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G'day folks in the OS global community<br>
A new client has asked me about facilitating a one-day OS for a group of
stakeholders and others about the creation of a refuge/hostel for
indigenous women - she has only minor concerns about using Open Space
having recently experienced her first event with me - her major concern
is about using a non-Aboriginal white male as the facilitator - see
honest and forthright comments below - and this event would be in a
different part of the country from where I live and where I'm not known
locally in the indigenous community - any thoughts on this query? Any
stories of this sort of cross-cultural/gender scenario?<br>
Cheers<br>
Brendan
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<dd>We have an opportunity with the new site being built in ----- to
devote some of our resources to responding to the plight of indigenous
families. Having a different focus away from the mainstream site
gives our service an opportunity to explore, with the assistance of
indigenous stakeholders, a different way of responding to women and
children from indigenous families escaping violence. I don’t know
what this will look like and it will be difficult and we won’t always get
it right. It will be a process of learning and experimenting with
new ways of responding to families.
<dd>
<dd>This is like a leap into the unknown for us because it will change
our service. It has not been undertaken by any other service to my
knowledge, so there is no blue print to how we should proceed.
Having said this, I do think it is possible and I believe it will have a
positive impact on our service as a whole. <br>
<dd>There would be about 35-40 people invited to this gathering which
would represent all of the key groups that would have an interest in a
mainstream organisation taking on and providing a service to Aboriginal
women and children.
<dd>There has been a positive reaction so far to the proposal from
Aboriginal organisations but I am sure we will face some
resistance/perhaps hostility? (I will probably know this before we enter
an open space) – and in a sense that is one of the reasons why I think an
Open Space forum will be good so that we can hear and respond to people’s
concerns. <br>
<dd>One of my concerns Brendan is how they will receive you as a
facilitator of this process. I am confident about you holding the
space for us to discuss these issues but I also don’t want to set you up
in the process either. I am worried that there might be some
hostility to a man facilitating the process and not a woman (you may be
the only man there). I would love your thoughts around this and
whether you have done anything similar before. Part of me says be
courageous and go with what you think will work and another part of me is
scared stiff!
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