Yarning - all ways, AFN Conference 2017
October 16-18th, Monday to Wednesday, at Stanwell Tops, south of Sydney
This year’s annual conference of the Australian Facilitators Network has a rare focus on indigenous-informed facilitation practice. And a lot of effort is going in to creating a dialogue about what this means.
For those, like myself, who don’t work directly with indigenous communities, why would I go this year? Apart, of course, from catching up with great colleagues, enjoying a spectacular venue on the edge of the Royal National Park, and chatting to very experienced people about my profession.
The first reason is very selfish. I am hungry to explore meeting practices that are rooted in more ancient and enduring methodologies to see what I can use in my own world. I wonder if the kinds of changes we are all experiencing (globalisation, technology, ecological depletion) will be better addressed by colloborative decision-making processes that have much stronger emphasis on place and relationships than our task-based, time-sharp, digitally-enhanced approaches.
Drawing a very long history bow, last week I was doing a workshop with Bob Dick who pointed out that, as a species, Homo Sapiens has a 200,000 year history in hunter-gathering societies, with their mostly egalitarian and collaborative decision making practices. Contrast that with our mere 10,000 recent years of settler agriculture, with its attendant centralising, massified, bureaucratic politics. Is there something here that could benefit from dialogue?
The second reason is more altruistic. Australia is at a critical juncture when the relation between First Peoples and later arrivals is being renegotiated. I was moved by the Uluru statement, as the most recent manifestation of a long struggle to reach a fair and just settlement with Australia’s First Peoples. And I am personally interested in a redefinition of what it means to be Australian, in a way that opens up more possibility for a stronger and more inclusive sense of identity, and deeper connection to my own country.
Lots to think about. And I look forward to seeing you there.