Reason to celebrate

The 75th anniversary of the founding of the community of Yarrow was the impetus for a conference on “First Nations and First Settlers in the Fraser Valley (1890–1960)”, held June 5–7” at the University College of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, B.C. The weekend was sponsored by the Yarrow Research Committee and the University College of the Fraser Valley.

The event was divided into seven sessions, beginning with “Pre-settlement and Early Settlement”, and continuing through religious and intellectual development, art and literature, educational institutions, economic institutions and wartime and post-war developments. The history of the Valley was told “from the bottom up – the ordinary people, not the upper class” according to promotional material, were telling the story.

Ted Regehr, a member of the conference committee, and keynote speaker, Marlene Epp

Marlene Epp gave the keynote address on Thursday evening, on “Yeowomen of Yarrow: Raising families and creating community in a land of promise.” Defining a “yeowoman” as someone attending to or assisting another, she stated that women were historically portrayed as assistance givers. They were often not visible, as in a photograph of the first church, in which no women were included. The women who came in the first wave of migration – 1928 and onward – endured subsistence living. There was the labour of childbirth, and keeping families clean, fed and warm. Babies were born at home with the help of midwives; health care for the most part was taken care of within the community. Families had to work together and make do. Many females got work as domestic help in the nearby town of Chilliwack or the city of Vancouver in order to help the families make ends meet.

This first wave of women, said Epp, welcomed the second wave after World War Two. Here women outnumbered men two-to-one, resulting in a bulge in church membership and a gender imbalance.

Sonny McHalsie

Sonny McHalsie, cultural advisor on aboriginal rights to government, and a leader in the Stolo nation, shared the oral history of his people and the other bands who live in the Valley. The aboriginals are again learning their stories of how land was created and how the land, the people and the resources are connected. Curriculum is currently being written to connect the people with this history and their spirituality.

John Harder

Comments and quotes from other speakers:

• John Harder, speaking about his father, John A. Harder, who was pastor of Yarrow MB Church for 18 years: “Dad had a passion for knowledge and wanted to provide educational opportunities for youth.” “He practiced what he believed in the home, in the community and at work.” “He was aware of his weaknesses and asked for forgiveness; this endeared him to his congregation.”
• Hugh Johnson, in an address on “The Sikh community in the Fraser Valley”: “The distance from Russia to the Fraser Valley is shorter than the distance from a Mennonite home to a Sikh home.” The Sikh Temple (Gurdwara) in Abbotsford is the second temple built in North America (1910).

Lora Sawatsky

• Lora Neufeldt Sawatsky and Ruth Derksen Siemens on “Why did the Mennonites leave Yarrow so soon after their arrival and in such great number? They left because of the education and employment opportunities outside of the community and because of the failure of the Mennonite dream of re-creating a Russian village. Teaching was the preferred profession of young people leaving the community.
• Bruce Guenther discussed Bible school education in the Valley. He stated that most pastors had Bible school training after the 1930s, when the schools first began. The schools were begun as a supplement to public education; they served as agents of cultural change as well as helping to retain culture. Bible schools became the conduit of evangelical and fundamentalist influence from the US. However, they were also criticized for their low academic standards and their emphasis on personal propriety rather than academic excellence.
• High schools were begun in both Yarrow and Abbotsford in order to provide a safe haven from public school education. They were “central to maintain ethnic, linguistic and religious identity” in the community, according to Harvey Neufeldt.
• Mennonites, Doukhobors and Hutterites were disenfranchised shortly after World War I because of their conscientious objectors stance, according to Harold Dyck. A further proposal to make this valid in perpetuity was defeated by the provincial government, and in 1948 the Mennonites were again given the vote.
• Ron Denman, Chilliwack museum archivist, talked about “Brewers’ Gold: The hop industry in the Fraser Valley”. The hop industry provided the livelihood of many immigrants to the Valley during the first half of the 20th century while they became established in other industries and professions.The photographs and comments by attenders brought back memories for many.

John Redekop gave the last address of the conference. He discussed the differences between aboriginals and Mennonites in their urbanization and secularization in three aspects:

1. For aboriginals, assets are communal and egalitarianism is fundamental so they remain together, while for Mennonites charity is individual and their move to urbanization was for financial growth.
2. The land, for Mennonites, was a means to an end; for aboriginals, there is a spiritual connection to the land, it is a trust to be passed on from generation to generation, it needs to be respected and nurtured.
3. The Mennonite enclaves did not hold people as do the aboriginal communities.

The papers were well presented and provided much information and food for thought. It was recognized, however, that even with the many topics covered, there were sections of the Central Fraser Valley history that still needed to be researched and told. The papers are being collected and will be published at a later date.

—sbb