Good steady rain fills our creeks with whispers that will bring our salmon home. # RT @JustASpur: The most bizarre penalty ever? And it resulted in the keeper's team being knocked out of the Cup! http://youtu.be/0MaLGdC3als # Arrived in Kuujjuaq…very warm here in this dusty northern Quebec town. Busy place and lots of blackflies around too. # Eating hummus and rice crackers at the Kuujjuaq Inn while designing a meeting with polar bear hunters. Incongruous is how the North does it. # Stunning morning in Kuujjuaq. No wind and a bright blue sky with a hard sun to warm the …
Our meeting ended well today. The hunters continued to deliberate this morning and true to their pattern they drafted a couple of resolutions and presented them to government. The meeting was considered a success in that it was the first time polar bear hunters came from Nunasiavut, Nunavik and Nunavut to connect and share stories and work together on their issues. A unified statement came from the gathering which was the result of their deliberations together. As it went yesterday, I did very little “facilitation” today except to simply hold space and observe the dynamics. I’ll have a little more …
This week I am in Kuujjuaq, Quebec, a settlement which lies about 20 miles upriver from Ungava Bay. I am working with government agencies, Inuit claims organizations and Inuit polar bear hunters on a user-to-user meeting between hunters from Nunavut, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut. Nunavut is a Canadian territory, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut are sort of semi-autnomous Inuit regions of Quebce and labrador respectively. All three areas arose from the settlement of land claims with Inuit organizations. It’s an interesting meeting. All of the hunters are Inuit and they all hunt polar bears in the Davis Strait area, but they have different …
Meetings reflect the basic operating system of a group of people. In organizations where power dynamics are heavily at play you will see lots of meetings chaired by those with the power. In flat organizations, circles and open space events are probably more the norm. Communities meet in all kinds of different ways, but essentially a meeting is a good way to make the operating system visible. A great deal of the work I do involves helping organizations and communities shift to more participatory meeting processes. It isn’t always easy, and today I had one of those days when the …
Spent a lovely evening last night playing tunes with friends new and old at The Snug Coffeehouse on Bowen Island. Every so often, a couple of times a month or so, we gather there on a Saturday night to play Irish and Scottish tunes. Last night my old friend Dave Marshall showed up, which was lovely. He and I were regulars at the famous Tuesday night session at the Irish Heather in Vancouver in the mid to late 1990s. Last night though was the first time I have ever played with Jocelyn Pettit. Jocelyn, who is all of 16 years …