Colleagues: I'm pleased to be able to finally share this story with you.
The Sliammon First Nation lies about 100 kilometers north of Vancouver on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast. Sliammon is in the process of reviving traditional governance structures and practices but they are giving them a modern day tweak to work with the existing Indian Act (colonial) governance structures and the realities of governing a modern community in a resource rich territory. My colleagues Chris Robertson and I have been working with the community for the past year using Open Space to revive a traditional governance process. We have been working with Michelle Washington, a community member and recently trained OST facilitator who has been guiding this work. The process we have been animating is called "Sijitus" which means "advisory" in the Tla'amon language. Traditionally Sijitus was a gathering of family heads who met to provide direction and advice for the community's leadership. Sliammon has revived Sijitus using Open Space Technology. For the past year we have met about once a month in Open Space with representatives from the families of Sliammon to look at issues facing the community and to craft recommendations and advice to the various governing institutions of the community. Overall the process has worked well to create an inclusive forum for voices to be heard and for overcoming some of the differences that can deeply split small communities. Prior to re-establishing Sijitus, this was a major concern in the community, and was responsible for some very divisive results in elections and referenda on treaty agreements. What's very interesting about this whole project is that Sliammon intentionally places all of its governance work in a deep historical and cultural context. While understanding that modern day realities mean shaping and changing practices, an underlying cultural integrity is central to everything we do. This is why they originally chose Open Space for Sijitus: it displayed many of the characteristics of traditional governance practice while remaining flexible enough to be used for a variety of purposes. And it reconnected the passion of emotional debates to the responsibility of seeing things through. Sliammon has recently revived its treaty society website (http://www.sliammontreaty.com) and they have posted their tradtional teachings toolbox (http://www.sliammontreaty.com/governance_toolbox.html). This work represents years of interviews with Elders, studies of anthropological sources and work on the land to assemble a Sliammon history, a set of guiding principles and a very deep collection of Kwuth Ta-ow: traditional teachings (http://www.sliammontreaty.com/governance_taow.html). These teachings cover everything from leadership to medicines to the ways in which the community traditionally provided for itself, and they are fascinating to read. Sliammon families practice their culture today in a myriad of ways and so the toolbox is meant to capture the underlying values behind these practices. We have used this document for the past year to work with and shape our Open Space meetings to align them with the community's culture and to bring this reincarnation of Sijitus in line with both the traditional and contemporary realities of Sliammon community governance, and now I'm really pleased that it's available to a wider audience. For me, Sliammon represents a very deep process of taking a community and connecting it to it's stories and culture in order to reframe it's forward moving directions. Nothing in Sliammon's history and traditions has encumbered the community from existing in a modern context of relations with other governments, companies and neighbours. The Sliammon treaty folks have gone deep to find the values and practices that lead them forward and as such are moving in a direction of deep integrity. In fact the Sliammon word for "policies" or "principles" is "ta-ow" which actually translates as "teachings," making a stong connection between those things that move us forward and those places from which we have come. I can see this working in many organizations and communities, this veritical integration across time of practices and principles that are deeply rooted, yet contribute to opening space such that we can move forward in a way that feels natural and in synch with who we are and what our story is. So, I share it with you here, for some reflection. Chris -- ------------------------- CHRIS CORRIGAN Consultation - Facilitation Open Space Technology Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
