There is a great flowering of dialogic facilitation training this month around these parts in southern British Columbia and northern Washington State. First Peggy Holman and Tom Cato are offering an Appreciative Inquiry training in Seattle from October 18-21.
Following that, Toke Paludan Moeller and friends will be right here on Bowen Island offering the excellent Art of Hosting gathering which I can highly recommend. That workshop will run October 30 to November 3 which is a great time to be here on our island, as we celebrate Hallowe’en as a quasi-national holiday. That workshop will also feature an alumni gathering that I’ll be at on November 2 and 3.
Finally, you can top off your learning month with an Open Space practice workshop offered by myself and Wendy Farmer-O’Neil in Nanaimo from November 15-17.
Port Alberni, BC
I am on the road here, travelling around Vancouver Island hosting conversations with people about what seems like an impossible future.
And as we move into discussions about the work we are doing, I find myself more and more focused on finding the questions that help us discern these two subtle presences: the seed of the emergent future crossing the abyss back to our present moment, and the place where our feet fall on the other side of that abyss, the place where we our hearts are all ready present in that desired future.
I am facilitating conversations that, if done well, simply give us a taste, tune our palettes and turn us into gourmands of the possible.
This is all very tricky, yet so rich.
I was saddened to learn today that Bernie Whiteford – Wap-Pisk-Ki-Kakiw Isqueo (White Raven Woman) – passed away on April 28. Her obituary at RedwayBC mentions a short illness.
Bernie was a strong advocate for the rights of Aboriginal women in BC and was the executive director of the Helping Spirit Lodge Society.. Helping Spirit Lodge is an organization on the front lines of stopping violence and creating healthy families and communities. It is an important part of the Vancouver Aboriginal community and Bernie was a key voice in that community. I knew her from various community events I facilitated and work I did on child welfare over the years. She’ll be missed greatly.
As a musician one of my favourite things about the web is the way we can trade music on it. I am a music junky and with the rise of file sharing technology, my ears have opened wide at what is out there.
I’ve been toying around with Webjay for a while, which is a way of compiling playlists of music all of which, in my case, is offered free and legally by artists, record labels and others. I have two playlists in the “Little Projects” section to the left, one which is a small collection of Canadian songs and another which is my ever changing top 40 of world music. To those I now add this playlist, the soundtrack of Parking Lot, in which you may find a nice variety of tunes offered somewhat in the spirit of my favourite radio show, Late Junction from BBC Radio Three.
And so I’ll launch this soundtrack with this piece called “Here we Come Around” from Dear Nora.
The group of Aboriginal youth I have been working with, Building Our Legacy Together, have had a busy winter, and their activities were recently summarized in this report from coordinator Crystal Sutherland:
“Youth � Building Our Legacy TogetherPawatskwachilth Haiyupis, Crystal Sutherland (Ahousaht) and the 15 member provincial BOLT Executive have successfully hosted the first forum in Fort Rupert Big House located on the Kwakiutl reserve just outside Port Hardy. The purpose of the forum was for Aboriginal youth to identify issues and have the opportunity to make recommendations to federal departments as well as introduce and engage Aboriginal youth with Aboriginal Leadership and elders. Over 120 youth, elders and leaders participated in the event.
Invited guests were: Shawn Atleo – BC AFN, Patrick Kelly – INAC Deb Foxcroft – Vancouver Island Aboriginal Transitional Team, Harley Wylie – BC Aboriginal Network on Disability Society, Lorraine Calderwood-Parsons – Office for the Child and Youth, Peter Knox – Hereditary Chief, Basil Ambers – Fort Rupert Elder, Stanley Sam – Ahousaht Elder, Archie Thompson – Toquaht Elder.
One of the immediate outcomes from the Fort Rupert BOLT forum was the engagement and participation of a group of teens from the Fort Rupert reserve in a band council meeting the week following the BOLT forum.
The next steps are:
- To secure funding for the ongoing activities for 5 more forums across BC in Kamloops, Prince George, Skidegate, Chehalis and one provincial forum to follow-up.
- The BOLT Youth Executive will have a strategic planning session to determine our next steps.
- Create the BOLT for Youth Foundation to grant funds to youth designed projects in BC First Nations communities.
Many committed people worked hard to make this event a success. We would like to take this time to thank and acknowledge the supporters of the BOLT initiative:
Kleco (thank you) to the Fort Rupert Hereditary Chiefs for allowing us to meet in their Big House, Kleco to Chief and Council for donating their facilities, Kleco to the Fort Rupert Elders and singers for sharing their prayer, song and dance with the BOLT participants, to the volunteers and to the Fort Rupert community for their generous hospitality and for looking after their territory. Kleco to the Vancouver Island Youth Task Group for volunteering countless hours to design and deliver the forum, to the youth keynote speakers whose stories inspired the youth participants, to Chris Corrigan for facilitating, to leadership who listened with understanding, to Patrick Kelly for taking photographs that tell our story, to all our sponsors who made this event possible – BCAFN, INAC, VIATT, Inter-tribal health authority, sacred wolf friendship centre, Ha’sa Program, and RedWayBC. Kleco to the caterers for keeping us nourished to do this good work, to the chaperons for caring for the youth and keeping them safe and to Joan Calderhead for advising and mentoring us. Lastly, Kleco to all the young participants who took the time to share and voice the serious issues (suicide prevention, teen pregnancy, children in care, addictions, sexual abuse, decolonization etc…) that must be addressed in order to create healthier communities for future generations and the Elders who provided support, love and traditional knowledge to the youth in these heavy discussions.
On March 2nd at the Economic Opportunities Roundtable, the following supporters each donated $500.00 and put the challenge out to other Chiefs and Aboriginal Financial Institutions. The BOLT Youth Executive would like to acknowledge and thank the following contributors:
Chief Shane Gottfriedson – Kamloops Indian Band, Chief Gary Oker – Doig River First Nation, Chief Jerry Asp – Tahltan Band, Keith Matthews – Community Future�s Lawrence Lewis – Bute Inlet Development Corporation, Chief Barry Seymour – Lheidli Tenneh Band. A special acknowledgement and thanks to the BCTC for their $10,000 donation!
This whole project is youth led and youth organized. They are attracting the resources they need through invitations to work together like this one. If you would like more information about these guys, or see a way to contribute to their work, get in touch with me and I’ll hook you up.
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