.
Media Release for Brantford, ON
Quick Stats
Welcome to Brantford
Accommodations Address
53 Dalhousie St
Brantford, ON N3T 3C2
Project Site Address
Woodlands Cultural Centre
184 Mohawk St
Brantford, ON N3S 2X3
Telephone/E-Mail
Nick Hamm (Project Director)
Cell: 905-401-3990
hammnicholas.mds@outlook.com
