The Dominion - Meaghan Thurston

A Poetic Ascent

Moira Peters — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 05:18:42 +0000

Shugendo Now is a film for the cynic

TIDNISH, NS—I’ll be honest that from the tag-line, “Everywhere you go, you can find a holy mountain,” I was worried Shugendo Now might be yet another addition to the never dying trend of self-help theory for the serenity seeking urbanite. Instead, this documentary film by Montreal-based Jean-Marc Abela and Mark Patrick Maguire is both exotic and relevant. It tells the stories of several unlikely eco-pilgrims: a night club owner, a construction company manager, a disheartened office worker and a “rogue-monk”, Kosho, who takes on a landfill for industrial waste.

Maguire's ethnographic fieldwork in Japan in the summers of 2002 and 2003 inspired the film. But, even if you are not a folk religions enthusiast, I think you will be intrigued by the obscure Japanese folk religion Shugendo, and the age-old tradition of mountain devotion of the yamabushi mountain monks. Filmed in 2007 the film documents the annual July 7 pilgrimage of the yamabushi and their urban followers in the Omine Mountains. Not to be confined to comparative religion classes, nor, thankfully, in spite of the risk, sloshing around in a swamp of spiritualist clichés, the film is a call to a new kind of personal and community empowerment.

“As with food issues,” Abela reflected over a bowl of fruit in August in Montreal when we met to talk about Shugendo Now, “it is so hard to consume in a responsible way. Once you accept these contradictions you can move on.”

No stranger to food issue activism, Abela has made videos for Montreal’s Santropol Roulant rooftop garden project and is a believer in the practice of permaculture. Like the film's rogue monk protagonist, Abela, a self-proclaimed coureur des bois archetype (according to Wikipedia an individual who engaged in the fur trade without permission from French authorities) is critical of lifestyles that are not in tune with the environment: “In Canada, I see people who live in the country but who live high-energy lifestyles. There’s a disconnect there. And with activists, I’ve seen people burn out.”

So, why is a film like this important for Canadians to see? “Going to nature is a universal thing” says Abela. “And with activism, there has to be a connection [to nature]. So one thing we added to the film was a discussion of monoculture forests because in Japan, especially after WWII, the rice fields which had been replanted with fast growing cedars are telling us something about the huge impact we’ve had on nature. And I asked myself, isn’t this what we’re doing to our own forests in Canada?”

As Abela suggests, throughout the world, governments are actively promoting the expansion of large-scale monoculture tree growth, despite the serious social and environmental impacts. In New Brunswick (on whose border I am writing this article) the Acadian forest “ceased to exist” as a result of harvesting for shipbuilding in the 1800s, according to J. Loo and N. Ives in their article in The Forestry Chronicle, "The Acadian forest: Historical condition and human impacts." Currently the average forest age is approximately 55 years and consists overwhelmingly of white spruce, a species regenerating on abandoned farmland. As the Chronicle documents, over time, the Acadian forest and its distribution of species has become less diverse, resulting in lower overall ecosystem diversity.

It is easy to leave this film feeling inspired, but I always approach a documentary film with the understanding that the truth behind what is said is as potent as what is not shown. Do the eco-pilgrims maintain their promises to practice sustainable business? Do they continue to embrace their new-found connection to nature? I was moved by the film's slow and beautiful exploration of the pilgrims' journeys toward spiritual reconnection and environmental awareness, but it was hard to stifle laughter as they desperately lit up at the summit. Likewise it was hard to stomach the fact that, while women are allowed to participate in the practice, they are forbidden to set foot on the top (having climbed a fairly significant mountain myself, I can’t imagine being denied this hard-earned prize).

However, should we embrace Shugendo Now's call to take a more balanced approach to environmental actions, to become empowered as individuals and less fanatic about the actions of others, then perhaps this kind of tension is integral . Ultimately, what I took away from this film is that even the busiest, most consumerist among us have a deep human need to recognize the sacredness of the environment, a truth the film addresses in a subtle, palatable way. And while the environmental message of the film may be its “heart,” the great strength of Shugendo Now is its camera work, recalling another beautiful film, Rivers and Tides, the documentary by German filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer of the British nature artist Andy Goldsworthy (who lives in Scotland). In fact, Goldsworthy’s words could serve as an alternative tag-line for Shugendo Now (for the cynics among us): “I don’t think the land needs me, but I need it.”

The best way to view this film? I suggest donning a sweater and projecting it on a bed sheet, on an autumn balcony, with the wind and the city sirens providing a very fitting, if contrasting, soundtrack. The directors have applied to several festivals but if you would like to host a screening or order a DVD please send them email at shugendonow@gmail.com or visit the website.

Meaghan Thurston has worked in Montreal, Halifax and Guatemala and currently resides and studies in Edinburgh.

Shugendo Now Trees

Shugendo Now Buildings

Keeping The Faith

hillarybain — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:45:31 +0000

Guatemalan feminists fight for change

One year ago, on March 8, 2006, as in many cities worldwide, thousands of women took to the streets in Guatemala City for the advancement of women’s rights. The hand-woven blouses and traditional wrap-around skirts worn by the majority of Mayan women created a sea of colour in the downtown core. Amidst this sea, a group of some 50 women marched under the banner of the Red Ecumenica de Mujeres (REM), the Women’s Ecumenical Network, a religious group of women’s rights activists and a working group of the larger Conference of Evangelical Churches in Guatemala (CIEDEG).

The national co-ordinator of the REM, Miriam Iquique, had organized school bus transportation for women of her village to allow them to participate, some for the first time, in the march for women’s rights in Guatemala City. Iquique says this kind of exposure to women’s rights work is important “because so many rurally-based women do not have the economic resources to travel to the capital.”

If asked to imagine ‘radical feminists,’ most Canadians would not think of a Christian organization, but the REM is working hard to advance women’s participation in the political landscape. This work is in the face of an increasingly violent atmosphere, where women are frequently brutalized or found murdered on Guatemala’s streets and where women’s education is often sacrificed in times of economic hardship.

Iquique and her colleagues agree that in their communities, “women are struggling for equality in the workplace.” The REM “is committed to bringing information to women so that they may understand their rights and heal the scars left by the war.” Empowering women with human rights education, addressing topics such as leadership, domestic violence, reproductive health and contraception laws, small business management, as well as enhancing literacy skills are part of what the REM calls the “therapeutic process,” a process they seek to hasten in post- civil war Guatemala. They are working with women from many different ethnic groups in Guatemala: the K’qchi, the Mam, the Kaqchikel, Tzutujil, as well as Ladina women and women of communities displaced by the war. Iquique’s home-base is the office of the Kaqchikel Presbytery, a decision-making body of representatives of local congregations, in the department of Chimaltenango, a region which suffered greatly during the violence of the 1980s, in which at least 200,000 Guatemalans, mostly indigenous people, were killed or disappeared.

The women of the REM cite their faith in God as that which sustains them in their struggle for a dignified life and at times, the REM face critiques from other women’s rights groups who do not share their religious focus. For example, during the Women’s Day March meetings at La Sector de Mujeres (a woman’s rights group that spoke out against a series of malicious break-ins to their capital office this past June), the REM’s proposal to open the march with a prayer was not widely welcomed. However, these different women’s rights groups appear united by a vision of a ‘dignified’ life, one filled with opportunities for all.

Even if their religious foundation may deter some, the REM is a unique example of inter-denominational communication; something that is greatly lacking in Guatemala. With Catholic and Evangelical women at the table, Iquique and her colleagues meet to discuss how they can secure funding to carry out their ambitious plans of leadership training for the women of rural Guatemala without concern for the differences in their faith practices.

This year, like last year, their project is gravely under-funded; so much so that Miriam worries the Women’s Day March may not be as well attended by women from her community. Despite the obvious disappointment in her voice, she is forever optimistic and reports that she is currently holding educational sessions for the women in her community about the upcoming Guatemalan elections, because “it is ever more important that women understand politics and know how and why to vote.”

The group currently receives a limited amount of funding from the Anglican Church of Canada, but it is not enough to cover the costs in all the geographic regions where they wish to work. And so, as another International Women’s Day approaches, it is unfortunate that Canadian and Guatemalan women’s rights activists can find common ground; just as recent cuts to funding restrict women’s organizations in Canada, the call for economic justice rings clear from feminist organizers in Guatemala.

REM #2

REM #1