Mary-Ann Kirkby is a fantastic writer. Her first book is I Am Hutterite, which chronicles her childhood experience living on a Hutterite colony and her family’s integration into community life off the colony in the 1970s. It’s jarring and enlightening for both the reader and the 10-year-old version of Mary-Ann in the book.
In 1969, Mary-Ann was happily living on a Hutterite colony near Portage la Prairie, MB, which is about a hour drive from Winnipeg. With seven children in the family and an insular lifestyle, Mary-Ann’s family is representative of the Hutterite families I knew growing up.
In case you’re not from that part of the world, the prairies are home to the largest concentration of Hutterites in the world. They dress very conservatively, with women wearing handkerchiefs and long dresses. The community lives together and shares resources, including childcare, food preparation, farming and manufacturing. Like the Amish and Mennonites, they trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the 16th century and most of their beliefs and practices have been passed down through the centuries.
Mary-Ann’s portrayal of life on the colony is certainly an eye opener. I only visited 1 colony growing up and was at a teenage stage where I couldn’t imagine having grade 12 education and then cooking and cleaning for the rest of my life. My other experiences were with kids whose families had left the colony or with young men from the colony who would visit with my step-father to discuss farming and to sneak in a little bit of hockey watching in our family room.
Mary-Ann’s insights open up that world and the hierarchal structures in a way that is charming and enlightening. Her take on both colony life and off-the-colony communities was interesting to me since I’ve been hearing more Canadians talking about “co-housing” and other options for community life. Mary-Ann’s portrayal of the traditions of colony life offer interesting checks and balances to those co-housing models. But, back to Mary-Ann and her book …
In Mary-Ann’s case, her parents decided in 1969 that the support of the colony was no longer viable for them. Intolerance and mistrust forced their hand and they moved off the colony. The majority of the book chronicles life on the colony, with the final quarter or so being about Mary-Ann’s trials and tribulations trying to figure out how to fit in with the English kids at school. Not only is clothing different but lunch, dancing, and social structures are fraught with misunderstandings–all of it is at times overwhelming to her.
Since the release of I Am Hutterite in June 2007, the self-published book has sold 75,000 copies and surely deserves to sell more. A great book. You can buy the book here.