July 24th

An Introduction

My name is Katie Doke Sawatzky and I am a journalist living in Regina, Sask., on Treaty 4 land and the homeland of the Métis. I live here with my husband Glenn and two children, ages 13 (just—I still can’t believe I have a teenager) and 9. I am the Saskatchewan/Alberta correspondent for Canadian Mennonite for the summer and I’ve been asked to introduce myself, so, hi.

I grew up in Regina and then attended Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, graduating with a degree in English, with minors in music and biblical studies in 2010. After CMU, Glenn and I lived in Winnipeg for three years, in community with a family in Wolseley, which had a profound impact on our lives. We had our first baby at that time and with family back in Regina, it made all the difference living with people who were a little further along their parenting journey and who cared for and supported us. At that time I worked for Geez magazine, my first “real job,” as circulation manager. I took on some editorial roles and grew to love the pace and wild unpredictability of magazine production. Geez also rocked my world; it opened my eyes to different ways of being and knowing. Plus, the staff I counted as close friends. They were supportive of me being a young, working mother. So much so that I pumped breast milk in the church office where we worked.

In 2013, we moved to Vancouver for two years so my husband could pursue a graduate degree in theology at UBC. There we continued to live in community with others in student family housing. Our son was 2 at that time and by the time we left, we had had our second baby. What I treasure about that time was living so close to the Pacific Ocean and temperate rain forest, and to my childhood best friend, who had moved to B.C. when I was 14. She got married the year we moved out to Vancouver and she and her partner visited us regularly on campus. I took many trips on the bus out to Langley to visit with them and her family. My son tore up UBC’s main avenue on his push bike and we shared meals and childcare with new friends.

We moved back to Regina, so I could pursue graduate studies in journalism at the University of Regina. Leaving the beauty of Vancouver’s forests and the ease of their transit system for the sprawling parking lots and wide streets of Regina was depressing for a long time. We also had few friends since we’d moved away for university. I made it through a very stressful first year of j-school. Glenn struggled to find a job and so after I was done school he went back for an education degree. Our kids started school. We bought a house. We have been here for almost 10 years and we attend Grace Mennonite Church. Glenn teaches. I write. It’s been a blessing to be close to family and our children have developed wonderful friendships and their own interests, like musical theatre and art.

Inspired by my time in nature in B.C., for my journalism degree I investigated the state of native prairie in Saskatchewan and created a multimedia website called The Prairie Commons Project (www.prairiecommons.ca). I worked as a communications coordinator for Mennonite Church Canada for four years and am now freelancing for local publications and an international conservation organization.

I’m grateful for every opportunity I have to write. Writing helps me think, calms me down, and allows me to ask complete strangers interesting questions. I can get closer to the truth, learn about extraordinary things and occasionally witness them, and participate in one of the most sacred things I believe humans can do on a regular basis, which is listening with an open mind.

It’s nice to meet you, MCA. If you have something you’d like me to know about, please contact me at absk@canadianmennonite.org.