Events

The Beginning of Sounding the Bamboo

Sounding the Bamboo began at a place where people of many different backgrounds often meet-over food. At an ethnic dessert table in 1991 at the first national United Church consultation on multiculturalism, six racial/ethnic minority women in ordered and accountable ministry and theological education met together in the same place for the first time. They rejoiced in their discovery and re-discovery of one another in a church where they had met so very few women like them. They dreamed of a network and a forum where racial/ethnic minority women in various forms of United Church ministry could support one another in solidarity, learn from and strengthen one another, and encourage others in their leadership and/or pursuit of theological studies. Their dream was the beginning of Sounding the Bamboo.

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Why It Is Called Sounding the Bamboo

The first conference planning team members were Chinese, Filipino, Guyanese, Jamaican, Japanese, and Korean in heritage. All were racial minority women, yet were challenged to try to find common ground with so many different ethnic backgrounds and life experiences in Canada and in the United Church. While they agreed that being women bonded them together, it was not the only important thing they had in common. Gender and race and ethnicity could not be separated, as their shared life stories bore out.

They struggled to find an image that had more cultural integrity for them than the traditional images often used by majority women's groups, an image that truly reflected their common experiences. The image of bamboo was suggested in the title of an Asian hymnbook, "Sound the Bamboo." This was an image that strongly resonated with all the women. Bamboo was common to all the countries of their origin and ancestry, including Canada's West Coast.

Bamboo evoked many parallels with the planning team members' lives. This tropical grass can grow to be as tall as forest trees, yet with flexibility strong enough to build bridges. Its stalk is hollow and seeming to lack internal substance, yet through the emptiness of its centre, is capable of calling forth beautiful or insistent music when fashioned into a flute. Deceptively delicate in appearance when young, it is also used to sound a village alarm when mature. Its voices are many. And bamboo's ability to weather any storm comes from growing together in tight groves, each lending strength to another to survive and thrive.

Racial/ethnic minority women had been living out their ministries in the United Church in relative isolation, each apart from another. By coming together to grow with one another, Sounding the Bamboo became the place where they could build with their strengths and evoke the music that is their ministries by growing together in supportive community.

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The First Conference

This small gathering eventually gave shape to a national conference for racial/ethnic minority women in celebration of the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women. It was sponsored by the Division of Mission in Canada, the division responsible for supporting the work of ethnic ministries at that time. Held in Toronto in 1993, the first conference called together lay and ordered racial/minority women in the United Church. They came with stories and struggles to share to begin to analyze the issues and experiences of their varied ministry contexts with cultural integrity, and to strategize for their future ministries. Intentional shared leadership among the planning team modeled a sharing and discovery of individual and collective gifts, what the planners hoped the conference itself would become.

Over 60 women attended the first event: women from all across Canada and from many different ethnic backgrounds. It was a kairos moment. Storytelling, cultural sharing and celebration, laughter, tears, sharing of experiences of being racial ethnic minority women reflected the presence of God in many different contexts.

But there were racial tensions that took some by surprise. Also attending the first Conference were ten Anglo/European (White) women in ministry with ethnic minorities or married to a racial ethnic minority spouse. Their very presence was a threat to a few women whose experiences had taught them that they could not speak with their own true voice in the presence of White women.

These views were not fully shared by all but it became clear that the depths of the pain for some racial/ethnic minority women needed to be cared for in a safe place before it could be shared more widely. And all participants expressed the need for a safe space for the nurturing and cultivation of collective consciousness and identity that could be valued.

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What the Conference Has Become

Since then, Sounding the Bamboo has become a regular event that takes place every two or three years. When the Ethnic Ministries Council was inaugurated as a national United Church structure in 1996, Sounding the Bamboo became one of its important ministries.

The conference provides a supportive training ground for women to discover and affirm their gifts for leadership. When they go back to their communities and congregations, they go back with new skills to offer, new ways of doing their ministries. In the larger city centres, women have met in regional gatherings between conferences so that learnings and friendships can continue.

It has remained a place where racial/ethnic minority women in the United Church can gather to meet, sing, and worship in their many languages and cultures, and share their thoughts, experiences, and faith. Learning how to be in relationship with one another as racial/ethnic minority women helps each participant learn more about herself.

Slowly, and not without pain, Sounding the Bamboo began to define its constituency as racial /ethnic minority women (predominantly in Ethnic Ministries congregations) who need to gather together as a diverse group of women with a particular set of life experiences. This has not always been accepted by majority or minority women who feel that exclusion of racial/ethnic majority women is "racist," exclusive, and divisive.

There are many other church venues for total inclusion of women of all cultures and ethnicities. There are, however, few venues for racial/ethnic minority women to analyze their own contexts, to speak and sing in their own languages and rhythms, and to work through issues where they do not feel they have to educate or support their racial ethnic majority sisters at the expense of their own needs. Issues of racism, for example, are very different between Black and Asian women than between Black and White or Asian and White women.

Sounding the Bamboo continues to honour the need to provide a safe and accepting space for racial/ethnic minority women, and to give them the confidence and skills to participate in any wider church event.

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Building Relationships between Generations

A few young racial/ethnic minority women had attended the second conference, but in 1997 young women expressed the need to hold their own event. Under the banner of Sounding the Bamboo, a conference called Hot and Bothered, for young racial/ethnic minority women, was held at the same time and location alongside the third Sounding the Bamboo gathering held in Vancouver. From this experience, the young women chose to participate in the fourth Sounding the Bamboo conference held in Montréal. That conference became one that included women of all ages, with the young women holding their own caucus workshops. Several mothers and daughters attended together, and inter-generational/inter-cultural bridge-building began.

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Moving into the Future

Sounding the Bamboo continues to move from story sharing to story shaping; from raising up struggles of solidarity to raising up collective wisdom; from places of marginalization to places of inclusion and acceptance. Each conference gathering rises to meet new emerging needs, while keeping the lived realities of its women central. The "sound" of the bamboo may change, but the communities continue to grow together in shared solidarity.

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Goals for Sounding the Bamboo

(revised May 2006)

1. To provide meaningful time and a sacred space for intercultural, interracial, and intergenerational dialogue for "racialized"* women.
2. To educate ourselves about racial justice and gender justice in order to deepen our analysis of our experiences as "racialized" women, and feel empowered to faithfully minister.
3. To explore our unique identities as "racialized" women with different experiences.
4. To experience inspirational and culturally diverse worship to enrich our spiritual journeys as "racialized" women.
5. To develop proactive strategies to strengthen networks of "racialized" women in The United Church of Canada who can intentionally support one another in between Sounding the Bamboo national events.

* "Racialized" is a more inclusive term than racial/ethnic minority peoples, which includes both people of colour and Aboriginal peoples.

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Upcoming Events

• Sounding the Bamboo 2010