Image: Fire ceremony, Ngwarleunty.
I founded my first business ‘Move Through’ to explore this untapped potential of mediation and facilitation in areas subject to legislation. In testing how this value proposition sits with different speciality areas, the Aboriginal communities were a natural place to start. It all started in 2012 when a job contract fell through and I took the next one that came along — a role in Aboriginal community housing. I could not have hoped for a better introduction into the limits of well-meaning reform initiatives.
Bring it to the Fire
Aboriginal fire ceremony tell the story of how communities used to transform conflict. When there is a difference or incident within or between tribes, the ceremony. When there is a difference or incident within or between tribes, the ceremony is held to give everyone involved in the conflict an opportunity to get together around a fire and talk it all out until there is nothing more to say. Elders sit on the outer edge of the circle as guardians of the process. To complete the ceremony, leaves are placed on the on the fire as a symbol of transmuting any ill will and aligning action, intent and the greater good.
This article shares a couple of tips from the fire side for effectively working with Aboriginal communities. But first, these principles must be understood.
Solidarity Is a Priority
Continuation of government programs in the Aboriginal community sector occurs on the backs of people with uncanny quantities of endurance working against remarkable odds. These programs are hit harder than most by the pendulum of politics and the inability to deliver what the government identifies as ‘wins’ within politically expedient timeframes. Wins for the communities themselves only happens when there is a long-term vision and commitment to follow through, whether this be to resolve land disputes or improve average life expectancy.
Lack of unity is a theme that affects both the government and the Aboriginal communities alike.
In many other conversations, there is no ‘government department’ with delegated officers making decisions within their legislative remit; there is only ‘the government’.
The all-encompassing relationship that Aboriginal people have with their environment is striking. I have heard the intimacy of their relationship with the environment blindly reduced to a childish quirk. ‘The river owns us’, they say. Meanwhile, government agencies carve up the river in administrative delegations that make it near impossible to serve a unity of purpose.
When there is no formal agenda or the need to factor in people who are only abstractly affected by a decision, we get a bit closer to the traditional way of the fire ceremony, sitting around the fire. The fire ceremony includes everyone, differences of opinion and notions of truth and fairness. This spirit of inclusion lies at the heart of all genuine attempts of reform.
Now for the tips:
1. Leave Your Feelings Aside
Allow the failings of the system to reveal themselves and don’t take it personally. There is a big difference between taking criticism of my cultural heritage personally and recognising how this cultural privilege is playing out. Be willing to consider the unintentional consequences of how you communicate and refuse to take what you see at face value.
When we travel we find it easy to respect and sometimes even enjoy cultural differences. In Australia, we tune out taking it for granted that everyone will drive on the left side of the road. Go to India, and there is no concept of the lane. You are instantly alert and know you are outside of your comfort zone, rarely would you take offence.
To make any inroads in redressing the history of disrespect and poor engagement by the government, government staff need to stay engaged in the face of blurting out inappropriate comments, non-responsiveness and gossip. To take this at face value is at best a cultural bias and at worst, reinforces destructive attitudes that destroyed Australia’s first nation’s people.
2. Understand the interplay between rights and facilitation
Legislation provides the guardrails within which decisions can be made by the people and groups that are directly affected by them. While legislation may be a mark of progress at the time, it soon becomes a block to progressing reforms through direct dialog. Through inadequate cultural protection offered through the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1983 to the obstructive land claims process through the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983, the NSW Government will need to take alternative dispute resolution and community based decision seriously if it wishes to rebuilt trust and commit to real reform.
Facilitation is typically used when a problem is resolved without recourse to an authority or delegated decision maker. Facilitation can be criticised for being too light on, adopting a ‘whatever happens is meant to happen’ approach. Facilitative mediation relies on combining content expertise strategically with a commitment to giving people the best chance to come to an agreement that they can live with.
Are the two approaches incompatible by design? If you think you have legal recourse with a chance of success, it can limit your ability to perceive other options. Good mediators move between both approaches and use each to leverage the other. FBI Hostage Negotiator Chris Voss uses similar techniques in his ground-breaking book, ‘Never Split the Difference’. Mediation is emotional intelligence on steroids.
What I do…
I’m a Jill of many trades. From working with Aboriginal communities to struggling businesses, I am passionate about re-engineering processes that are not keeping pace with the needs of diverse stakeholder groups. By articulating constraints and opportunities, I work with clients to recalibrate their understanding of barriers to change and design sustainable workarounds to operate with social and emotionally intelligence.
To find out more, please contact me at kate@katemcneill.com
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