Mennonite Weekly Review

WINNIPEG, Man. — Canadian Mennonite University is helping ease tensions between newcomers to the city and aboriginal residents.

Since 2001, Winnipegger Noëlle DePape has helped youth from warring countries work together to make peace. But today the executive director of the Immigrant and Refugee Community of Manitoba, or IRCOM, doesn’t have to go far to find that same kind of tension and conflict between different groups. It’s happening in Winnipeg, between newcomers to the city and aboriginal people.

“There’s a lot of prejudice and misunderstanding between the two groups,” said DePape. “It’s leading to problems, especially between some young people.”

Now DePape and IRCOM, which is supported by the Manitoba Housing Authority, have teamed up with CMU’s Institute for Community Peacebuilding, or ICP, to launch the Peace Alliance With Aboriginal and Newcomer Youth.

The goal of the alliance, which has been made possible by a $45,000 grant from the United Way of Winnipeg, is to work with youth from aboriginal, newcomer and mainstream groups in the city’s core area to help them find ways to develop peaceful relationships through sports, art, drama and other group activities.

According to DePape, who graduated in 2002 with a degree in international development and conflict resolution from Menno Simons College, CMU’s campus at the University of Winnipeg, some of the problems arise because “newcomers and aboriginals are finding themselves in competition for scarce subsidized housing and other resources in the core area.”

Newcomers often develop prejudice towards aboriginal people since they mainly see the most negative stereotypes, she said.

“They don’t know much about aboriginal history or the reasons for some of the problems,” she said. “They aren’t aware of the positive aspects of aboriginal life.”

The program is modeled on Seeds of Peace, an organization DePape has worked for that brings together youth from countries in conflict so they can build friendships and lessen misunderstanding.

“To our knowledge, this type of program has never been done in North America in this way,” said ICP director David Pankratz. “Programs like Seeds of Peace take the youth out of their countries and bring them to a different place to work out their differences. We want to do it right where they live and interact on an ongoing basis.”

The one-year program will begin in September when a part-time director is hired, and will include a week-long camp for 60 youth in the summer of 2008.