Ways of worship

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This article was published 05/12/2015 (3940 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Winnipegger Ivana Yellowback participates in a traditional aboriginal smudging, she feels the doors open to the spirit world.

Now she hopes sharing her traditional Cree practice through a five-minute video may open doors to religious understanding — all across the country.

“I already work with young people and do a lot of ceremonies, so I thought ‘Why not broadcast to a wide audience?’ ” says the 23-year-old University of Winnipeg student of filming traditional aboriginal smudging and pipe ceremonies.

Yellowback is one of seven Canadians — and two Winnipeggers — featured in The Faith Project, a multimedia interfaith initiative to explore religious practice and identity and promote discussion, developed by the National Film Board in conjunction with Canadian Race Relations Foundation.

In a video filmed in March 2014, Rev. Allison Chubb, an Anglican chaplain at the University of Manitoba, and editor of the Rupert’s Land News, leads a chapel service and discusses the meaning of the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist.

Designed for the Apple iPad tablet, and also available online, the seven films and the links within offer an “immersive media experience” of religious rituals through the experience of seven Canadians, explains NFB producer Lea Marin.

“What it allows for is Canadians to have a deeper understanding of faith practices,” she says of the videos and educational resources offered through the free app and the website.

So far, the app is only available for iPad, but may be developed for other platforms in the future, says Marin.

People such as Yellowback and Chubb were chosen to tell their personal stories of prayer and ritual, but were not expected to speak on behalf of everyone in their own faith community, says Marin.

That personal approach allayed Chubb’s initial fears of having to represent all Anglicanism as well as the entire Christian community, and allowed her the freedom to communicate how people of her generation are committed and active in their faith.

“I would hope that people can see that young, intelligent, post-moderns are not only just as spiritual as their predecessors, but can be religious,” says Chubb, 29, who bears a tattoo reading “Welcome all as Christ” on the inside of her left forearm.

“And being religious doesn’t mean being closed.”

In Canada, the conversation about difference and acceptance has recently moved from multicultural circles to interfaith ones, making it critical to understand the religious beliefs and practices of our fellow citizens, says Anita Bromberg of the Toronto-based Canadian Race Relations Foundation.

“It reminds us we are all different but we share some common ideas that will weave us into Canada as a whole,” says the former Winnipegger, who describes herself as having Jewish roots.

“The more we understand each other, the better we can live together.”

Both Chubb and Yellowback plan to use the app and website in their work with youth and young adults, hoping to explain their own traditions, as well as those of fellow Canadians.

“I think to be human is to be a spiritual being,” Chubb says of the distinction people sometime make between religion and spirituality.

“To engage in religious language and religious practice and community, that’s how we engage in spirituality.”

For the NFB’s Marin, the end of a project that has been several years in the making is also the beginning of a spiritual quest. Raised Roman Catholic, but now not observant, she says her work with The Faith Project has encouraged her to take another look at her own beliefs.

“I’m looking at faith again and the role it plays in the lives of citizens.”

That role is as varied as the citizens themselves. As a member of Manto Sipi Cree Nation, Yellowback leads pipe ceremonies, but she understands other First Nations communities have different practices and traditions around women’s roles in pipe ceremonies.

The message she received from her own community underlines the purpose of The Faith Project: respect the beliefs and practices of all traditions.

“Whatever you’re taught, hold on to, but if you go to another nation, do what they do out of respect,” she says.

brenda@suderman.com

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