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Monthly Archives "October 2010"

Inspiring hope and change

October 22, 2010 By Chris Corrigan BC, Being, Collaboration, Community, Open Space, World Cafe One Comment

From my recent work in the labour movement, a quote to inspire you in your work for social change:

Howard Zinn: ”Ž”To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we… see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places–and there are so many–where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

I’m in Prince George today and tomorrow working with the BC Government Employees Union in a great regional conference that is looking at forging the links between unions and communities.  There is much organizing capacity and heart based action in the labour movement and much need on the ground here in the north of the province.  Putting one to work on the other is a huge and easy capacity building thing to do.

So today a cafe on where we can go to work in community to make a difference, and tomorrow a short Open Space for people to ground action and make some plans to get out there.

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A witness to history

October 20, 2010 By Chris Corrigan BC, Collaboration, First Nations, Open Space 4 Comments

In the middle of a four day gathering of indigenous child and family services organizations here in British Columbia.  I’m back in my room even though it’s after lunch and our meeting was supposed to have restarted because history just got made.

To understand what this means, you have to have an appreciation of how the state has related to indigenous communities in this country since colonization began.  The essence is that tools of law and legislation have been used repeatedly to deny the jurisdiction, rights and responsibilities of First Nations from nearly the moment European governments set eyes on this continent.  Nowhere has that become more of a hot point than with the issue of children.

For more than 100 years the stated policy of the federal governments was to place First Nations children into the care of the state and the churches by sending them to residential school.  The residential school system was designed originally to educate the “Indian out of the child” and to assimilate people by breaking up communities, punishing kids for speaking their language and subjecting them to slavery, by forcing them to work to keep the schools running.  This one policy alone has left a legacy of unhealthy family structures, weakened cultures and multiple generations of vulnerable children. When the provincial government stepped into to take responsibility for children in the 1960s the infamous “sixties scoop” happened whereby kids were removed from their families to be raised by non-native familes.  By the 1980s the sixties scoop had ended and the residential school system was shut down.  From that time onwards, Aboriginal kids were at the mercy of the non-Aboriginal child welfare system.  In BC alone, the percentage of kids in care who were Aboriginal skyrocketed to today where it is now more than 50%.

In the last 20 years, First Nations have become more proactive in creating their own child and family services agencies and taking back responsibility and later control over the system.  Starting at a historic meeting in 2002 in Tsawassen, BC, the provincial government began the process of recognizing the authority of First Nations communities to look after their kids.  A process that began in 2002 (which I was involved in primarily on Vancouver Island) saw the creation of regional authorities around the province to oversee the establishment of First Nations child welfare systems.  These authorities, had they been passed into law, would have taken all responsibility short of law making authority and placed it in the hand of communities through regional authorities.

The problem with the regional authority model was that it didn’t work well with the inherenet jurisdiction of the First Nations governments in BC.  Problems began to appear in 2007 between the provincial political leadership and the leaders of the regional authorities.  At the last minute, literally as the enabling legislation was to hit to the floor of the Provincial legislature, the provincial political leadership – against the wishes of many First nations cheifs – shut the process down.  For a couple of years we were back to the status quo, and things looked grim.

But behind the scenes, the provincial ministry of child and family development was working to transform the child and family services syste.  Led by a deputy minister, Leslie Du Toit, the ministry worked to help nations develop their own systems and did it from a position of recognizing the authority and jurisdiction of First Nations to care for their kids.  As a result the 15 and more projects that are gathered here got off the ground, reestablishing a child and familiy services system that is deeply ingrained in the cultural, spiritual and political power of the Nations themselves.  It has been a hugely decolonizing experience (the children of the Haida Nation even wrote their own declaration of their rights which is to be passed into law).

So things are ticking along and this has brought us to today where we have gathered 120 people to share their experiences and accelerate their work together.  It has been a good meeting so far, conducted in ceremony and working productively and positively.  Today the deputy minister made an announcement though that has rocked us all.  She announced today that provincial government was now opening the door for First Nations and Metis groups in BC to create their own legislation to replace the Child and Family Services Act and to enbale indigenous child and family services systems to be established and supported designed and delivered by the Nations themselves.  It is the first time anyone can remember the colonial government ever stepping out of the power they have and giving over the legislative jurisdiction to First Nations.

Suddenly our meeting has got a lot more interesting.  Accompanied by the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Shawn A-in-shut Atleo, she stood for the principle that only a system created by the people for whom is it intended will be the right system.  Everything we have been working towards suddenly is a reality.  The chiefs are excited, the people who have been developing and delivering the indigenous systems are elated that their work will be made the formal system for their people in the province and everyone is buoyed by the right thing happening at the right time.

Suddenly we are all on the same side.  My long time mate David Stevenson who is an Art of Hosting steward is right at the centre of the work in his job as the Executive Director of Aboriginal Services for the Ministry.  Many other people who were with us through the regionalization process on Vancouver Island including Marion Wright, Kyra Mason, Pearl Hunt, Bruce Parisian and others are here celebrating and preparing for the hard work ahead.  We are taking a break now while we get ready to go to the Sts’ailes longhouse for an evening of singing and speaking in ceremony.  Tomorrow when we come back to work, we’ve thrown out our agenda and will just spend a half day in Open Space to articulate the opportunities that we have among us, all of us hosting together the very first steps on what will become the next chapter in a historic journey.

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Twenty years of intense bliss

October 19, 2010 By Chris Corrigan Being, Poetry 2 Comments

October 19, 1990 in Peterborough, Ontario was a dark and cold autumn day with sleet falling and grim grey cloud.  The only light at all was the fact that I met my beloved partner Caitlin Frost that day.  Here is my anniversary poem for her.

On a sleet driven day
when the sky split into a million bits of darkness
and rained down on the groggy morning
I could never imagine
that what was falling
was me for you.

May you all know the love I have been lucky enough to be blessed with.

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Engaging from deep principles

October 19, 2010 By Chris Corrigan First Nations

Nenan is a child and family services initiative serving the treaty 8 region of northeastern BC.  Have a look at their work here for simple, direct, culturally based ways of engaging everyone in their community as they create a new system deeply rooted in culture and integrated world views.

Nenan has utilized the Circle of Rights Community Empowerment Process (formerly Triple A) in many communities in the north-east providing an invaluable wealth of information on the strengths, assets and resources- specifically culturally based, as well as risks and challenges to supporting children and families. A deep exploration of community values has also been undertaken providing a wonderful foundation from which systems and services will be built upon.

A grounding principle of the Circle of Rights approach is that the wisdom of Elders and community members,   including young people, will be central to the redesign of services for children and families to ensure the strengths of the past and present are respectfully applied to creating holistic, strength based services for children today and for generations to come

There is a fine art in doing this work to surface the values that are inherent in the language and way of life and translate them into principles and ways of working without trivializing them or minimizing them or creating boiler plate statements.  The 15 projects that are gathered here at the conference I am co-hosting in harrison Hot Springs are feeling their ways through, and producing marvelous work.

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Best line of the week

October 17, 2010 By Chris Corrigan Being

Lots of travel this week.  During the time I was away in Ontario working with labour educators from a number of Canadian unions I heard a great line from a Canadian Auto Workers educator that sustains him when he is challenged while doing good work: “You don’t always have to like th emembers, but you have to love them.”

I was reflecting on that line this week after I hosted an Open Space on Bowen Island, in my home community to provide a space for my neighbours to discuss a proposal to turn some of Bowen’s Crown Lands into a National Park.  The proposal has received a mixed reception among islanders, but there has been some outright hostility as well.  This week, a guy I consider a “howyadoin’?” friend, lambasted me for running a meeting that appeared to be “a ruse to appease the public.” I informed him that I was hosting the meeting all on my own, without anyone paying me to do so that a variety of views could be heard.  His response was still negative, but in the end, like my friend in the Auto Workers, I had to conclude you don’t have to like your fellow islanders, but you have to love them.

And God love them.

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