Pilgrimage to the Sacramento River Delta

Our next PANA Delta Pilgrimage will be October 24-26, 2008.

Our journey, guided by Rev. Deborah Lee and FST professor Dr. Joanne Doi, will include:

  • Visit to Native American sacred sites
  • Walking tour of Little Manila in Stockton, CA, led by the Little Manila Foundation
  • Visit to the Stockton Gurdwara, the oldest Sikh temple in North America
  • Visit to Walnut Grove and the Walnut Grove Japanese-American Historic District
  • Visit with residents of Locke, California, the last remaining historic Chinese rural town
  • Ritual to honor the ancestors who lived and died in Sacramento River Delta

See full itinerary below.

Academic credit available  to GTU students (STRS-1392). Fall 2008 course description (STRS-1392) online here. 

Class sessions and pilgrimage are open to the public to attend. We ask that in order
to be adequately prepared, and for purposes of community formation,
that pilgrims please attend at least two of the Preparation Sessions
(classes Sep 13-Oct 11) and one of the Post Sessions (Nov 8 or 22). The application form for the pilgrimage is online here.

Course Dates & Pilgrimage Preparation Sessions

Five Saturdays and one Friday, 2:00- 5:00 pm
Plus three-day weekend pilgrimage.

For sessions in San Francisco, carpooling or BARTing together is available. Contact Deborah Lee, dlee@psr.edu, 510-849-8260, for details.

Session #1: “California Immigrant Histories and Theologies.”

September 13, 2008
PSR Mudd building Room 103
Speaker:  Dr. Joanne Doi

Session #2: “The Latino Community & Immigration Today”

September 20
Visit to San Francisco Mission District. Meet at 3106 Folsom Street (at Cesar Chavez Ave) in San Francisco.
Speakers: 
Francisco Herrera of Caminante Cultural Work
Bette Canton-Self of Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights

Session #3, part 1: “Understanding the Impact of the Gold Rush on California Native Peoples”

September 26 *Note! This session meets on a Friday 2:00-5:00pm, not Saturday.
PSR Mudd building, Room 103
Speakers: Educators Corrina Gould and Zoe Holder
(See notes from previous pilgrimage.)

Part 2: “Religious Life of Immigrant Communities in the West”

PSR Mudd building, Room 103
Speaker: PSR professor Dr. Randi Walker

Session #4, part 1: “History of the Chinese in the Sacramento River Delta”

October 11
Meet in San Francisco Chinatown, at the Chinese Historical Society of America, 965 Clay Street, 94108
Speaker: historian Lucky J. Owyang

Part 2: “Filipino Farmworker Stories”

Speaker: Staff of Manilatown Center

Pilgrimage to the Sacramento River Delta

October 24-26 
Depart from PSR on Friday at 2:00pm, return Sunday 6:00pm. See full itinerary below.

Sessions #5 and #6: “Promise and Return”

November 8 and 22
PSR PANA House


Sacramento Delta Pilgrimage Itinerary: October 24-26, 2008 

(be advised that on pilgrimage, things may change)

Friday:  

1:30 pm  
Please gather at 1:30 pm for loading. Pacific School of Religion (1798 Scenic Ave. Berkeley, CA 94709)

2:00 pm
Depart Berkeley

4:00 pm           
Arrive in Stockton – Opening & Group Process at the Central United Methodist Church (3700 Pacific Ave.)

5:30 pm           
Ritual of Remembrance at Stockton Elementary School where 22 Cambodian schoolchildren were shot in 1988

6:00 pm           
Potluck dinner with Cambodian church communit

7:30 pm           
Presentation and story of the Native peoples of this land – with representatives of the Ione Community & Silversprings Rancheria

9:00 pm           
Closing Ritual

Saturday:

9:30 am           
Presentation in Little Manila in Stockton

12:00 pm         
Visit and lunch with the Stockton Sikh Gurdwara

2:30 pm           
Ritual stop at the Franklin Cemetery- where many Chinese are buried

4:00 pm           
Walking tour of Walnut Grove Japantown

6:00 pm           
Dinner at Walnut Grove Presbyterian Church

7:00 pm           
Small group reflection time & sharing of creative presentations

Sunday:           

9:30 am           
Presentation in Locke

12:00 pm         
Flower Ritual on the Sacramento River “Remembering the Ancestors of the Delta” (+ lunch on Boat)

3:00 pm           
Closing Reflections and Closing Ritual

6:00 pm           
Arrive at Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley


History of the Delta Pilgrimage

On March 29–30, 2008 (Cesar Chavez Day weekend) PANA led our first educational pilgrimage to the Sacramento River Delta, tracing the footsteps of the Chinese and Filipino people who worked as immigrant or migrant rural labor in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta area.

We journeyed to remember the rural labor experience, to regain our collective memory, to heal from the pain of transnational migration, and reconnect to history.

We focused on the Chinese and Filipino migrant laborers of the 1860s–1940s, and named sacred sites in this history, both physical and spiritual. We visited the Native American history and sense of land; took a river trip by boat to remember watery journeys from the Bay to the Delta; explored the sense of place — the ecology, the levees; met residents of Locke, California, the last remaining historic Chinese rural town; shared a dusk ritual on the river levee banks; honored Little Manila in Stockton, California, 1920–1950, the largest community of Filipino descent in America; and listened to contemporary immigrant and rural workers.

This Delta Pilgrimage (2008) was inspired by our PANA Pilgrimages to Manzanar (2006–present), which was inspired by the Manzanar Community Pilgrimages (1969–present), which was inspired by the United Farm Workers peregrinación/pilgrimage from Delano to Sacramento (1966).