SONGLINES MOVEMENT In terms of developing a healing strategy for our elected representatives, please read this message to an earlier electronic workshop. Tomorrow (St. Valentines Day) i will circulate a major statement. Bruce 13 February 1999 Indigenous social justice workshop =O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O-( )-O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O= CALLING ALL DOLPHINS! from Bruce I would like to some quotes with you from a book I am reading. I know that the material we are working on is difficult, and (if you are at all like me) you wonder if it is really worthwhile hurting your brain with these complex issues. Can't we leave it up to the government, or fate to decide? Well, I believe that the fact you have made it to this workshop shows that you are probably part of the dolphin factor which will be necessary to solve these problems. And that your input is a vital ingredient - a vitalising ingredient which will add life to an otherwise bureaucratic solution by committee. So, take some comfort from the fact that what we are doing here is a difficult and sometimes lonely task. You deserve some support from us other dolphins. The book I am reading, which is a little over the top (being aimed at American businessmen), is called "Strategy of the Dolphin" by Dudley Lynch and Paul Kordis. The basic metaphor the authors use is one which looks at different levels of relating to problems according to the role played limits and constraints. Carps and sharks are finite players in the pool of possibilities and play within the boundaries (in two different ways, as the names suggest). Dolphins are infinite players who play with the boundaries themselves. They go beyond the habits of the status quo and break the mental set to find new and elegant solutions. Dolphins value open - and opening - minds. HOW DO WE NEED IT TO BE? The first quote is this: The most difficult sets to break are those supportive of our egos or those supportive of our social values - the values our friends and colleagues also view highly. Breaking set is invariably required to keep organisations healthy and on purpose, especially in times of rapid change. Every day, and on some days every hour, you in some way need to break set - take a different perspective, challenge the status quo, ask a different kind of question, see the world another way, and help yourself and your colleagues ask, "How would we really like it - how do we really *need* to have it? Breaking set, in the present context, is to realise that social justice and reconciliation will require 'mainstream' Australians to change mental and practical habits regarding First Peoples. What image of life do we need - what vision of life - as a good target for social justice and reconciliation? What pathway will lead us to it from here? HOW TO RESPOND? Lynch and Kordis continue: To play as a dolphin plays, however, we must take responsibility. For what happens to us? No. No one can possibly control - and thus be responsible for - everything that happens. Dolphins make no such erroneous assumption. To play as a dolphin plays, we must take responsibility only for how we *respond* to what happens. In most situations we have a wide choice in how we respond - if, that is, we choose to be responsible about our choice-making powers. Do we choose to continue to see the world in terms of the constraints which made sense during the time of the doctrine of terra nullius - or do we accept the need for a total rethink? SOME QUICK POINTS. * with your computer skills and your interest in social justice, you are already swimming in a rich pool of possibilities - and hey! Look! Other dolphin beings like me! * how do we *respond* to the realisation that Australia was settled back-to-front in terms of acknowledging the rights of Australia's First Peoples? * do we make a *response* to the material in this workshop, sharing our skills and knowledge and, thereby, reaffirm our dolphin bonds? LOOKING AHEAD Dolphins talk a lot about process. As this workshop enters its last weeks, give some thought to process - workshop/forum/social justice and reconciliation. * and share it with the rest of the dolphin school. Bruce 19 November 1995 ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
