Learning Opportunities

I have been a little less active posting and on my LinkedIn account lately. Spring has come with many new opportunities for me to learn and gain new experiences.

For starters, I have my black belt test in Taekwondo coming up at the end of May. The lead up to this has been many new responsibilities in the club - teaching beginners classes, leading warm ups, acting as referee for sparring matches, and, of course, my own training. My instructors have at least given me ample warning of the test structure - 2.5 hours of non-stop gruelling paces that include drills, full contact sparring (without protective gear), defence against multiple attackers, live knife defence, technique demonstration, board breaking, patterns, and of course, grappling.

Already, just in preparation I have learned two lessons:

1. Focus - in the face of intense challenge, if I allow myself to be intimidated, I cannot succeed.
2. Life hurdles - there is never a good time for anything. Life will always offer many examples of why you should quit, give up, or postpone. "Do it later, things are busy now."

I also have become the team manager for my son's premier developmental league soccer team. I have been learning a lot of the administrative end of leading a team, plus training the goalie to push his skills up a notch. This whole soccer part of my life takes up seven evenings a week. One game per week, 2 practices, plus administrative paperwork, plus additional training for my son in a special elite academy.

My experience in working with a group of young kids in a more serious level of sport has given me two lessons:

1. The power of words - while all people generally acknowledge that children are sensitive to words, they typically believe, wrongly, that as adults, they are no longer affected by words. People... period - are affected by words in powerful ways. Sincere praise can motivate an individual to push harder, run faster. Harsh criticisms can crush the spirit of a person and drain their energy and motivation to even try.
2. If you aren't enjoying playing the game, don't. It is not about the most goals, the most cars or money, or position in the organisational chart, its about whether you enjoy what you are doing and making a positive impact on the team (society in general).

Finally, I have been given an Acting Director role of a unit of Business Analysts. This has come with many great learning opportunities and the chance to put to practice many of the things that I have already studied and researched on leadership. Some of the lessons so far, include:

1. Direct reports are more likely to respect you if you also respect them
2. Staff were hired because of their strengths - leverage those strengths, rather than simply pointing fingers at their deficits
3. Staff want a leader that will stand up for them and sincerely keep their best interests in mind
4. Don't make staff do anything you wouldn't do
5. Communicate, communicate, communicate

Some of these lessons I am learning, I can see broad application for even in community economic development. In fact, CED requires a lot of leadership principles and skills. Adapting what we learn through a variety of sources are important.

Happy learning everyone.

Ken

Indigenous Participation in Soccer

I am going to deviate slightly from the subject of directly speaking to economic development. I would like to address the subject of soccer.

Soccer is a sport that invites participation from all peoples. Unlike hockey (for example), where the price of involvement is almost elitist, the cost of participation in soccer is very minimal. As a sport, soccer develops leadership, teamwork, healthy lifestyle, and a sense of confidence that is critical to success in life, generally, and economic development/entrepreneurship, specifically.

Despite the simplicity of the sport, there is not a very high level of engagement within Indigenous communities in Canada. This is something that would not take much to start. Some places in Canada are starting to start things up, such as in BC, with the First Nation Soccer Association (http://fnsacanada.ca/).

They have even established a soccer scholarship: http://www.activecircle.ca/en/news-566-first-nations-soccer-association-announces.

So how do we get things started elsewhere, such as in Manitoba?

1. Tap into the soccer resources already available in the region. These include existing soccer training organizations (ie. World Soccer Academy in Winnipeg: http://www.world-soccer-academy.com/), Manitoba Major Soccer League (http://www.manitobamajorsoccer.com/), Manitoba Soccer Association (http://www.manitobasoccer.ca/), Mini U (http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/kinrec/bsal/miniu/summer/sports/gsoccer.php, http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/kinrec/bsal/miniu/summer/sports/super_soccer.php, http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/kinrec/bsal/miniu/summer/sports/bsoccer.php).

2. Gather community recreation leaders train them on what is required to get soccer started, what resources are available, and who they can connect with for support.

3. Using some of the resources above, organize soccer training camps (determine feasibility of having them hosted in communities, or regional centres, or transporting participants into Winnipeg). Perhaps ask of the resources identified above if any group would be interested in offering a camp free to help stimulate greater interest in the sport. This is what has been happening in BC (with good success): http://www.canada.com/sports/Soccer+camps+offered/6347176/story.html.

4. Spread the word. Share this blog post with your soccer contacts, with First Nation community contacts, with government contacts, with universities, with anyone who will listen.

Ken

International Women's Day and CED

Today is International Women's Day. I thought I would take the time to celebrate this day with a blog post around the crucial importance of women to communities, generally, and community economic development, specifically.

Throughout history, among Indigenous communities, women were honored as equals to men. They held positions of leadership, they took on warrior roles, they hunted as much as the men did, they taught, offered guidance. They were highly valued and respected.

A well known Cheyenne Proverb states, "A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground. Then it is done, no matter how brave its warriors or strong its weapons."

This was level of respect and understanding of the importance of women was disrupted on Turtle Island (aka North America) with the influx of empire-based cultures. Most of such cultures, from 3rd world to 1st world, have treated women as having lesser value, such as:
 - Treating women as property
 - Treating them as children of a lesser god (in some cultures)
 - Viewing them as burdens to their families.
 - Forcing them into marriages.
 - In extreme cases, women are sold as though they were objects of trade
 - In "1st world" nations, they have been often considered less qualified for leadership or positions of influence
 - They were denied the right to vote, left in the kitchens
 - For a long time, rape by their husbands was not recognized

Even today, nations that are so-called champions of human rights, such as Canada, refuse to recognize the value and role women play in the health of a nation and its economy.

We must, as Indigenous peoples and communities, reclaim the esteem of women. Consider community and its economic health if women were not around:
 - Their communication style is one of peace, generally.
 - Communication from women is relational (rather than competitive as with men)
 - They bring forth the future generations into our communities through child birth.
 - They are the first teachers of all our future generations
 - Women are far more likely to care for children even if they are working outside the home.
 - As mothers, they take on the roles of teacher, counsellor, tutor, nurse/doctor, operational manager (managing the complex tasks of maintaining a household)

Pre-contact, women set up and took down camps (I am speaking of Anishinaabe people), hunted small game, cared for the children, taught and trained children in various skills, prepared big game and cooked the meat, made clothing and tools, and so much more that I could list.

Putting this in a modern context.... Not much has changed. Women still take on these roles, often with limited support from us men. If you remove all what women do, economies would simply collapse.

It is time that we strive to honour women for the selfless and tireless work that they do to keep this world afloat. It is time we recognize that our communities can never have a thriving economy without first acknowledging and celebrating our Indigenous women.

CED Capacity Tool

For the past year, I have been working on developing a tool to assist communities in assessing their Community Economic Development capacity. The tool, developed (for now) in Excel, is built according to the this model:


Each of the 'boxes' around the circle have a set of questions that drill down to the concrete level to assist communities in translating the results of the assessment directly into action plans.

One thing I will say, some of the words I have used in this model can be slightly misleading. For example, when I write "Industrial Site," it is not intended in the traditional mainstream sense of big cities. An industrial site could be a gravel pit, forestry (selective harvesting), a sweet grass field, etc. The site, for the purposes of considering this model does not need to be a profit (financial) generating site either. Direct financial gain is not the only form of value. The cultural and spiritual value of a site is equally important and definitely important to note in planning so that they are not interfered with by any potential developments.

In any case, if any of my readers are interested in receiving a copy of this tool, subscribe to my blog with your email and I will send it to you.

Ken

Human Resources in Indigenous Country

Systems, companies, businesses, service organisations, community governance offices are all only as good as the people working within them. This is something we seem to forget about all too often. People, in any organisation or office need to be trained to be the best they can be in their role. Of course, that is precisely a human resources issue.

However, it goes beyond training and employee development. It goes beyond payroll and compensation. The gap that many of our Indigenous organisations and communities face is one of Human Resource policy. Many of us can recount a story of a manager hiring relatives who are clearly less qualified than other candidates or cases where people are fired by a new chief because they hadn't been among his supporters during elections. When we begin to consider this, a number of questions come to mind.

How many offices in Indigenous country have a solid understanding of employment standards?
Are there any workplace harassment policies in place?
Workplace health and safety standards?
Does office policy and practice meet up to Human Rights requirements?
How about duty to accommodate?
Have compensation levels been researched for fair market value?
Are there performance measurement strategies in place?
What employee orientation processes are there?
Does every position have job descriptions?
What is the office policy on sick leave, maternity and paternity leave, family leave, vacation leave?
What about statutory holidays? Are there other holidays the office will recognise?
What about funerals?
Is there a policy around child care or care for other family members?
What is the policy around equipment, furniture, and offices? Is it a fair process?
Is there a conflict of interest policy?
What accountability checks are in place for staff and managers? Ie. If a manager harasses an employee, what recourse does the employee have?
What is the hiring process? Is it fair?

There are many more questions that could be asked, but my point is made. We need to begin to consider HR policies and systems. Proper HR systems and policies will result in a greater level of governance capacity and therefore, greater accountability.

The National Centre for First Nations Governance established a principle, titled Human Resource Capacity and a related initiative called First Nations Public Service Initiative. In this document (found here), the Centre makes the argument for the critical importance of human resource capacity to successful governance of our communities and nations. They call for professional certification, which includes the ability to establish proper and fair system to manage human resources.

Slowly, more communities and organisations are recognising this and beginning to seek help in developing this area of Human Resources. This is good. However, there is a danger if this is not done properly.

There are hundreds of consultants and companies that are more than happy to make money doing this type of work. There is nothing wrong with being properly compensated for quality work. Unfortunately, not all the work out there is of good quality. Many consultants or HR companies that are great at what they do in mainstream urban centres, try to apply their typical products and tools to Indigenous organisations and communities without ever considering whether they are even culturally relevant.

A set of HR policies written for Corporation XYZ in downtown Toronto will not be particularly relevant to a band office in remote ABC First Nation. It is very important to answer all the right questions (including, but not limited to all those I listed), but more important to consider the culturally relevant responses to those questions. Some companies can do this, if, when they are contracted, it is clear that they must listen to the cultural and geographic reality of the community or organisation and then apply those in the development of policies.

There are also some Indigenous companies/consultants who understand the importance of this mapping of HR policy needs to culture. That being said, just because a consultant is Indigenous doesn't guarantee that he/she will understand the culture/policy dynamic.

On the other hand, a consultant or company that understands the cultural side of things, but is weak on understanding of policy and standards, will leave your workplace open to liability. If a policy is written that goes against the human rights code (recently extended to on-reserve), your workplace can be held accountable and can suffer lawsuits.

Clarity in the contract at the outset will help ensure proper understanding of this, but also monitoring the end product before signing off is important. The end product must be examined to ensure it meets the requirements of the contract. Seeking advice from other professionals in the HR realm can be helpful in this.

At the end of the day, there are some considerations for both company/consultant and community/organisation.

1. HR policies and systems are an important component of proper governance
2. HR policies need to be custom written to meet the unique cultural requirements of each organisation/community

One thing communities or organisations can do to help in this process is to document the cultural norms of the comunity and workplaces in the community ahead of time. This will ensure that a consultant or company will be supplied with some of the essential knowledge they require in order to ensure policies can be custom developed for cultural relevance.

Ken

Brave new world... without the Indian Act

One of the most significant factors affecting Indigenous economic development in Canada has been the Indian Act. The Indian Act has often been described as the most racist, draconian piece of legislation in the modern world.

The Indian Act took away the economic rights and freedoms of entire peoples. It took away their identities and, to this day, retains the power of identification in the hands of the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. Under the Indian Act, Indigenous people were banned from conducting business, unless all revenues and profits ran through the Indian agent first. Indigenous people were banned from employment, from university and higher education, from stores unless they had specialized written permission from the Indian agents.

The effect to this day has been that the establishment of a business on reserve (land that should be held by First Nations, but is instead held 'in trust' by Canada) takes 6-10 years. The same type of business off reserve can be established in 1-3 years.

The Indian Act equated Indigenous people with persons of insanity and without mental capacities to decide for themselves. It declared Indigenous people as less than human. This same Act was used as the model and basis for South African Apartheid. The treatment of Indigenous peoples as prescribed by the Indian Act formed part of the inspiration of Hitler for his program of genocide against the Jewish people.

For many years, at hundreds of conferences, talks, forums, and gatherings; in hundreds of articles, research papers, studies, reports and reviews, the message has been clear: the racist Indian Act must be repealed.

This month, First Nation chiefs from across Canada met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, after many years of requesting such a meeting, but being blown off. At this gathering, Harper stated "To be sure, our government has no grand scheme to repeal or to unilaterally re-write the Indian Act: After 136 years, that tree has deep roots."

First, let us consider the logic behind this.

Indian Act is racist.
Racist legislation is written by racist people.
Indian Act is also legislation.
--------------------------------------------
Therefore, the people who wrote the Indian Act were racist.

The Indian Act was written a long time ago.
Since the people who wrote it were racist, Canada has been historically racist.
--------------------------------------------
Harper states that since Canada has always been racist, we should continue that tradition because it "has deep roots."

Think of the inconsistency here. The Conservatives decry certain practices around the world like genital mutilation of girls, and rightfully so. However, if we apply the same logic Harper uses, we would conclude: "Since certain countries have always practiced genital mutilation, we should continue this historically wrong practice because it has deep traditional roots."

Putting Harper's promise to continue using racist legislation aside, for sake of argument I will assume he is fearful, politically, of how to go about repealing the Indian Act and what that will mean - fear of the unknown. Discussions about removing the Indian Act are not new and there have been some politicians who attempted to venture down this road in the past (Nault, Chretien). All prior efforts failed and met intense political fallout.

People, Canadians and Indigenous people alike, hold some fear of a world unknown - a world without the Indian Act prescribing the delicate relationship between First Nations and Canada.

I believe that this fear is unfounded and held in check by a misplaced focus. I will explain this with an analogy. Suppose a person purchases a sizable lot with a house and moves into it. At some point, he realises that this house is of such bad quality that it is a wonder it still stands. What is the sensible thing to do? He begins to make plans for a new home. He designs the new home to accommodate all of his needs and begins construction of the new. Once it is ready, he moves into it and tears down the old house.

What he does NOT do, is tear the old house down without any plans for a new house.

THIS is the problem we face today. In all of the discussions that I have ever heard regarding the Indian Act, it is about tearing the old house down without any thought or discussion on what the new house should look like.

I believe that the discussions today should focus on the development of what is needed if there is no Indian Act. Once this is done, the fear of the unknown is removed since we will have begun to map out the future, making it known. If it is designed first, in partnership between the Federal government and First Nations, there will be no gap when the Indian Act is actually abolished. It would mean that people can get to the point where repealing the Indian Act is not only possible, but rather simple.

Violence in the North End of Winnipeg

2011 marked the bloodiest year for Winnipeg with 39 homicides, most of which took place in the North End of Winnipeg. As the level of violence rose, so too did the many good people of the North End to counter it. Local champions, such as Michael Champagne, are leading efforts to rally the community and retake the North End for love and unity.

I, like many others, have reflected about what causes such levels of violence? The answers are many and not unrelated. Some of the key causes have been noted as:

·         Racism (http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/news/our_canadian_cities/2011/11/21/1808.html) , which is alive and well in Winnipeg (in RCMP offices, in media)

·         Poverty

·         Social exclusion

·         Oppression

Perhaps some background into the demographics of the North End might help. Neighbourhoods in the North End have high concentrations of Aboriginal people and immigrant populations. The employment rate is as much as 4 times lower than more “affluent” neighbourhoods, the total household income is similarly less (average of just over 20,000 annually), government spending at all levels for recreation and amenities is lower in the North End than in wealthier neighbourhoods, housing is in greater state of disrepair, the neighbourhood is grossly underserviced by banks and stores.

Racism and its brother, oppression, results in less opportunities for those on the receiving end. Less opportunity results in poverty. Considering that nearly all of the amenities, sports opportunities, recreation programs and entertainment options cost money, poverty leads to social exclusion very quickly.

All of the discussion and rhetoric in the media and among politicians and academics are focused on how to fix this. They discuss the justice system, crime & punishment, preventative programming (which must be noted that PM Harper is vehemently opposed to), police presence, etc. What seems to be lost in the discussion is lateral violence, which I began to discuss in a previous post (here).

For starters, the justice system itself is inherently racist – specifically against Aboriginal people. A very well documented discussion on this very point was discussed in another blog (here). Not only is the justice system unfairly harsh and unjust against Aboriginal people in terms of unfair processes and stiffer sentences, generally, but the law enforcement side of the justice system is also racist. Despite International condemnation over the fact that there are over 600 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada and virtually no action from law enforcement, there is no change.

Yet, each and every time a white woman is missing, a nation-wide manhunt is launched almost immediately with endless media coverage and public outpourings of support. When it is an Indigenous woman, almost at once, the media and public begin to accuse the missing woman of being a prostitute or drug user. They then sweep the ordeal under the carpet falsely assuming the woman lives a “high risk lifestyle.” Worse still that the general public believes that if a person makes certain lifestyle choices, they are not as important as the good middle class working people.

The message is clear, when you combine these two facts. If you are Indigenous and oppressed into poverty, your best bet is to steal from other Indigenous people or oppressed groups. If you steal from a white person, you will be slammed full force with the heavy hand of justice. However, if you steal from Indigenous people or other oppressed groups, the justice system either turns a blind eye or offers half hearted efforts.

The justice system in Canada and the media (specifically Sun Media who have a deliberate agenda of racism) encourage lateral violence. It is precisely this phenomenon that Winnipeg’s North End is facing. The majority of crimes committed in the North End are either committed by one person of an oppressed group (i.e. Indigenous, immigrants, etc.) to another. There is even ongoing gang conflict between the Indian Posse (a gang formed by Indigenous youth) and the Mad Cowz (a gang formed by African immigrant youth) all of whom are primarily in the North End.

What is the solution?

I do not have an answer. Although, efforts like Michael Champagne’s is one part of it. Initiatives to address poverty and racism are other parts of it. Efforts to address lateral violence also need to be part of the discussion. In an indirect way, the organization Winnipeg Afro-Aboriginal Cross Cultural Association is trying to address the issue by bridging the two communities and showing how much they actually have in common.

One thing for certain, we must not fall into the trap that Divide and Conquer tactics bring. We are often pressed to compete with one another as to whose oppression is greater and therefore, who merits government funding. This is self-defeating. We cannot eliminate oppression, if we begin to oppress one another in our efforts to eliminate oppression. A great summary of this is contained here.

Miigwech,

Ken