{"id":2383,"date":"2009-10-22T21:23:15","date_gmt":"2009-10-23T05:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/?p=2383"},"modified":"2010-07-02T09:52:18","modified_gmt":"2010-07-02T17:52:18","slug":"family-as-organizing-principle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/family-as-organizing-principle\/","title":{"rendered":"Family as organizing principle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_5345\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This week I had the tremendous privilage to facilitate two days of Open Space for Xyolhemeylh, the Aboriginal child and family services agency in the Fraser Valley, east of Vancouver. \u00a0The agency has been going through a lot of turmoil over the past few years, and has come to a point of reinvention. The theme of the gathering was “Reclaiming our Journey” and it marked a significant transition for the organization as it headed into community control from being managed by the provincial government for the past 2.5 years. \u00a0The point of the Open Space meetings were to invite the Elder’s staff and Board of the organization to reflect on the values that the organization wanted to name for itself as it moved forward. \u00a0Over two days 140 people participated in the two back to back open space gatherings. \u00a0Forty discussion groups were held on values that staff in particular felt were important to take forward. \u00a0There was lots of laughter (especially from the the group on “laughter!”) and some very important healing took place.<\/p>\n

Our gathering was held in the community at Tzeachten, a small First Nation in Sardis near Chillliwack. \u00a0The event was held in a ceremonial container over the whole two days, with traditional protocols being in place, “floor managers” operating to keep things happening in a good way and Elders actively involved in witnessing what was happening. \u00a0All of these activities are deeply traditional Coast Salish ways of working, taken directly from the longhouse protocols<\/a> and they are deeply important to the organization.<\/p>\n

Heln and Herb Joe, two Elders I have tremendous respect for, held the space over the two days while I simply ran the process. \u00a0In the middle of the second day, a full blown ceremony broke out, as the outgoing director was honoured for her work and the incoming director was given his proper welcome. \u00a0Witnesses were appointed, songs were sung and many many gifts were given as the two individuals were honoured. \u00a0Many teachings were shared during this two hour ceremony that just appeared in the middle of the day, but the most important one I think has to do with the fact that this agency, responsible for hundreds of children, and employing 150 staff, is considered a family.<\/p>\n

“Xyolhemeylh” the word talks about the relationship between a parent and a child, and is a word that describes the quality of this relationship, full of care. \u00a0The name is also carried by an individual, although it seems not be at present. \u00a0This creates a very different form of organizational design. \u00a0In Sto:lo culture, there is no word for adoption as there is no way for a child to be outside of family. \u00a0Family is all encompassing and surrounds you even in periods where you feel alienated. \u00a0Xyolhmeyelh has been in many ways outside of the family of Sto:lo communities for the past few years as the organization has weathered political storms and concerns over practice.<\/p>\n

But this past week there seemed to be a reaffirmation of the fact that the agency has never left the bigger family. \u00a0Our Open Space was a family gathering, intended to remind us of the values that are important and the children that need help, care and nurtiring if the future of First Nations is to be secured.<\/p>\n

It was a truly wonderful gathering, the best of who we are. \u00a0More photos, especially of Colleen Stevenson’s<\/a> lovely evolving mural are here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week I had the tremendous privilage to facilitate two days of Open Space for Xyolhemeylh, the Aboriginal child and family services agency in the Fraser Valley, east of Vancouver. \u00a0The agency has been going through a lot of turmoil over the past few years, and has come to a point of reinvention. The theme of the gathering was “Reclaiming our Journey” and it marked a significant transition for the organization as it headed into community control from being managed by the provincial government for the past 2.5 years. \u00a0The point of the Open Space meetings were to invite the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[49,12,5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bc","category-first-nations","category-open-space","category-organization"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piBp1-Cr","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2383"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2824,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2383\/revisions\/2824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}