CALGARY—As the Hutterites mark more than 100 years since they first settled in Canada, a writer whose family left their colony 50 years ago is re-releasing her book in the hopes of shedding light on the often-misunderstood group’s “real story.”

Mary-Ann Kirkby left a Hutterite colony in Manitoba with her family in 1969, when she was 10 years old. She self-published I Am Hutterite in 2007, a nuanced portrait of Hutterite life that was later re-released by publishing houses in the United States and Canada.

“I would say I was both revered and reviled for telling this story,” Kirkby said.

The Hutterites in Canada

The Hutterites are one of three major Christian Anabaptist groups, alongside the Amish and the Mennonites. Dating back to 1528, they escaped religious persecution and eventually made their way to Canada around 1918, where they settled across the Prairies. The government gave them freedom of worship and exemption from military service in exchange for farming and developing the land.

However, they weren’t free from the animosity they had experienced elsewhere. The Second World War reignited suspicion of anyone of German descent, and their exemption from military service furthered this. They were also subject to discriminatory laws, such as Alberta’s Land Sales Prohibition Act (1942-47) and the Communal Property Act (1947-73), which attempted to control Hutterite access to land.

There were around 30,000 Hutterites in North America in 1995, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia, and more than 66 per cent of them lived in Canada. By 2011, there were more than 32,000 in Canada alone.

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The Hutterites believe society is best preserved rurally, and live in colonies of around 120 people, which split into new colonies as the population grows. The colonies are legally incorporated, and are organized so that every person has a role in day-to-day operations. In part because of the way they are organized, Hutterite colonies contribute significantly to the economy; in 2012, Alberta Farm Express reported they account for around 10 per cent of the Alberta farm economy.

Contrary to some beliefs, the colonies pay taxes; some Hutterites use computers, televisions and cellphones, most use tractors and other modern farming equipment, and many take post-secondary education away from the colony. Some colonies are even open to tours.

These practices often depend on which subgroup a colony belongs to. The Schmiedeleut, the most progressive of the Hutterites and the group to which Kirkby’s family belonged, are mostly in Manitoba. The moderate Dariusleut are mostly found in Saskatchewan, while the colonies in Alberta are more often the orthodox Lehrerleut.

Kirkby said that the differences between these subgroups have become more pronounced as technology and outside culture have changed around the Hutterite colonies. The Schmiedeleut colony her family once belonged to would much more closely resemble today’s Lehrerleut, she explained.

“It’s almost a completely different society,” she said of Manitoba’s Hutterite colonies, adding the Schmiedeleut are “almost a sort of cautionary tale for the more orthodox ones.”

‘Misunderstood and so maligned’

Non-Hutterite readers were intrigued by Kirkby’s story, she said, while Hutterite responses were varied. Some were upset at her portrayal of her family’s departure, which laid bare some complicated realities of Hutterite life. Others admit she “nailed” her description of Hutterite life, she said.

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Kirkby makes it clear she isn’t looking to either malign or romanticize Hutterite culture. Instead, she wants to show readers some of the Hutterite traditions that still positively affect her to this day, while also laying bare the realities every society deals with: birth, death, marriage, conflict, and more.

“It’s been so misunderstood and so maligned,” said Kirkby. “For many years, I was so ashamed of my culture.”

After years of hiding her past, Kirkby, then a working journalist, began to realize that Canada was full of people just like the Hutterites — people misunderstood for their culture or religion, but who were beginning to find acceptance in an increasingly diverse society.

“It took me many years to understand the fact that I wasn’t ashamed of being Hutterite, but that I was wounded by people’s misperceptions about them, about my people,” she said, adding that she felt a responsibility to tell “the real story.”

Despite having left the colony after a conflict with the head minister, Kirkby’s formative years still bore the mark of Hutterite life. She still speaks the language, a form of German, and her mother would make the traditional food. She raised her son with minimal technology and taught him the value of communication, especially with his elders, something she said is essential to Hutterites.

“Even now if I go to a Hutterite colony, the house fills up and everybody’s there of all generations,” she said. “That intergenerational connection is really powerful.”

Kirkby even credits her Hutterite upbringing for her career path as a journalist.

“I grew up at the knees of such fine and gifted storytellers that it became something that I really loved to do,” she said. “I am naturally incurably curious, as all Hutterites are.”

But looking back, Kirkby still felt like she had missed out on a lot of Hutterite culture. Most importantly, she had missed out on the rites of passage she had looked forward to as a child. So for her second book, Secrets of a Hutterite Kitchen, she spent two years visiting Hutterite colonies across the Prairies to try to experience those rites for herself.

“I had longed for these rites of passage,” she explained. “When a mother had a new baby, I was there to see the gifts from the community. When a young girl received her tiechl (kerchief), I was there to watch her wear it for the first time.”

Kirkby said she hopes readers will see their own lives reflected in these rites, and through that connection, gain a better understanding of the Hutterites.

“Connection and family are the lifeblood of everybody,” she said. “We may look different, but we’re not different.”

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