Strange story of a recent OST event with a First Nation

[Toni Petrinovich]

Chris, you continue to leave me breathless - one long inhale and a
deLightful exhale of Spirit at Work - Toni Petrinovich

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Corrigan" <chris at CHRISCORRIGAN.COM>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2002 4:32 PM
Subject: Strange story of a recent OST event with a First Nation


> Colleagues:
>
> Last weekend I was invited back to a First Nation near Vancouver to do
> two Open Space meetings, one for the community and one specifically for
> youth.  I have done two previous engagements with this community, one in
> Open Space and one that was supposed to be in Open Space with Elders,
> but ended up not happening, because no one told the Elders that this was
> what was planned.  Strange things happen when I go there, as this story
> points out.
>
> The community is in a beautiful spot, on the Fraser River at the head of
> the Fraser Valley which is a lush green flood plain on the coast.  There
> are 7000 foot mountain peaks all around and the river winds slowly
> through the territory.  They call the river Sto:lo which is also the
> name of the Nation of people that have derived their livelihood from it
> for the past 9000 years.
>
> This particular community has suffered mightily at the hands of poor
> federal government meddling.  Most of the community is a landfill site,
> filling in a huge gravel pit where the federal government once though it
> would be a good idea to harvest alluvial gravel for road building.  The
> result is that the community is almost literally a dump, and that has
> severely affected the recent history.  Suicide, murder and drug
> addiction are not unknown and are heightened in a place that only has
> 350 inhabitants.  Every little toxic event sends out shock waves.
>
> But if it is one thing that these folks have it is Spirit.  And it is
> Spirit that shows up in all kinds of ways.  in the past they have
> blockaded roads, fished "illegally" and engaged in other disruptive
> activities in order to assert their Aboriginal rights.  As a result they
> have become an attractive place for action oriented youth from across
> Canada, and many First Nations young people who have been alienated from
> their home communities have found a new home in this community.
>
> As I said I have opened space there before, and several people in the
> community "got it."  The like the process a lot and see it as a way to
> deal with a whole range of issues that need to be dealt with in the
> community.  They called me to do two OST meetings last weekend.
>
> I got there Friday morning bright and early, and set up my stuff in the
> longhouse, which is perfectly square and thus ideal for an Open Space
> meeting.  I put my things on the wall, arranged 30 chairs in a circle
> and was done by 9:00am.  So I waited until 10:00 am when we were to
> start.
>
> Then an almost mystical silence descended on the place.  I sat with it
> for a while and then pulled out a copy of the Tao Te Ching and started
> to read.  I read the whole thing and checked my watch.  10:30, and not a
> soul in the room yet.  Soon the women came to prepare lunch for a crowd
> that wasn't there.  They looked into the room and said hi, asked where
> everyone was.  I said I didn't know.  I said that I had opened space for
> Spirit, and Spirit was all that showed up.  Amy, the head cook laughed
> and proceeded to make lunch for 30 people.
>
> So I sat for a while longer as the smells of salmon and potato salad
> filled the air.
>
> I looked around the room and realized that what I had done was to
> produce a frame for something to happen.  It was perfectly okay that
> that something was "nothing" and I had a delightful sense that I might
> sit there all day with no one else and finally take everything down at
> 4:00 and go to my motel room.  I had a real sense that I was holding
> space for the community.  I had a very strong sense that the ritual of
> preparing the room was just the right thing to do to invite a certain
> thing to happen.  i had no clue what was going to happen, but I had a
> strong sense that whatever it was, it would be the right thing.
>
>  A woman wandered in at 11:00 and sat down next to me and began pouring
> out her heart about a set of recent tragedies in the community.  Two
> murders (one unsolved) a rash of break and enters, crack addiction and a
> few other really horrible things.  To add to that her sister had just
> died and she was trapped in an ever tightening circle of grief.
>
> We talked for a while, after which she felt better and then someone went
> and got the Elders, who had been meeting in another building.  They came
> over just in time for lunch and we were joined by a few youth.  Together
> we ate what Amy had cooked for us, smoked salmon done three different
> ways, moose stew and potato salad with wild berry tarts for desert.
> After lunch I talked with the Elders awhile about OST and they all
> nodded approvingly as we discussed how Spirit works and why we have to
> facilitate in ways that honour and work with Spirit.  Then *I* left the
> room, and went with a few other people to another meeting where they
> were discussing policies for their First Nation.  The woman who took me
> with her was adamant that the space was open everywhere I was, and
> everywhere I had been, meaning that the Elders we had left behind in the
> longhouse were in Open Space and so were we.  I did and said nothing in
> the meeting, but just sat there with the group as they did their work.
> When they were finished I phoned a local motel, gathered my things and
> retired for the night.
>
> The next day I came back to open space for the youth.  When I arrived,
> there were two starlings trapped in the room and trying to escape
> through the skylight.  No one knew how they had gotten into the locked
> room overnight.  We threw open all the doors and they eventually found
> their own way out.  Birds almost always show up in strange ways when I
> open space, so I'm used to seeing eagles in the middle of the city or
> robins in the dead of winter.  But this was a little weird.  It was
> undeniably allegorical too.
>
> As people trickled in, we started with stories, handing around a
> polished rock I found in the river the day before.  This session
> unlocked many sources of grief and many possible places of hope and
> future potential.  As people spoke and cried and supported each other, I
> mind mapped the conversation.
>
> Finally we had maybe a dozen or so people and there were no more stories
> to tell, so I suggested we eat lunch and then open space.  After lunch,
> I did my thing, which included a little pep talk about how this process
> was about leadership and although there were no elected leaders in the
> room it was my contention that everyone in the room was a leader.  The
> first person out of his chair proposed a group to plan a skateboard
> park. All the youth went to that group and talked for about 30 minutes
> after which they had produced a strategy for doing it.  It was,
> naturally, going to happen whether the formal community leadership
> wanted it to or not.  They had contingencies built in for either
> situation.
>
> The remaining groups met within the din of noise caused by a couple of
> youth skateboarding around the longhouse.  I was not asked to stop them
> from doing this, nor did I take the initiative to do so.  It was, I
> think, a tangible reminder to everyone about the unfettered spirit of
> the youth who were there, and no one seemed to mind.  After a while
> someone asked them to skateboard a little more quietly and they did.  I
> did not think it was possible to skateboard at a pre-determined volume,
> but I know better now.
>
> We wrapped up, passing the rock around which mostly elicited comments
> like "thanks for coming."  And I gathered up my things and came home.
>
> It was an amazing learning experience for me.  Learning about what it
> means to really open and hold space, when no one is there, and learning
> about how to move when movement is required and how to stay still when
> stillness is essential.
>
> I keep getting asked to come and work with this community and I am
> beginning to wonder if they do this to teach me something.  I am not
> sure what I have to offer them, but every encounter with them results in
> strange things happening and tremendous learning for me.
>
> I'm going back again in April or May to open space for the fifth time.
> Perhaps this time it will look more conventional.  But maybe not.
>
> Chris
>
> --
>
> CHRIS CORRIGAN
> Consultation - Facilitation
> Open Space Technology
>
> http://www.chriscorrigan.com
> chris at chriscorrigan.com
>
> RR 1 E-3
> 1172 Miller Road
> Bowen Island, BC
> Canada, V0N 1G0
>
> phone (604) 947-9236
>
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