Interested participants will take a heritage bus tour in the Southern Ontario countryside to learn about the oldest Amish settlements, while others will discover the history of Indigenous people who lived on this land. Several a cappella hymn sings are planned, along with a thanksgiving worship service, and an Indigenous Awareness Workshop at Crow Shield Lodge.
On September 30, the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, several speakers will discuss 鈥淲hat Stories Have We Not Been Telling?鈥 "When the Amish settlers arrived in the German Block, they did not come to an empty land, or 鈥榲irgin wilderness,鈥鈥 wrote David G. Neufeld, referring to a 45,000-acre land grant. Neufeld, who will give a presentation during the bicentennial, explained, 鈥淭he land was populated by and had been used by Indigenous peoples for many, many years.鈥 听
Professor Mark Louden will give several presentations on the linguistic history of Ontario鈥檚 earliest Amish, including offering the Bechtel Lecture in Anabaptist-Mennonite Studies at Grebel on October 20. His lecture at Grebel will analyze the speech of Amish Mennonite descendants from East Zorra-Tavistock and Wilmot townships, compare it with what Amish and Old Order Mennonites speak elsewhere, and explore important implications for our understanding of the linguistic history of Anabaptists in North America more generally.听