This is the logo for the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler winter Olympics. It was unveiled on Saturday in Vancouver. Now I’ve nothing against inukshuks, and I have plenty of Inuit friends and colleagues, but this is just plain wrong. These Olympics are being held in the territories of the Squamish and Lil’wat peoples, of whom there are many excellent artists. This is a huge opportunity to show the world an image from the rich tradition of west coast art, and instead the Olympic committee chose a figure from a culture that lives thousands of miles away. Using an Inukshuk to signify winter …
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Prince Rupert, BC Here is a powerful idea from Australian Aboriginal playwright Jack Davis about how to reconnect kids with nature: It’s quite simple…give us love of country whether white or black. Give every kid at school something to protect of our flora and fauna. “OK,you look after the beetles…the quokka, the ladybugs…that’s your totem.” Imagine doing this. A kid has responsibility for a fern species, a tree, an insect, a bird. You identify closely with this thing and do everything you can to steward it’s survival. In an interconnected world, giving someone responsibility for a small part will quickly …
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Prince Rupert, BC My friend Crystal Sutherland, my partner in doing a whole bunch of work with Aboriginal youth, has legally changed her name. She is now using two hereditary names from her Ahousaht ancestors: Pawaskwachitl Haiyupis. We just call her Pawa for short! These are Nuu-Chah-Nulth names. Pawaskwachitl was a name of one of her grandmothers, and it has a powerful translation “she gives in the feast like bees coming out a hive.” That’s an outstanding description of the kind of leader she is becoming. When I was in New Zealand last year, I was amazed and awed at …
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Prince Rupert, BC The sun goes down at 9:00 up here, in the TRUE Pacific Northwest (of Canada, anyway). It’s a beautiful day here on the north coast of British Columbia. I’m here meeting with the group that is planning the appreciative summit on Aboriginal youth suicide prevention, and we are making great progress. We are two weeks away now, the agenda is largely complete and I am starting in on the workbook for the summit and the design for a policy roundtable the following day which will involve World Cafe process with policy makers and leaders to act on …
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When the Government of British Columbia announced that it would look at election reform after the last election in 2001, I have to admit that I was skeptical. Lots of political parties promise this kind of thing, but once they get elected, they discover that the system as it is suits them fine and the promise is forgotten. But not this time. To the credit of the government, they launched a comprehensive project to look at electoral options which became one of the most interesting processes in the world. They randomly selected a man and a woman from each riding …