There is never a time when we are not a participant in this world. Our mere presence in any place makes us a participant. So rule number one is “there is no outside.” In fact I think the very idea that we can somehow be separate from what is going on around is is actually a delusion and it causes great problems. It blinds us to our own influence in a field and it actually hides our own gifts and brilliance and denies them from being used as people find their way. In most indigenous cultures work with, there is …
On my way to Hawai’i, the big island to co-host a gathering called Beyond Sustainability: Creating a Community of Leadership based on a Platform of Reverance. This gathering has been several years in the making, and over the last two years I have been deeply involved in the design of the work, finding myself stopping and starting as we find the best way to bring high powered people together to connect existing work, explore indigenous worldviews and creating some coherent results that may positively affect the values that underlie consumer society. It is a hugely audacious reach that we are …
Most of the indigensous languages of British Columbia are in danger of disappearing. Generations of residential schools, policies of marginalization and adaptation to English speaking society have rendered most of our communities mute in their own tongue. When I work in most places the only language you ordinarily hear is a prayer from and Elder or a conversation between to elderly speakers. My friend Dustin Rivers is trying to change that. I’ve written before about how he is using an fun and interactive fluency game called Where Are Your Keys? To get people speaking his language, Skwxwu7mesh snichim, the language …
A beautiful extended reflection on the methodology of study in a coast Salish context from author Lee Maracle: The object of ‘study” from a Salish perspective is to discover another being in itself and for itself with the purpose of engaging it in future relationship that is mutually beneficial and based on principles of fair exchange. We study from the point of view, that there is something unknown to be discovered, that all life contains something cherished, but hidden from us and that if we observe from as many angles of perception that we can rally, engage one another in …
My friend Dustin Rivers is an inspiration. He’s an autodidact, an artist, a catalyst in his community. I’ve known him for about six years, since he was a young teenager. He has always had a remarkable presence and a strong voice and a deep commitment to the thriving resiliance of Skwxwu7mesh culture and language. Over the years he has been developing a number of his skills, including hosting skills so that he could lead community development efforts. He recently hooked up with Evan and Willem from Where Are Your Keys? a language fluency game that builds skills using sign language …