Talking Sticks and Medicine Wheels

[Chris Corrigan]

Harrison, et. al.:

The thing I like about Open Space is that it is a two martini idea, not
half baked, but totally natural.  And it is powerful.  And I couldn't
agree more -- it is aboriginal.  I have written before about how many
First Nations people feel that meeting in Open Space is coming home in a
very real sense.

Like many other aspects of doing work with aboriginal technologies, the
results are powerful.  This is because things like the circle are very
very old and have been tested and refined over many thousands of years.
It's safe to say that humans have evolved hand in hand with these kind
of processes.  It's almost like we're made to meet in a circle, our
peripheral vision can't take in 180 degrees, so in order to see the
whole system it has to curve inward.  Our backs are inpenetrable, and
make lousy communication tools, unless of course, your message is "I'm
outta here."  We can only communicate fully by being a part of a circle.

Like all aboriginal technologies, OS is powerful because it works on a
level that incorporates the whole person, and it IS more than a meeting
technology.  In my case, it is a very significant decolonization tool
among other things.  It has allowed groups I've worked with to do the
business they have to do while restoring cultural practices which have
been lost over the last few hundred years or so of colonization.  And
I'm not talking about cultural practices like medicine wheels and
talking sticks, I'm talking about deep structure stuff -- modes of
communicating, modes of relating, ways of chanelling spirit.  As I said
earlier, medicine wheels and talking sticks are tools, and they're
powerful because they help us to realize what is happening in the
circle.  Surfacing that deep structure is the really important part of
using OS in First Nations communities.  The power and astonishment I
feel in Open Space is simply some very old chickens finally coming home
to roost.

And becuase of that we facilitators have a tremendous responsibility, as
Harrison has pointed out.  That responsibility, as I said in my relply
to Michelle, is to have a good heart (that's how the Elders talk about
it).  You might call it being authentic, approching the tools with
dignity and respect or whatever.  It's almost ineffable but it's
critical because I believe that in Open Space we as facilitators DO have
a sacred trust.

What a conversation!

Chris



--
CHRIS CORRIGAN
108-1035 Pacific Street
Vancouver BC
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Phone: 604.683.3080
Fax: 604.683-3036