The following statement was spoken to the students and I by an elderly women of the colony in response to the question: What is it like to be a Hutterite?

Being a Hutterite from small on, when you are raised in the colony you don’t know very much of the outside world.  We all know how they live, and we also know how we are supposed to live.  We are supposed to live according to Act II, which is in the testament if they wish to read it.  And our life is we are not supposed to have any radios or TV.  We can make music with our own voices and we are not supposed to wear a watch on the hand.  We can have a little one in our pocket.  We are not supposed to have any rings, necklaces or a wristband.

Jacob Hutter started the colony about 500 years ago because after Adam and Eve, God put them in a very nice Garden of Eden.  And said to them: “You can eat every fruit of this garden, but do not eat the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden.  It is the nicest of the garden, but don’t touch it or you will die”.  But one day, Eve went past the tree and a voice of the serpent said, “Why don’t you eat some of this fruit”  She said: “God told us not to eat this fruit, but that we will die”.  Then the serpent said: “It is a lie, you will not die of this fruit.  Here, grab an apple”.  So Eve took an apple, cut it in half and started eating it and she gave half to her husband, which he should not have taken it.  So their eyes opened and they stood there naked.  Before they did not know.  They went into the trees and hid themselves.  And it didn’t take long before a voice said: “Adam and Eve, where are you?  Why can’t I find you?”  They were afraid to speak.  When Jacob Hutterite started the first colony he took an example of this story and he made the colony like the Garden of Eden.  He wanted the people to be good, not bad and so the traditional still is today like that.

The Hutterites live to be an example to the world.  We are an example to the world.  This is why we do not wear our hair down.  It is a grace to cover our hair.  It is a sin for women to go out without covering her hair.  A man is different, but not a women.  And also our clothing is an example to the world.  Seeing years ago, when we came to Saskatchewan, Saskatoon didn’t know that we people existed.  The men had beards and they said the “bearded Hutterites”.  And now just look at the world, they are doing the same thing.  The world is taking an example with us.  There are very nice people in the world.  Every nationality has their own style.  The Hindus are dressed different.  It is all coming back.  The old styles and ways are coming back.  They want to remember their history and traditions too.

When I grew up in the colony there were not cars or trucks or tractors.  There was a threshing machine and we had horses.  My dad had two hundred heads of horses.  When threshing time came those horses were hitched up to big carts and the girls had to be on the wagon.  Every girl had a wagon to take home the wheat to the threshing machine.  The ladies and men stoked the bundles of wheat.  We had a wagon like Jake has a wagon today for the garden.  This is how we went to stoke the bundles.  We went before noon and after lunch we had two hours of rest.  Two o’clock we went out again until six.  We came home for supper with the threshers kept on with their work until it was quite dark so they could get the crop in before the snow.

Do you like being a Hutterite?

It is different than being another person.  We have three languages.

Do you like having three languages? 

Yes because it is better and we can communicate better.  We can switch from one language to another without even thinking about it.  It is sometimes easier to talk with one language than it is with another.  It makes you feel important.  It is a challenge.  Our languages connect us to our history and our tradition.  Tradition is important because we do not want to upset our ancestors.  Even though they are dead, the preachers are not.  The preacher reminds us to keep our tradition.  The English world is different, not better or worse.  We are lucky to have such a culture and language.  We have more schooling in our languages; it is exciting that we know the other languages when our English teacher does not.  We can talk to each other privately and he does not know the meaning of what we are saying.  When we have something to discuss, we can discuss it privately particularly concerning what is going on around the colony.

What is your cultural background?

We get up in the morning at about 7:00 am and we dress dark.  We do not dress with the lights off; we wear dark close.  We do this because it is traditional.  Our ancestors have done it for hundreds of years and we carry our traditions further.  When we go to eat breakfast, everybody eats together in the kitchen.  We do not eat separately in our own homes. 

Our tradition means that we work together.  Working together means that we help each other out because the job goes easier and faster.  Two hands are better than one.   We also share allot and we do not have to pay for food.  Everything that we want, the colony pays for us.  For example, we get shoes, clothes, candy and pop from the colony.  We receive an allowance once a month.  We get $4.00 per kid and the adults get $8.00.