Lesson video

Hi everyone, and welcome to lesson 2 of The Refugee Tales with me Mrs. Kuhivchak.

Last lesson we learned a little bit about refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

This lesson, we're going to be learning about pilgrimage and what pilgrimages are and why and how pilgrimages relate to refugees.

I hope you're ready to learn and I hope you'll enjoy.

For this lesson you will need: A pen, paper, and very importantly, your brain.

If you don't have a pen or something to write on, pause the video now and go and get them.

I'm going to take you through today's agenda.

First we're going to learn about the term pilgrimage; what a pilgrimage is and also what pilgrimage looks like today.

We're going to think about what the pilgrimage in The Refugee Tales is for and finally what the Prologue is actually about.

As usual, at the end of the lesson, there will be a little quiz for you to reflect on your learning and see how much you've learned today.

First thing to think about then, is the word "pilgrimage".

That might be a new word for you, which is absolutely fine, but you might have heard it before.

Take a moment to think about whether you've heard the word "pilgrimage" and whether you have a sense of what it means and if you do, write some quick bullet points, maybe thinking about what pilgrimage is, or the kinds of people who go on one.

So, the official definition of pilgrimage is on the screen.

A pilgrimage, to start with, is a long journey, usually to a sacred place.

And by sacred, we usually mean a place that's very important or has some association with religion.

And that journey is done in order, possibly, to prove some kind of religious devotion or to discover some kind of new meaning in life.

If you look at the images on the bottom of the screen, they'll help you to remember what pilgrimage is as we go through this lesson.

So why go on a pilgrimage? We're going to talk about some of the reasons and motivations different kinds of people might have for taking a pilgrimage.

Now it's important to say, that you don't actually need a clear reason to go on a pilgrimage and you don't need to be a particular kind of person.

And even though a pilgrimage is described as a journey and is traditionally done on foot, in the modern era, there are plenty of different ways to travel and it doesn't just have to be a journey that's just done on your feet.

However, there are some common themes that people have who go on pilgrimages and these are some of them.

The first one, is of course, the idea that a pilgrimage is a religious journey and a pilgrim might take a journey as part of their religious devotion.

We'll talk a little bit about this later, when we talk about particular pilgrimages that some people do go on.

However, it might not just be a religious reason.

It might be simply a way of exploring a new place.

Particularly if somebody moves to a new country or a new place and wants to get to know it better.

It might be a journey that fulfils some kind of personal goal.

Now that could be fitness and exercise or it could be something more psychological, something to do with their personal life, and it could be private, something that doesn't get shared with everyone.

But regardless, it doesn't have to be part of religion and it doesn't have to be something that is displayed or talked about it could just be something that you want to do.

Another benefit is, of course, to meet other pilgrims. So, you might be able to meet other people, going on a similar journey, with similar motivations, and learn a bit about who they are.

Or, you might discover that people have very different motivations to you and enjoy learning learning about their motivations.

Regardless, it's a way of being social and maybe meeting people who have something in common with you.

You might take a pilgrimage at a particular life stage.

And by that I mean, possibly, a birthday, as somebody gets older, or just possibly a kind of change that might have happened in your life and it gives people a change to reflect, and process those events that have happened to you.

Lastly, and this is important for thinking about the Prologue.

Pilgrims are allowed to seek sanctuary in a safe place.

And by that, we mean have shelter, food, and protection from anyone who's following them.

Traditionally, pilgrims who travel on a pilgrimage, are allowed to stop and rest at different places on the way.

And they'll be welcomed by other pilgrims and feel that they are comfortable and protected.

This in particular applies to refugees and we're going to think about that later in our lessons.

About how refugees travel and how a pilgrimage to a safe place might be part of their lives too.

I'm going to take you through several examples of particular pilgrimages that happen in the modern day.

The first one we're going to explore is The Pilgrims Way, Canterbury.

This pilgrimage is a Christian pilgrimage which started a very long time ago in 1172.

And the route that this pilgrimage takes is travelling between Winchester and Canterbury to the shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral.

That route, in total, is 153 miles.

Which normally equates, when walking, to about 15 days of travel.

And it was made famous particularly by Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

The second pilgrimage example we're going to look at today is the Hajj in Saudi Arabia.

This is a Muslim pilgrimage to the city of Mecca, the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad.

Hajj is ideally done at least once in a lifetime for most Muslims. And every year, it's performed annually in the final month of the Islamic Calendar.

It's been running since the time of Abraham, but was reinstated by the Prophet Muhammad.

And overall, the pilgrimage rituals last between 5 and 6 days.

My third example is the Camino de Santiago, Spain.

A Catholic pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and the shrine of St James.

This pilgrimage has several routes you can travel from France or Portugal to Spain.

And again, this is an old pilgrimage that began in 814.

At it's longest, the route is 610 km.

And you'll often notice pilgrims who are travelling this way because the symbol of the pilgrimage is a scallop shell.

And they may be carrying one with them back from their pilgrimage.

Now is a chance for you to think about all of those facts about pilgrimages and a chance for you to test your knowledge.

On the screen you will see 5 statements and you'll have to think about whether they are true or false.

I would jot down the numbers 1 to 5 and the next to them write "T" or "F" depending on whether you think the following statements are true or false.

Feel free to pause the video at any point to give you more time to think.

Statement 1: You need a clear reason to go on a pilgrimage Statement 2: There is no limit to the number of pilgrimages you can take in a single lifetime.

Number 3: Pilgrimages can only be done by religious people Number 4: Pilgrimages are only valid if you walk the whole way by foot.

And Number 5: Pilgrimages have been taken by many people from different backgrounds over hundreds of years.

Pause the video, have a think about whether these statements are true or false.

Now let's go through the answers.

Number 1: It's false that you need a clear reason to go on a pilgrimage.

Many people do, but that's not a requirement to take a journey.

Number 2 was True.

There is no limit to the number or kind of pilgrimages someone can take in a single lifetime.

Someone can take a pilgrimage every year, or take a pilgrimage only once and it doesn't matter so long as it's what they wanted to do and what was important to them.

It's also false that pilgrimages can only be done by religious people.

You don't need a religious reason to go on a pilgrimage.

It's also false that they're only valid if you walk the whole way by foot.

In the modern world that would be pretty inconvenient, given the amount of travel options we have.

Pilgrimages are not about how you get there, really, it's about the fact that you go in the first place.

Finally, it's true that for many hundreds of years pilgrimages have been by people from many different backgrounds.

Many of the pilgrimages that we discussed have been happening for hundreds of years.

And for that reason, they've become more and more important over time as it's an experience that can be shared with people from the past, and potentially, in the future too.

So, what has pilgrimage got to do with The Refugee Tales? Well, we've talked about how pilgrims are on a long journey.

In fact, that pilgrims can often seek sanctuary, that is find a place where they feel protected.

The Refugee Tales takes stories from refugees from across the world who have come to the UK and shares what's happened to them to a wider audience.

Now, these refugees that we're discussed in the poem, are often travelling from very far away places.

They're often seeking help and shelter from something or someone that's persecuting them.

Often when they get to the UK, that's not the end of their story.

The journey that they've had in life have been very, very difficult.

But there's no easy solution at the end.

And in many of the stories and in the poem, we'll discover that somethings can be very challenging indeed.

In particular, there's the idea of this indefinite detention where refugees don't know what's going to happen to them as they claim asylum and wait to hear back.

This was why The Refugees Tales was written.

To think about the plight of these people and what can be done to protect them while they wait to hear the verdict on their future.

Here is a statement from the back of the book about why The Refugee Tales was written in the first place.

I'm going to read it to you and then explain some of the vocabulary.

We're told the in the book, "poets and novelists create a space in which the stories of those who have been detained can be safely heard, a space in which hospitality is the prevailing discourse and listening becomes an act of welcome." Now what this really means is that the book was published to listen to the stories of detainees, that is refugees who have been detained in a detention centre, with nowhere else to go.

And the idea that hospitality is the prevailing discourse means that actually these are people who should be welcomed rather than being challenged about why they are there.

The book was published to welcome people to the UK rather than making them feel threatened or unsafe.

Because of course, like pilgrims, they've travelled a long way and they're seeking refuge and a place of sanctuary.

The Refugee Tales is inspired by Chaucer's Prologue from The Canterbury Tales.

This might be a text you've heard of or you might have never heard of it before.

A prologue just means an introduction to a longer text "Logue" or "Logue" means speech and "Pro" means before.

So it means the first part that introduces the rest.

In Chaucer's Prologue, which is his introduction to a very long poem, Chaucer tells the tale of different pilgrims travelling to the city of Canterbury.

He explains who they are and what their motivations are.

And we learn a bit about their past and think about their motivations for travelling.

In The Canterbury Tales the story starts off in spring which actually makes sense because you don't really want to travel in winter, when it's cold.

So traditionally pilgrims in England would travel in Spring, a time when it started to be warm, and that they knew there'd be good weather for a pilgrimage.

After the Prologue, each pilgrim, having been introduced, they decide to compete to tell their best tales.

Because actually, a long journey can be quite boring and they decide to do this as a kind of entertainment.

Therefore you could say that Chaucer's Prologue to the The Canterbury Tales is designed, not only to talk about different pilgrims, but really to entertain and amuse people.

Possible people who have never been on a pilgrimage themselves but might like to learn about it.

The Prologue in The Refugee Tales is inspired by Chaucer's Prologue.

It uses something called intertextual references.

And intertextual references are where a text borrows ideas, or even words, from another text.

So what we have in The Refugee Tales are references to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales about pilgrims. However, it's different because it tells us about modern pilgrims, meaning asylum seekers to the UK.

And you'll remember from our previous lesson, that asylum seekers are those who are seeking refugee status, which means the right to be protected from persecution.

In The Refugee Tales Prologue, you have a combination of Modern English with Chaucer's Middle English.

Middle English being English spoken in the time of Chaucer with a lot of French influences.

And the message of this prologue, asks us not to be entertained with these stories of refugees because actually, they're not entertaining.

It wants us to sympathise with them.

To think about the kinds of situation that they're in and also inspire us to help.

Now, on the screen you'll see a table with 2 columns.

In these columns I've got statements comparing and contrasting The Canterbury Tales with The Refugee Tales.

I've filled in some of the columns for you and I've also put in statements that need to be finished off.

At this point, pause the screen and try to finish off these sentences comparing the 2 different tales with each other.

Now, well done if you got these answers.

Some of these were more challenging than others.

We looked at The Refugee Tales and The Canterbury Tales.

The Refugee Tales, you may remember, was written by different writers and poets, while The Canterbury Tales was written by Chaucer, one author.

Chaucer was writing in Middle English whereas The Refugee Tales, published very recently, was written in Modern English that we speak.

Whereas The Refugee Tales tells the stories of asylum seekers to the UK, The Canterbury Tales tells the story of pilgrims going to Canterbury, the clue's in the title.

And finally, while The Canterbury Tales is written to entertain readers with different pilgrim stories, The Refugee Tales is really written to educate and inform readers about refugees in the UK.

Well done if you got those answers right.

Now, on the screen you'll see 3 sentences that you can finish off in your own words.

You can pause the screen here and have a go at finishing these off yourself.

I'll read them to you if you need to think about them while you write.

Number 1: Pilgrimages are taken for a variety of reasons, such as.

Number 2: Chaucer's Prologue is about.

And number 3: The Refugee Tales Prologue is designed to get us to think about.

What do you think you could finish those sentences off with? Now here are the answers that I filled in, but don't worry if you didn't get the same ones, there's always more than one answer, so long as you can explain it clearly.

Sentence 1 I finished of with "Pilgrimages are taken for a variety of reasons such as religious devotion, personal goals or to seek sanctuary." It's absolutely fine if you put some different reasons as we did go through quite a few reasons at the beginning of this lesson.

Number 2: Chaucer's Prologue is about pilgrims on their way to Canterbury.

And finally, The Refugee Tales Prologue was designed to get us to think about the situation of refugees in the UK.

You might also have put asylum seekers which is absolutely fine.

Now next time, we're going to carry on thinking about the Prologue in Refugee Tales and we'll think about how the poem is designed to get us to sympathise with refugees.

We're going to think about the power of stories and how they can change our mind about people in situations, even if we were sure we right in the first time.

We're going to look at some of the languages used and think about how that affects us emotionally.

I hope you enjoyed today's lesson and remember, at the end of this lesson to go through and click on the quiz so you can see how much you've learned today.

Well done for listening and I hope you enjoy the rest of your learning for today.