The British Columbia Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres (BCAAFC) represents almost 30 "Friendship Centres"
here in BC.  Friendship Centres are organizations that have been around since the 1950s, providing services to
Aboriginal people in the towns and cities of Canada.  During the 1950s, there was a mass migration of First Nations
people away for isolated and remote reserve communities to the cities as people set out to look for jobs and better
lives for their families.  In short order, these people formed communities and then community organizations.
Friendship Centres were among the first to be formed, to provide assistance to individuals and families making the
transition from reserve life to city life.  These days Friendship Centres provide a huge range of services and programs
and in many ways, look like Aboriginal YMCAs, although not as well funded, and generally not attracting as much of a
middle class clientele.

Here in British Columbia we are embroiled in disputes about land rights, aboriginal title and self-government.
Friendship Centres, as Aboriginal organizations, are trying to find a role for themselves in this debate.  In order to
further their ideas and vision, the BCAAFC hired me to facilitate a 2.5 day Open Space around the theme:  "Aboriginal
Friendship Centres and Self-Government in BC."  Executive Directors and Presidents from each Centre were invited as
was the BCAAFC Executive Committee and the staff.  In short, most of the BC Friendship Centre leadership was
gathered in one place.

DAY ONE

We had 41 people, who proposed 36 topics during the opening on day 1 (31 topics were eventually reported upon).  I
had the two meeting days divided in the four sessions of 1.5 hours each with 1.5 hours for lunch.  My opening was
complimented by a prayer from our Elder and an official welcome to the territory of the Lil'wat Nation, on whose land
we met in Whistler, BC, north of Vancouver.  (We were actually meeting in the same facility where I first experienced
OST five years ago).  As has been my experience, people took to the process immediately and got down to work on the
issues with no trouble at all.  I had a partner working with me who was learning OST, and he helped to organize the
agenda wall and see about an even distribution of topics throughout the 8 time slots we had available.  He also
remained in charge of the proceedings for the entire event.

I received several comments during the first day about the process including comments about how well it allows
everybody to participate and how free of conflict the discussions were.  One woman said that she had been coming to
these meetings for years and met the same people and never heard any of them speak.  This was the first time she
heard from some of them.  I asked her why she thought that is and she said it had to do with the safety that was
created.  She felt that because individuals proposed topics that they were passionate about, a great deal of respect
was brought to the discussions, and that the whole group held the space, not just the facilitator.  When facilitators
work in controlling processes, participants sometimes feel that they can lose themselves in conflict.  Not so in Open
Space, where the whole group takes responsibility for keeping the space safe and therefore, conflict is often
eliminated, as was the case for this meeting.  And there were some contentious issues!

Another interesting comment came for a seasoned veteran of the Friendship Centre movement, an Elder who has
served on the Executive at all levels, local, provincial and national.  He said that this was the first meeting where he
learned something.

(As an aside, and by way of demonstrating how easy it is to get into Open Space, comes this story: My three year old
daughter was with me and at one point, while groups were moving around, she came into the room with her mother,
and asked what the paper and the nice coloured markers were doing on the floor in the centre.  I told her that people
used the markers to write down things that they wanted to talk about on the paper.  She then proceeded to dictate
to me a list of topics she wanted discussed.  She was interested in the following:

•      How pens work
•      How she can get her friend's allergies to go away
•      How buildings are built
•      How colour goes in
•      How the inside of your body works
•      How hinges work
•      How bones grow back together crooked.

She then returned to our hotel room with my partner where I am told that they held their own discussion groups on
these topics.  I relate this to make the point that OST is easy enough for a three year old to understand with very little
instruction.)

We gathered in the circle for a closing prayer at the end of the day, as is our tradition.

DAY TWO

Day two began in a novel way for me, because we had to change rooms.  Our large meeting room had been overtaken
by a conference of McDonald's Restaurant's managers from Western Canada (more on this below).  We moved to a
smaller room which involved some work to prepare, but, despite my anxieties, worked out fine.  Day two began early
with a sage smudge and a prayer.  The smell of sage permeated the facility, and its bittersweet (and slightly
cannabis-like) smell confounded the McDonald's managers who were by now virtually swarming around our meeting
space.

Playing fast and loose with time, the groups met at 9 instead of 9:30 and finished at 10:30 for the first session, taking a
half hour break before convening the 11:00 sessions on time.  As the news started to go up on the wall, one woman
commented how different the reports were from the actual discussions in the groups.  I have always suspected that
this is the case and I wonder if anyone else has figured out how to capture the energy and passion that forms in the
groups and is not reflected in the reports?

It seemed as the second day progressed, that the group discussions became more intense and the breaks between
discussions became lighter.  This was in contrast to day one, when people seemed to be feeling their way around, and
were more aloof in both the groups and the breaks.  I can really see how extending the discussions over two days
brings a totally different quality of experience to people.  It is deeper and richer and the relationships become
stronger so that people feel freer with each other outside of the meeting.

The whole notion of personal responsibility intensified over day two.  One participant, who missed convening her
session because she was actually attending to another participant who was suffering a nasty reaction to a bee sting,
used the evening news to apologize for "acting irresponsibly" by not convening her session.  The apology was offered
with great respect and humility to the group.  It opened my eyes to how serious the "responsibility" part can get
taken.

As day two came to a close, I checked my "Open Space Evaluation" sheet: a piece of blank chart paper with the
question "What do you think of Open Space?" on the top.  The paper contained a couple of doodles of a happy face and
a light bulb and these telling words: "It's really round!"

DAY THREE

Again, we opened with a smudge and a prayer.  I'm lucky to have these openings available to me as it aligns people's
thoughts nicely at the beginning of the day and helps ground the crown for the work ahead of them.

Convergence consisted of the following steps:

• posters with topic names and numbers were placed around the room
• participants read reports (roughly 50 pages) for a half hour
• reflect and use the dots to indicate passion
• some topics were converged
• top dot getters were brought off the wall and placed in the centre of the circle (there were ten of them)
• I invited champions to come forward to see these through the action planing phase
• Nine champions came forward and a few more topics were converged.  Convergence was highly conservative,   as is my preference.  Only topics that were closely related were converged.
• The orphaned topic was placed with the others with a meeting space post it note on it in case anyone             wanted
• to take the issue forward.  As it turned out, no one did.
• Discussions lasted 45 minutes.  Several participants wished that they could have had the whole day to actions plan.

(Note to OST facilitators who may be working with Carrier speaking people: the word "dot" sounds a lot like the Carrier
word "D'ogh" which is a rather vulgar term for female genitalia.  So when I suggested that folks grab seven dots and
indicate where their passion lay, it resulted in a truly inspired outburst of belly laughs from one person!)

The closing circle was profound.  I had wanted to use a talking stick (a real one!) for the closing circle, but the
organization did not bring theirs.  Instead I used a piece of lava rock.  The Whistler area is covered in old lava flows and
the rocks lie everywhere, pitted from air bubbles that were trapped in the molten lava.  As it turns out these rocks are
great for using in sweat lodges as they hold heat.  So when a number of people went out on day two to collect sweat
rocks for future use, the BCAAFC ED gave me one.  And I used it for the closing circle.

I opened by stating that lava is rock made from material that has welled up from deep within the earth and taken form.
It does not crack under extreme heat and it is malleable and flexible.  In my mind this summed up the organization
nicely.

As the rock went around, people shared very deeply.  I was especially touched by the Elder who said that the process
was a new role model for First Nations communities to show us how we could be together.  Another participant said
that she was tired from the mental strain of the past few days, and had even forgotten where we were in the month
("somewhere in the middle!" she said).  Later the ED of the organization remarked that he thought that this comment
represented the fact that she was no longer thinking linearly.  It fact, the ED recognized OST as a tool with
tremendous possibility for decolonizing First Nations people and communities because it creates the environment for
people the THINK in traditional ways.  I have said that before, and I am buttressed in that belief now.

Several people saw possibilities for using OST and have vowed to use it.  There was an almost fiercely protective sense
that came over the group regarding the process.  They recognized it as theirs, as one which is, in both form and
content, real indigenous self-government.

We closed the third day with a prayer.