In 1996, I joined the federal treaty negotiation office as a public information and consultation advisor. One of the treaty tables I was working with was a small First Nation near Vancouver. My colleague at the Tsawwassen First Nation was a young communications officer called Kim Baird. Eleven years later, Kim has led her community to approve the first ever treaty negotiated under the BC Treaty Process. It has been a long ride, and Tsawwassen is bucking a lot of currents that suggest that the current treaty process is a hoodwink and a sham. I have my own feelings about …
Today is the national First Nations day of action, and there is certainly lots going on. Much of what makes the news will be the more dramatic events, blockades and protests. But here are some things friends of mine are up to that tells the story of what is happening away from the headlines across Aboriginal Canada: On the northern tip of Vancouver Island, the Gwa’Sala-Nakwaxda’xw communities are doing some cool stuff to record their history with the help of their kids. Elsewhere on Vancouver Island, if you didn’t yet see the video from VIATT’s celebration on June 8, you …
Tomorrow is a national day of action called by the Assembly of First Nations to draw attention to the situation of indigenous communities across this country. I’ll be at home with my family which is a good place to be tomorrow. Yesterday in downtown Victoria, I ran into the assistant deputy minister of children and family development, Deborah Foxcroft, the woman that originally brought me on to work at VIATT. She expressed concern at how much travelling I as doing and said “remember, we are working for our children and families, so make sure you don’t abandon yours.” It was …
Kaliya Hamlin is getting really noticed for her work promoting Open Space in the tech community. The whole idea of unconferencing has jumped the shark, but there is still an art to doing Open Space. It’s easy but not simple, and Kaliya has been a great guardian of the essence of the process as it grows into the tech world in a big way This article from the Business 2.0 blog is another piece of good attention being thrown her way. Actually there are a rash of articles out these days on Open Space, including one in a publication called …
Yesterday was National Aboriginal Day in Canada, a kind of pretend holiday which kicks off the 11 day period of Canadian national holidays. After this comes St. Jean Baptiste Day on June 24, celebrated as Quebec’s national holiday and then Canada Day on July 1. I spent the day working at VIATT, helping design the community structures for the transfer of the child and familiy services system to Aboriginal control. Meanwhile, up in Bella Coola, my friend Liz Hall was busy forwarding an interesting video to her friends about the disappearance of the eulachon from th Bella …