P. V. Rogagopal and VishwaMitra Yogesh leading the peace walkers from Dalhousie University to the Halifax waterfront, Sept. 21, 2024. www.walk4peace.ca
On September 21, 2024, Dorothy and I commemorated the International Day of Peace by walking together with many others on a pilgrimage for peace on our earth (www.walk4peace.ca). We walked with peace activists P. V. Rajagopal from Gandhi Peace Foundation and the water protector ‘grassroots grandmother’ Dorene Bernard, both former Chairs of Social Justice at the Coady Institute, St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Most of the pilgrims were women, including walkers from the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Canada (IPPNWC), Jai Jagat, and the Canadian Pugwash Group. Lia Holla, a young physicist and Executive Director of IPPNWC, was a dynamic presence throughout, most especially when inspiring the hundreds of students of Pugwash High School, which is the first Canadian high school to officially declare itself a nuclear-free zone. Dorothy made a highly original Peace Banner, featuring a lovely diversity of botanical art from northern Nova Scotia from her pressed plant collection (below).
Dorothy wearing her “Make Peace” banner side-by-side with VishwaMitra Yogesh
We started out from Pugwash, the “Peace Village,” with our final endpoint the Halifax waterfront: a journey of close to 200 kilometres in total (though a lot shorter as the crow flies). Day 1 was Monday September 9 and Day 13 Saturday September 21: International Day of Peace. Dorothy and I were not among the hardy and committed ones who walked every step; we managed the first full day of 19 kilometers and the final day of maybe 15 klicks: plenty enough for my 82-year-old and Dorothy’s 77-year-old feet and joints. If we had even considered doing the whole stretch, we would have quickly argued that ‘we don’t have that kind of time to spare.’ Which of course just isn’t true: what we do with our time is entirely our choice; no one is telling us what to do with our time on earth. We have to make choices, so do what lights your fire.
Among our companions were several core peace walkers from India and a Japanese Buddhist monk. Every day of their lives is committed to these pilgrimages. “Nitin” (a name he’s adopted to conceal his caste) has walked for peace in over fifty countries: a lifetime’s commitment since he was in his late teens. Right after completing this peace walk, he and three companions headed for Seattle to walk to San Francisco (1299 kilometres), then across the pond to walk from Liverpool to London (a further 287 kilometres). And after that? TBA…
Ever since we came home to Clydesdale (by car, I’ll quickly add) I’ve been reflecting on the meaning and purpose of walking for peace as a pilgrimage. Why do Nitin and his companions do this? Not for the money, that’s for darned sure. Sometimes, these utterly dedicated pilgrims set out with no money in their pockets and with no definite plans for where they will sleep that night. So what is driving them? What good does it do? How can we possibly know? Is walking for peace more ‘useful’ than standing with banners outside Town Hall, Antigonish, or knocking on our MP Sean Fraser’s office door? I didn’t ask Nitan or his companions any of these questions, perhaps from my own shyness and because he was too busy directing us walkers and the traffic with his endless energy. But reflecting back, I realize I wouldn’t have wanted him to offer me concrete answers; there are certainly no simple ones. Perhaps this is why I’m writing this blog.
What I do know is that every act of activism that is pro-peace and anti-war is absolutely worthwhile. The protest march to Sean Fraser’s door that has been planned in great detail by Seniors for Climate, and that will happen on Treaty Day, October 1, is absolutely as important as our pilgrimage – but you just can’t quantify the impact of any act of activism. Meanwhile, Dorothy and I both relished our time with our dedicated companions. We loved being outside for many hours in almost constant sunshine; testing our physical endurance, finding out that we really could walk 19 klicks in a day—something neither of us can recall ever doing before. We loved the frequent, mostly brief, conversations with strangers we knew to be inspired by the same deepfelt need to do something. For us, the very act of constantly moving forward together generated joy and peace and an inner certainty that it does have purpose.
Activist Myles Horton, co-founder of the Highlander Folk School, who taught and heavily influenced Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and John Lewis, has been called the Father of the Civil Rights Movement; he titled his book, which he wrote with Brazilian teacher/philosopher Paulo Freire, We Make the Road by Walking. He was a deeply spiritual man, and our pilgrimage, like all pilgrimages, felt like a spiritual act. Irish geography scholar Richard Scriven speaks of pilgrimage as ‘restorying…a groove of human feet—a fresh version of an old path.’ The founders of the British Pilgrimage Trust say: ‘Walking alongside people of all faiths, we’ve witnessed time and again the transformative power of pilgrimage…a transformative journey on foot to special places with trust and purpose but without expectation.’ These writers suggest setting an intention, reflecting on our lives as we move forward, seeking clarity on questions we may have, or simply wanting to be present in these moments.
Dorothy framed her 2015 popular theatre play about the true history of the founding of Antigonish—“1784: (Un)Settling Antigonish”—as a pilgrimage. In her play, the participants—Mi’kmaq, Acadians, African Canadians, and Scottish/Irish/English colonists—‘walked the vision of truth and reconciliation…in order to speak truth to history.’ She saw both actors and specta(c)tors at the five outdoor performances as being joined together in pilgrimage within our diverse community.
Did either Dorothy or I set an intention for our pilgrimage? Not consciously; it simply felt like the right thing for us to do: to lay aside all other business for these two short periods of time to enrich ourselves and to offer a small piece of healing to our troubled world. Now well into my eighty-third year, I am occupied with what is my purpose here on earth, and I’m looking for sources to help me answer this simple but dauntingly difficult question.
