By Renee Baker

I thought it would be fun to reconnect with the person who first held the task of sharing TIS alumni stories – Michael Veith from the Class of 2012.

Michael has just completed his third year at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, where he studies history and communications. He described an extensive paper that he had to work on for a course entitled “Theories and Methods”. He was free to write 5000-6000 words on any topic he liked, as long as he utilized primary sources like archives. He chose to write about the history of the very land CMU is situated on.

“I thought it interesting and important to do that because here, there’s all sorts of tension or unresolved tension between the aboriginal people and white settlers,” Michael says. “I decided to do research to see how the university came to exist on the land it sits on now and traced back almost 200 years. I wrote my paper on how the land was involved in conflict between the aboriginal people and settlers.”

Eventually he discovered that there had been a treaty between the Canadian government and the aboriginal people, but the treaty was broken a number of times and the conflict continued. “I think my paper more just kind of helped me and hopefully other people realize the past conflicts that the land had been involved in and then going forward in discussions with aboriginal people there,” Michael says. “Also, it was the coolest thing to be reading scans of old newspaper articles from the 1920s on my computer, and in the newspaper they were describing these legal battles involving a section of the university land and this building that’s on it and then I look up and see that same building right there.”

Over the summer, Michael worked at the Historical Museum of St. James in Assiniboia, in Winnipeg. His official title was Senior Public Programs Officer, but Michael says that his main job was to play the part of a pioneer child from the 1800s and guide school tours around the museum. “There’s a script that talks about my granddad and my grandmother, and she bakes apple cinnamon pie,” Michael says. “Me and my “sister” – another museum staff member – talk about our chores and stuff. It’s pretty funny and the kids really enjoyed it. “

Ideally, Michael would like to end up working in a library or a major museum, such as the Smithsonian. He mentioned wanting to reside in a place full to the brim with history – for example, any capital city in Europe. “I have a Dutch passport and can live anywhere in the EU so that might actually be doable in the future!”