Believers pray on 1,300 km trek

Page 8

Sitting in the shade of her tent, 53-year-old Margaret St. Pierre munched reflectively on a piece of dried meat. The Wollaston Lake, Sask. woman was thinking about the significance of her 63-day, 1,300 km pilgrimage to Lac Ste. Anne.

St. Pierre, the oldest of the seven women to complete the journey, said she and Marie Bonnie, Bernadette Tsannie, Sarah Tsannie, Marlene Kkaikka, Annie Dzeylion, and Susan Hansen did a lot of praying during their two-month trek to Lac Ste. Anne, 80 km west of Edmonton.

"Sometimes we said the Rosaries four times a day," she said. "Other times we said nothing at all."

Begun by Oblate priest father Jean-Marie Lestanc in 1889 as a tribute to Jesus' grandmother, Ste. Anne, the five-day Lac Ste. Anne pilgrimage attracts thousands of worshippers from across North America. Many of them come to bathe in the lake, known for its healing powers.

This year, St. Pierre is one of the 30,000 who have come to bathe in the lake. She hopes the waters will heal the ache in her left, which was broken three years ago.

"I have metal pins in my leg. It still bothers me." Like many others, she will take a jar of the sacred water home to use in medicines.

Marlene Kkaikka, 26, said its the first time any women from her Chipewyan band have walked to the lake. The group, accompanied by 13-year-old Georgie Dzeylion, followed the footsteps of men from their band who made the pilgrimage two years ago from their home, 600 km north of Prince Albert, Sask.

Averaging 25 km a day, the women dealt with snow, rain, wind, bugs, blisters and sore legs as they walked through La Ronge, Meadow Lake, Cold Lake, and Redwater. Kkaikka said prayers carried them through the low times.

"When we felt weak, we prayed to the Lord for strength, and we carried a statue of the Virgin to keep us walking," she said. "We also told lots of jokes."

The group collected $1,700 along the way from drive-by donators. Kkaikka said the money is going towards the Wollaston Lake reserve church.

"We're going to build a bigger one," she said.

Kkaikka said the best part about the walk was learning traditional skills from the older women at night as they rested and camped under the stars.

"I learned to scrape bear skins, how to sew, and how to tell stories," she said. "Now I can pass it on to my kids."

Kkaikka and St. Pierre both said the hardest part of the lengthy pilgrimage was leaving their children on the reserve. But it helped to have their husbands, who were driving the supply trucks bearing walk-a-thon banners, with them.

"They set up camp and did all the cooking," St. Pierre said with a grin, adding that the women will drive home with their husbands and children, who met them at the lake.

Relaxing with family members in a sea of tents, the women contemplate their reasons for their journey as religious prayer, blasted from loudspeakers, wafts through the hot July air.

Kkaikka, who is on her first pilgrimage, said it's time for spiritual renewal and religious reflection. St. Pierre, who has been to the pilgrimage several times, is also here for spiritual fulfillment. But she said walking the 1,300 km hasn't heightened the experience for her.

"For me it's the same. Some women walk to thank the Lord. For others, is a personal way of sacrifice. And some just do it because it's in their head.