Send us a text In this REWIND episode, host Dan Dyck explores the Mennonite holiday tradition called brommtopp, named for the strange musical instrument used, which can be translated as "rumbling top". This tradition was brought to Imperial Russia from Prussia, and continued in Manitoba into the 1950's. Your donations help preserve and share stories like this one! Make a gift here or call 204.560.1998. Find out more by visiting the Mennonite Heritage Archives website - https://www.mha...

Send us a text Today, we have a nostalgic retelling in English of the story Christmas 1926 by beloved Low German story teller Gerhard Ens. Told through the eyes of 10-year-old Hauns, Gerhard imagines a fictional account of what it might have been like for Mennonite refugees from the Soviet Union to celebrate their first Christmas in Canada. We are grateful for the extra time Golden West has granted this episode, which clocks in at 21 minutes. Thank you! Your donations help preserve and share ...

Send us a text In this episode, we bring you an episode with the excessively alliterative of Festive Foods and Folkways from the Mennonite Tradition. This instalment is based on a two-volume book series by Norma Jost Voth. She interviewed about 60 elder women who brought their Christmas traditions and celebrations from Russia to North America. Tune in to hear about Norma’s work, and listen to show host Dan Dyck mangle the pronunciation of German and Dutch words like Niejoasch’owend and Oilie ...

Send us a text In this episode, we’re delighted to bring you an interview with Patrick Friesen, a third generation Mennonite from Paraguay. His great-grandfather, C.F. Friesen, was one of the early leaders and teachers in Paraguay. Patrick shares about the historical migration from Manitoba, paints a picture of the Menno Colony today — and issues an invitation in English and Low German to visit his community for its 100th anniversary in 2027. Your donations help preserve and share stories lik...

Send us a text Today, we bring you a story that’s about as close to a Whodunnit Mystery as Mennonite history gets. It’s a story about a baby, a pig pen, and ongoing attempts to get rid of the child — even as he grows up. To learn more, tune in to Episode 53 of Tales from the Mennonite Heritage Archives. Your donations help preserve and share stories like this one! Make a gift here or call 204.560.1998. Find out more by visiting the Mennonite Heritage Archives website - https://www.mharchives...

Send us a text After a few consecutive episodes that leaned into some darker stories in Mennonite history, we’re pleased to bring you something on the lighter side. To air on Sunday, Nov. 30 we bring you… (drumroll )… A Short History of House Barns! Join me and Roland Sawatsky, curator at the Manitoba Museum and past curator at the Mennonite Village Museum in Steinbach, as we reveal that a house barn is (!SPOILER ALERT!) “a barn connected to a house,” how far back we can trace the histo...

Send us a text Today, we bring you Part 3, the final instalment of our series on Nestor Makhno, a Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary leader during the civil uprisings of the late 1910s. In Part 3, Sean Patterson brings us insights into the role that wealth and ethnicity played in the movement named for Makhno, and draw some conclusions about what Mennonites today can and should take away from this story. Series synopsis: In Part 1 (Nov. 8), we take a deep dive into the life of Nestor Makhno’s ...

Send us a text Today, we bring you Part 2 of a 3-part series on Nestor Makhno, a Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary during the civil uprisings of the late 1910s. Part 2 focuses on the terrible Eichenfeld Massacre on Nov. 8, 1919, when well over 100 Mennonites were executed by Nestor Makhno's men. More Mennonites were murdered in surrounding villages. Did Nestor Makhno attend these events? Why couldn’t he better control his troupes? These are just a few of the questions we ask historian S...

Send us a text Today, we start a three part series on Nestor Makhno, a Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary during the Ukrainian Revolution in the late 1910s. Makhno was reviled by some, and praised by others. He commanded 100,000 troupes, bands of whom pillaged Mennonite villages, executed Mennonite landowners, and raped and killed Mennonite women. The Makhno name still strikes horror in some Mennonites today, while in Ukraine, a statue honours him. In this series, I’ll take a deep dive into wh...

Send us a text Today, we we present you with the story of Smallpox and the Mennonite Experience. According to historians, the smallpox virus has been circulating among humans for about 3,000 years. In this episode, we unpack the involvement of Russian Empress Catherine the Great and her vaccine cause, and share Mennonite encounters with smallpox and vaccinations as they lived and travelled across Europe, Russia, and into Canada. Your donations help preserve and share stories like this one! Ma...

Send us a text Today, we deliver Part 2 of our conversation with Mennonite author and satirist Andrew Unger, in which we ask how the Low German language influences satire, what makes satire funny – or not, and whether popular media has changed what Mennonite people find funny. Your donations help preserve and share stories like this one! Make a gift here or call 204.560.1998. Find out more by visiting the Mennonite Heritage Archives website - https://www.mharchives.ca/ Follow the Mennonite...

Send us a text Today we bring you Part 1 of a two-part chat with Andrew Unger. He is the author and creator of The Unger Review, a satirical web site that gently and humorously skewers Mennonite faith and culture. Andrew tells me how his sense of humour developed, the little known influence of satire on early Anabaptists, the benefits of laughing about Mennonite Tupperware, and how his humour is an expression of love for his own Mennonite identity. Your donations help preserve and share stori...

Send us a text Today we bring you a special feature for Thanksgiving weekend! Mennonite history enthusiast Gerhard Ens first recorded this fictional account of the first harvest by Mennonites in Canada (1876) on audio tape in the Low German language. The story, told through the eyes of an impatient 10-year-old Henry, has now been translated into English and adapted for radio by the Tales team. We hope you enjoy this nostalgic and entertaining re-telling. Your donations help preserve and...

Send us a text Today, we present the life story of the inspiring and resilient Susana Miller. Despite multiple family tragedies and hard times, Susana managed to rise above it all, and find joy in her 101 years of living. Your donations help preserve and share stories like this one! Make a gift here or call 204.560.1998. Find out more by visiting the Mennonite Heritage Archives website - https://www.mharchives.ca/ Follow the Mennonite Heritage Archives on Instagram and Facebook.

Today, we bring you a 100-year-old story about a government tactic that was used as recently 2010. During World War I, the federal government ordered all Canadian citizens to register. They needed to know how many recruits they could rely on should the war drag on. Based on their principles and values, some Mennonites in southern Manitoba refused to register. Even threats of fines and jail couldn’t persuade them. It ultimately took a Bible story to convince them. One hundred years later, the ...

In this episode, we bring you an interview with Ben Nobbs-Thiessen. He studies the history of Mennonite migration at the University of Winnipeg. We talk about his visits and research among Mennonites in Bolivia, what change looks like in that context, and what we in Canada can learn from Mennonite migrations to Latin America. Your donations help preserve and share stories like this one! Make a gift here or call 204.560.1998. Find out more by visiting the Mennonite Heritage Archives website -...

You’ll want to tune in to this delightful conversation with Erin Koop Unger, who writes for the Mennotoba blog about local Mennonite and Manitoba history. We learn about a discovery she made while researching her own family background, and we find out how many wood ticks she gets while out exploring abandoned cemeteries. Your donations help preserve and share stories like this one! Make a gift here or call 204.560.1998. Find out more by visiting the Mennonite Heritage Archives website - http...

Peter J. Klassen (1889-1953) was one of many educated Mennonites who migrated to Canada and took up farming out of necessity. After fleeing from the Soviet Union in 1925, him and his wife Elisabet (Liese), built a life on the prairies of Saskatchewan near the community of Herschel. They eventually retired to Yarrow, British Columbia. Throughout his life, he read and wrote extensively - publishing in Der Bote and other German papers, and a number of books. His writing has been described as imb...

Host Dan Dyck sits down to discuss the research of PhD student Jonathan Hildebrand. Jonathan is exploring Indigenous-Mennonite relations through his research of land and waterways on the historical West Reserve in southern Manitoba. He is based at the University of Manitoba and is originally from Altona, Manitoba. Previously he worked for nearly a decade as an urban planner in the areas of land use, urban design, and Indigenous planning, before returning to school to learn more about the plac...

In our second part on Steinbach engineer Klaas W. Brandt, we learn about how he helped two budding entrepreneurs and pilots build Steinbach’s first airplane in the early 1930s. Your donations help preserve and share stories like this one! Make a gift here or call 204.560.1998. Find out more by visiting the Mennonite Heritage Archives website - https://www.mharchives.ca/ Follow the Mennonite Heritage Archives on Instagram and Facebook.