When Pilgrims Meet

Filmmaker: Patrick Chadwick

Like the attentats of last years November in Paris, the latests events have put Europe and the world in fear and anger again. But here is the story of some pilgrims from different places of the world. Walking for peace and climate justice ...

When I started this blogpost in the end of November 2016 I didn't know, that another circle in this story would close too. Again the global media tells the story of "terrorism". But let me tell you about the other wondrous circle in this story:
After 750 km pilgrimage starting in Switzerland we wandered in Paris at the beginning of December 2015, where we tried to meet up with the "peoples pilgrimage". We finally met one of these pilgrims. Guess what! This November in Scotland.

In September 2015 a group of pilgrims left Rome to head for the International Climate Talks in Paris. A total of 1.500 km. Patrick Chadwick joined them as a pilgrim and filmmaker when they approached the Swiss Alps. When we stayed in Scotland in November we met Patrick to look at the first cut of his documentary and to exchange on our experiences on the way to Paris. The story when and how we three met would make a good film too.​

A Message from Burma

Sesto and me started on the first of October 2015 in Switzerland with direction to Paris. On our way an email from our dear friend Harn from Burma, which you can see in the middle of this photo, reached us:

​Dear Yeb, Dear Sesto & Gabriele,
​
Hello Yeb,
This is Harn from Burma/Myanmar and hope things are going well on your challenging and inspiring journey from Rome to Paris. Although i couldn't be there with you in person, my solidarity and supports are with you all.

I would like to introduce you to my Swiss friends- Gabriele and Sesto (the founder of World Spirit Forum) who are also on a walking pilgrimage from Switzerland to Paris for COP21. Hope you all can meet, inspire and be inspired by each others.

Hello Gabriele and Sesto,
Yeb is a filipino friend leading the People's pilgrimage, walking from Rome to Paris through Italy, Switzerland and France, and you can find out his stories here at this link.

Hope you all can connect.

cheers,
harn

The green pilgrims in 2015 heading to Paris

Our friend Harn with other activists

Impressions: Paris 2015 | COP 21

A Muslim Host in Montmartre

Reaching the suburbs of Paris in the beginning of December 2015 after the attentats in Paris, we sent an email to Yeb. Although it might have been not so easy to meet up with a bigger group of activists, Sesto and me were keen to join our fellow pilgrims. But it wasn't meant to be, there was no answer to our email.

​In Paris we met a lot of great people and had the most wonderful host Mohamed Hosni, who cooked traditional tunesian food for us and showed us round in Montmartre, where we stayed with him.

During the COP21 we had been invited to two conferences, where we met some friends and made new ones too, like John Croft, who invented Dragon Dreaming, and his co-worker Lizandra Barbuto. The People's Pilgrimage soon faded from our memory.

Dfferent Conferences - Different Worldviews

The conferences we attended couldn't have more differed from each other. The first on Sunday, December 6, 2015, was the 6th annual World Climate Summit held by the World Climate Ltd partnering with Sustainia, a leading global sustainability think tank. ​The World Climate Summit was announced as follows: "the most impactful conference and awards show during the UNFCCC COP21, by bringing the top 100 sustainability solutions, and convening 500 business, finance, and government leaders and celebrities during a weekend of solutions for our climate." Included was the presentation of the Sustainia Award. We had been invited by Sustainia as they where partners also in a project, that Sesto was advising at that time.

The Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network

On the following day we attended a conference of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network. "WECAN engages women grassroots activists, Indigenous and business leaders, scientists, policy makers, farmers, academics and culture-shapers in collaboration with the goal of stopping the escalation of climate change and environmental and community degradation, ... ."

You can imagine from the quotes about the aims of these two groups and their events, that as different the conferences were, so were the opinions about the outcome of the COP21.
We both were quite happy to get to know about the diverging programmes. We realized that the both groups had different experiences, different fields in which they worked to do something about climate change - and that the topic of climate justice is a whole different topic.
To work successfully in the big field of climate change it would need more inclusive events, were the varous voices could at least hear each other and hopefully inspire more holistic solutions.

How Pilgrims Meet

When we finally met Patrick, the young filmmaker, it was interesting to see how similar and again different our experiences on our way to Paris were. But how did we meet him?

Staying in Dumfries & Galloway in Scotland for some months this year, we found a small grocery shop in Dumfries to buy our fruit and vegetables. One day another client was listening, when I talked to the owner about our pilgrimages, the one to Paris and the one we started in February 2016. Later Patrick Chadwick sent an email - after he had got our adress from the grocery woman - and we met for a coffee in Dumfries the next week.

Talking to Patrick was so interesting and heartwarming that we tried to follow up our talks. That happened about two weeks later in Creetown near the coast, at the house of our next host Sarah Summerson where Patrick showed us the first cut of his documentary of the People's pilgrimage.

Filmstils from "Tayo - Tayo" | Patrick Chadwick

Tayo Tayo - United We Stand

After we saw the film we were talking to Patrick about his experience and he told us, that it wasn't always easy balancing being a pilgrim and a filmmaker at the same time. We asked about the aspect of taking part in the group and he answered, that he had managed this quite well.

The documentary has the title: "Tayo Tayo" - which means 'united we stand' and was the name of a song which the group sung along the way, which speaks of taking actions together towards climate justice. The people's pilgrimage came from Yeb Sano, who is a philippine activist. Yeb started with a group of different people and some philippine friends and activists from Italy to Paris for the COP21 (2015).

Totally opposite to our pilgrimage, their's was planned in advance cause of the number of 25 people taking part in it. In the film one can see the pilgrims in several stations of their pilgrimage, demonstrating, with their hosts and on their way walking. In one scene a woman, hosting the group, says: "You are brave to walk all that way.", what is answered by one of the pilgrims: "You are brave to have 25 foreigners at your home." The impression of the most people we met on our pilgrimage was indeed the one of us being brave, doing what we do. "Très courageux!", the french where telling us over and over again. And we had the same feeling about our hosts, being couragous, even if we were only two strangers to host.

Like we on our pilgrimage Yebs group stayed in Taizé too on the way to Paris. There they had the possibility to get into a deep dialogue with a group of refugees. I don't remember, who was saying this sentence to the young men, but I deeply feel the same: "Your presence is a big blessing."
There are also recordings from Yeb Sano in his role as activist speaker in different talks with officials from some cities and later on at the COP21 on panels and talks with politicans as Al Gore, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Christina Figueres or activist Naomi Klein. (see pictures below)

Filmstils from "Tayo - Tayo" | Patrick Chadwick

Climate Change: A Spiritual Crisis

For Patrick Chadwick the yong filmmaker and pilgrim that pilgrimage isn't finished yet. He told us, that although 90% of  the film is done, 50% of the work is still to do. We have quite some filmmaker friends and it is over and over impressing and inspiring how dedicated those folks have to be, to not only get their work done, but to raise the money for the realisation of their films - not to think of making money from this.

We congratulated Patrick for the authenticity and urgency of the film without being unagitated, after we had watched it. And we hope, that it will be accepted to be shown at several filmfestivals to gain some publicity and money for the distribution.

At the end of this story in the story I put some quotes out of the film, that took our attention:
... solving from the grassroots without the government ... climat change as a spiritual crisis ... pilgrimage: praying with the feet ... not the same people afterwards ... encyclica of pope francis ... there are 1000 of people who have made it possible for me to study, stay in that house ... pilgrims from everywhere have made a way as far as 7 times around the world (Christina Figueres) ... entering Paris sneeking through the backdoor like bandits () not being able to celebrate it (after the attentats and the emergency rule) ... people just following orders: nothing groundshaking will come out, all about money ...pretty tough to get this in, to realize working in a system that doesn't really work (a private sector guy)

Without any comments!

Filmstils from "Tayo - Tayo" | Patrick Chadwick

Tayo Tayo documentary teaser from Patrick Chadwick on Vimeo.

links
​more videos of Patrick Chadwick on vimeo | read Yeb's story and reflections from the pilgrimage and learn about their journey | get to know more about the Bodhi Hill Learning Community (Shan State, Myanmar) under Sai Leng Wan (Harn), Director | meet our Paris host Mohamed Hosni on facebook | learn about Dragon Dreaming