The Feast Sustains Us

As I was cycling back from a meeting at the graveyard (regarding All Soul's Day), it occurred to me that I have a responsibility. As a spiritual cultural worker I am responsible for my own spiritual and physical health. That thought cheered me up. It made me think that we need to pull together as a group and create programs to keep us spiritually and physically healthy. When we are called on to do our job we need to be in the right physical condition and in the right state of mind to do our job calmly and gracefully. This required a certain level of physical stamina.

Yesterday my son and I went to a feast hosted by The Downtown Eastside Aboriginal Community Kitchen Garden at UBC Farm. It was a lovely event on a beautiful sunny fall day. I felt very privileged to participate and act as a witness to the feast ceremonies, and I brought a jar of honey and some sage as an offering of gratitude. I didn't take pictures of the ceremonies, but I did photograph the salmon cooking on the fire and more bees in flowers. (Surprise, surprise.) I am still fascinated at how late the bees are out foraging this year and right now they are active in the French Marigolds, calendula, cosmos, dandelions and sunflowers at the farm. Because everything was late this year it's a lucky thing the bees actually still have flowers to draw nutrients from. One of the things that lead to the high rate of winter deaths in honeybees in BC last year was lack of late forage. I am collecting as many late fall flower seeds as I can and yesterday was the perfect day for collecting seeds at UBC Farm.

But I digress. There were many tribes represented at the feast--Gitsan, Cree, Musqueum and many others. I realize with embarrassment that I need to bone up on my knowledge of local tribes and I need to find a map of the Vancouver territories. There were songs to bless the salmon around the fire, letting any bad energy dissipate and collecting the warmth from the sun, the fire, the fish and filling out hearts with that good energy. The elders were honoured, and given a special place to site around the fire. The children and youth were honoured and acknowledged. All throughout the ceremony the speaker thanked us for our patience as these ceremonies and speeches needed to be done because of ancient protocol. Thanking the people present occurred many times throughout the day, acknowledging the role of each person involved was also an important part of the protocol.




It was a feast rich with the gifts of wholesome food--bannock and jam to start with, bison stew, deer stew, halibut soup, salmon, potatoes, beets, and salads made with ingredients from the DTESAK Garden. At the end of the meal coffee was poured into the fire as an offering to the spirits and the ancestors.

Ullie was asked to help with a children's ceremony to protect the garden. Flags in the four colours from the medicine wheel were tied to stakes from the salmon roast were pounded into the corners of the garden. Green for the plants of the earth (North), Blue for water (West), White for the clouds (South), and red for fire (East). This ceremony was filmed for a program on cable TV that teaches children how to speak Cree.


It was a day that exhausted in a good way and it also gave us memories that will sustain us for a long time. The resilience of the Musqueam nation, in particular was referred to and inspired me. What was once a thriving nation of 30, 000 was at it's low point only 90 people, but in spite of this they still managed to preserve their culture. This in itself is a miracle of stamina and strength.


In one simple ritual of gratitude we were asked to really live in a moment with each other in a circle in the garden, feeling the earth under our feet, enjoying the feeling of a full belly after the feast. We were asked to close our eyes and listen to the sounds of the garden and breathe in the fresh air. Then we acknowledged the gratitude for every one of the people around the circle and asked ourselves how it would be if this was the last meal we had ever eaten. A drummer closed this set of ceremonies with another blessing. These rituals were especially important now that the land is threatened for development. I noted a great sadness and seriousness in the eyes of the farm workers who have grown to love this farm so much.

What I realized on my bike ride back from the cemetery is that we need to keep each other in good form to organize and perform these community events. We need to feed each other, metaphorically and physically. This mid-life stage as an artist is especially important as we bear the brunt of the load of this responsibility at this age. If we let our health go--if we don't care for ourselves and each other, the culture will suffer. We're responsible for our bodies, our souls, ourselves--the whole she-bang. We--the eco-feminists at large need to create a healthy environment for spiritual cultural workers. Where do we begin? As witnesses to people like the Musqueam who can teach us some hard-won lessons in cultural survival.