Lessons - Stories from the Bear Circle

 This post shares some of the key lessons we have learnt from our Bear Circle Journey.  We hope to expand this as the project grows.  Please share any lessons or stories you think should be included her.  We want these spaces to reflect the experiences of everyone who works in bear space.  We are community because we are taking this journey together.

Distinctions based - right now we do not reflect the full experiences of Indigenous peoples.  Our team is mostly plains/woodlands peoples.  We hope to grow and address these gaps.  We recognize that some of our tools or approaches may not translate for other Indigenous peoples.  This is a "failure" but one we will work to address.

Change management - application of Indigenous Methodologies is a change journey and it not automatically comfortable.  We need to learn more about change management and related tools.  We also have tried to bring this element into the Bear Tracker so that we can engage regularly with how change is impacting us.

User experience –  using new tools which let us ask new questions sometimes give answers that are uncomfortable or "too negative" even though that is the information we need to hear to be able to work towards better solutions.

Building trust - Trust is a key element in the application of Indigenous Methodologies.  This is about creation of the circle, work with the Elder and work with others.  As Indigenous peoples, we are also working in an institution with a lot of history.  Trust takes time.  It calls on us to be genuine and know who we are.

How to “show” the benefits - trying something new can mean that traditional tools of measuring progress might not fit.  We have been working to show the benefits by collecting and sharing data about our experiences.

Materiality of decisions - given the number of unknowns on this journey we have often turned to an easy rule of thumb "what is the impact if XX is not right?"  If the impact is small we make the assumption, write it down and live with it until we get infomation to change it.

Lots of theory and less on applications - there is a robust literature on Indigenous Methodologies - See "Daring to Meet the Bear" bibliography for more information - but there is little on practical applications in government particularly where it comes to questioning the tools of analysis and value giving.  It is our hope that by sharing our journey and connecting to the lessons of others that we will be able to address this gap.

How to question your beliefs while in action?: Applying Indigenous Methodologies to our everyday work has been a great learning tool but is a challenge when needing to move quickly.  We have been trying to address this with change management, using pilots, and developing tools like the circle, knowledge bundle and the Bear Pin.  This has allowed us to have space for discussions about how we are doing work while also supporting quick action when that is needed.

Praxis – solutions spaces vs “Answers”: This is new work.  It needs new tools and spaces.  Many times what is needed is spaces to support solution generation rather than spaces to confirm answers.  Sometimes an answer is less important than the conversations that happen along the way.  Not having an answer does not mean being less productive.  Some growth and questions can only grow from these solutions spaces.  Elder Sol reminds us that sometimes the answer is in the work.

One more damn thing: We have a lot of challenges to address right now.  Indigenous methodologies could be just one more damn thing to do.  From our journey I think that the value of Indigenous Methodologies personally and professionally far outweigh the costs.  Rather than one more thing to do, it is a foundation for our team which I think provides positive impacts on most of the work we undertake.

Need “new “norms and rules of thumb: See "Materiality of decisions" above. It can be helpful to discuss and operationalize new norms.  The Bear Pin tracker is part of that but we also raise these issues in team meetings and try things until we find something that meets the need.  This can also be important in sharing our story (through the blog) and in creating new spaces as needed to support emerging discussions.

Need time to do and space to learn / Innovation: Since a lot of the learning in Indigenous Methodologies come from the doing it is important that we take time to do and to reflect on the doing.  This is encouraged through taking "Innovation" times, learning, listening to oyasin kitiyami (all our relations), sitting in circle with the Elder and taking time in Bear's Cabin for celebration/coffee.

How to live in a “post space” world: moving online was a challenge for many of us.  We have tried to take advantage of this change to learn about new tools and to create new spaces outside of the physical where we can come together as a team.  Key among these spaces was Bear's Cabin where we can rest, learn, share and be together.

Failure stories and room to failure: see more about failure here.  A productive relationship with failure has been a key element in our learning and overall approach.  In my teachings (Cree, Mohawk, Anishinaabe, Micmac) things/ situations/ people are not bad or good.  All are potentially either.  Learning is a good thing, should you do harmful things to the community to get learning, then it may not be so clear cut.  Failure is not bad if we are gathering its lessons and planning for it.  In decentering ourselves as "Experts" we can obtain more space to try and learn and not always have to be right.

Visual language: Indigenous cultures have a long tradition of visual language.  By using this language, with the support of an Elder, it opens new ways to share information and knowledge.  This is an area of Indigenous methodologies that I would like to explore as our work progresses.

Joint remembering – meeting our policy ancestors: following the announcement of the 215 bodies in Kamloops we found ourselves having a lot of discussions about our policy ancestors and our relationships to them.  We also talked about our desire to not inadvertently be part of something that history will judge us for.  We responded by opening up a space for these conversations.  We have been meeting regularly to learn from others in this space and to think about our roles.

Working with children: Working from home with my children right beside me has been an unexpected pleasure and treasure for this work.  We have spent lots of time together learning about each other's interests.  My daughter has provided lots of art and even a definition to the bear work.  Shawn Wilson uses letters to his sons as well as their art as a means to express knowledge that needs to be transferred relationally.  This also reflects that this knowledge is for them and those to follow them.  Their voices are important

Listening to the rhythms around us: As we have gone through a year of learning with the Bear we found that we wanted to align ourselves to the rhythms around us.  As a result we introduced the Bear calendar to try to be more aware of the seasons and how they impact us, our communities and all our relations.  This included some different Bear Pin activities to recognize the hibernation time.