How pilgrims faced Small minded monk
SINGER Heather Small has revealed racism nearly ruined a spiritual journey for a BBC2 series.
The M People star was insulted about the colour of her skin at a monastery en route to Camino de Santiago in Spain.
But the support of her fellow celebrity travellers in Pilgrimage: The Road to Santiago, being screened on Friday, turned her negative experience into a highlight of the arduous journey.
Heather, 53, is one of seven stars who walk for a fortnight.
The others included Gogglebox priest Kate Bottley, humanist comedian Ed Byrne, non-religious Strictly finalist Debbie McGee and “spiritually confused” One Show reporter Raphael Rowe.
When Heather tells them how she has been offended by a male monastery worker, they all stand by her and leave immediately.
Heather says: “He only saw my colour and made assumptions and decisions about me.
“I could tell by the way he was speaking to me. It was a diss and on purpose.
“When you’re being treated as ‘other’, you always know. I could see the way he was dealing with the very fair Kate and then he’d look at me and it wasn’t quite the same. He asked where I came from and when I told him, he said, ‘I only know fairskinned people and fair-haired people from that region’.
“He was trying to offend me.” The monastery said there had been a misunderstanding caused by the language barrier.
Heather says: “Ed said ‘if she says she’s been offended then I know she’s been offended’.
“He was affirming me as a person, the whole group were saying, ‘yeah, she’s all right’. They trusted my judgment and my word. That was the biggest bonding experience for me.” The arduous trip was not a hit with all the celebs.
Priest Kate says: “I hated it with a passion. It was the hardest thing physically that I have ever done in my entire life – I’d rather give birth than do that again.”