At WorldChanging, news of a project intended to use web technology to work with indigensous oral cultures, tying traditional knowledge to biodiversity:
While there are those who argue that technology has led to the deterioration of traditional modes of communication and expression, the very same advancements are instrumental in allowing us to keep vanishing stories, cultural practices, and entire languages alive and thriving. By facilitating access to technology for people whose heritage is being challenged by the digital revolution, tech becomes a tool for nurturing traditional ways. Living Cultural Storybases is a new non-profit that works to do just that, using ICT to share knowledge amongst cultures and peoples with strong storytelling legacies.
More information at ths LCS website.
Just back from Maui, quickly becoming one of my favourite places on earth next to the little Pacific island I live on. Two weeks gloriously unplugged, so out of touch that my mother in law had to phone us from Vancouver to pass on a tsunami warning last week. I spent the fortnight boogie bording at beaches like this one – kamaole Beach in Kihei – as well as getting hosted by a myriad of fish on the near shore coral reefs at Ulua Beach, Keawakapu and Ka’anapali. I picked up a boatload of music, mostly slack key guitar stuff and some traditional mele chants (a great album from Charles Kau’upa). We ate great food, fesh pineapple and papaya, coconut candy and taro chips and bannafruit crisps and one of my world to-die-for foods, an ahi fish taco from Maui Tacos. We headed up to the crater of Haleakala on a clear, spotless afternoon, in contrast from the socked in visit last year. I’ll post up a few photos soon.
I was incredibly fatigued after the stretch of travel and work last fall and i’m bracing for an even heavier schedule this winter and spring. But for now, i’m back to an impending snowstorm here in Canada’s southernmost fjord, relaxed, a little tanned and ready to go.
Photo by Weave
We have come to the end of a very busy year, and one which has been incredibly rich in terms of experiences, partners and projects. And so, as I do at every year end, I’d like to acknowledge the my clients and partners for 2006:
Clients
- Association for Community Education of BC
- British Columbia Academic Health Council
- Beloit College Leadership Institute
- Berkana Institute
- Boeing
- Greater Vancouver Centre for Aboriginal Business
- Centre for Sustainability at the Vancouver Foundation
- First Nations Summit Chiefs Health Committee
- Child and Youth Officer for British Columbia
- The Dalai Lama Centre
- Department of Fisheries and Oceans – Pacific Region Consultation Sectretariat
- Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
- Elections Canada
- Assembly of First Nations, BC Regional Vice-Chief
- Knowledgeable Aborignal Youth Association
- BC Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance
- First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, Health Canada
- The Kettering Foundation
- The International Association for Public Participation
- M’akola Group of Societies
- BC Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation
- Federal Treaty Negotiation Office
- Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia
- Prince George and Greater Vancouver Urban Aboriginal Strategy
- Department of Western Economic Diversification
- Orton Family Foundation for Placematters06
- Justice Institute of BC
- Caring, Helping and Nurturing Children Every Step, PEI
- Sliammon First Nation
- Soowahlie First Nation
- Treadlight Productions
- Fraser Regional Aboriginal Planning Council
- Vancouver Island Aboriginal Transition Team
- World Fisheries Trust
- Business Alliance for Local Living Economies BC
Partners
- Vince Verlaan
- Chris Robertson
- Patricia Galaczy
- Toke Moeller
- Sera Thompson
- Tim Merry
- Tennesonn Woolf
- Teresa Posakony
- Brenda Chaddock
- Michael Herman
- Dan George
- Tawney Lem
- Leslie Varley
- Lyla Brown
- Caitlin Frost
- Rob Paterson
- Peggy Holman
- Mark Jones
Work this year has taken me across BC, to Vancouver, Victoria, Parksville, Port Alberni. Nanaimo, Campbell River, Kelowna, Penticton, Merrit, Chilliwack, Prince George, Terrace and Prince Rupert. I’ve worked in Ontario, Nova Scotia and (by phone) with people in PEI. I’ve also travelled to the States, doing some work in Wisconsin, Washington and Colorado.
On the training front, with partners in the Art of Hosting community, we have offered programs in Parksville, BC, Yarmouth Nove Scotia and Bowen Island BC. This coming year, I’ll be working with Art of Hosting mates in Ottawa, Vancouver Washington, Columbus Ohio and on the Navajo Nation.
I also offered an Open Space practice retreat this year with my long time friend and partner Michael Herman here on Bowen Island, and did some other training work at Beloit College in Wisconsin, at the forum on sexually exploited youth in Kamloops, bC and at Boeing in Renton, Washington.
And of course, I published a book this year, the Tao of Holding Space, which will soon be available in print. Check this space.
It has been a rich and beautiful year nad I wish to offer a deep acknowledgement to my clients, friends, teachers and partners for the good work we have done together.
This coming year, Caitlin and I will be incorporating our business, Harvest Moon Associates. Harvest Moon is simply one way the work of our family manifests out in the world. To get off on the right foot, we’re taking a couple of weeks to hang out in a a nice warm and sunny place for a while, so blogging will be light here and the office will be closed until January 15.
Have a happy new year and thanks for reading along in 2006. I hope I will cross paths with more of you in 2007 and that we might find some ways to play together and make cool things happen.
Photo by Oxyman
This is a dark time of year, and the light is returning. It is a time for rebirth.
My friend Finn Voldtofte died last night. He was well known in the world cafe community as well as in communities of practice in Europe looking at collective intellegence. He was an early designer of the Art of Hosting and the flow game.
Finn was with us here on Bowen Island in November at a gathering we held looking at conscious evolution. He was sick while he was here, and upon returning home he discovered that he had pnuemonia and leukemia. Back in Denmark, doctors attempted to treat both, but they were unable to handle his infections in a way that allowed the treatment of his cancer.
He died with the most amazing grace and with a community of people around the world holding to his request to let him do his work to be free. I have never seen anyone die like Finn did; even from a distance his dying touched us very deeply and was a profound reminder of the power of practice and liberation and how one strong and courageous heart can touch and transform many.
And so I offerthis image of a sun behind a fir tree I shot last year and this song, that is about the choices we have to step into the new and deep world, whatever it may be. We sang this song for our closing at our gathering in November, and it feels as if Finn embodies this sentiment unlike any man I have ever met.
One stormy spring day
As I rambled at the Cape
And gazed out to the ocean
Where the seals sport and play.
From the sea foam and spray
There arose a fair maid
As she stepped on the rocky shore
To me she did say:Oh the old world is dying, and the new is yet to come.
Oh the old world is dying, and the new is yet to come.Her gaze met my eye
And she began to cry
And her keening stilled the south wind
In the far distant sky
Said she “Sir, you stand
Firmly rooted on this land
I appeal to your true heart
Will you give me your hand?”For the old world is dying, and the new is yet to come
For the old world is dying, and the new is yet to comeThe wind died away
And the sea foam and the spray
Took back the fair maiden
At the end of the day
In a grove of old fir
I felt my heart a-stir
To respond to her calling
And devote my life to herFor the old world is dying, and the new is yet to come
For the old world is dying, and the new is yet to come
This is a time of year for rebirth in the northern hemisphere. And so I wish peace at the end of the transformation for Finn, his children and his partner Tina and all who are deeply touched by the stories and examples of new birth, hope and light that permeate the cultures of northern peoples at mid-winter.
I am sore today in new ways and new places, but also very relieved, happy and honored.
Just a note to mark it.