Amazing OS in Vancouver on Friday.  The theme was "Making lives better for urban Aboriginal People...Let's stop talking about it...let's start doing it!"

Nearly 250 people in attendance, including a federal cabinet minister, two deputy ministers, two chiefs, many leaders from throughout the Aboriginal community and dozens of community members, program staff, private sector representatives, and clients.

Opened with a a prayer and a song sung by Leonard George a local chief and son of the great actor Chief Dan George.  My opening stressed that traditional nature of the technology, how this was how we always met to solve our community's problems.  Stressed passion, responsibility AND self management, which equates to self-government, a very important value in our communities.  The participants were charged up and by the time I had finished the opening, there was a stampede...five people jumped out of their seats.  I had to call for more markers!

It took us twenty minutes to set 45 agenda items, most of them proposed by strong young women.  Very few of the agenda items were proposed by the leadership that was present.  Instead they found themselves actively involved in a meeting where the agenda had been set by people who never get a chance to set an agenda.

My notes remind me that the groups were very large and initially quite close together.  The location was the Vancouver Friendship Centre gymnasium, an Aboriginal community centre, chosen for it's locality and the realized possibility of lots of drop ins.  In my experience, there is nothing you can do to encourage people to meet in smaller groups.  Has anybody else found this?

This made the organizers a little nervous...shouldn't they be further apart?  Shouldn't the groups be smaller?  Over the day of course, the participants managed to spread themselves out nicely, and a nice self-ordering came out of it.

In the vein of "trust the process" comes this story...We didn't break for lunch, with the result that the whole crowd lined up for chow at 12:00 and didn't get into the 12:00 sessions by about 12:40.  The organizers were going nuts..."make an announcement!"  I refused.  By 2:00, the meeting was running only 15 minutes behind, and by 4:00 ON THE DOT we were back in the circle and beginning the closing, right on schedule.  I asked the organizers if they had ever seen a conference that was running late bring itself back on time and not drop anything. They were amazed.  I was amazed too.  250 people, with no leadership or influence, ran 40 minutes late and brought themselves back on time.
Remarkable.

Closing was very powerful.  We were lucky to have many traditional people in attendance so many prayers were offered.  This kind of thing probably wouldn't make it in the business community, but as a facilitator working in the Aboriginal community, I am lucky to have built in openings and closing at my disposal.  Sharing ranged from a woman who was a recovered drug user/alcoholic/prostitute making a commitment to action as a result of the day to a man who lightened us up by coming into the circle, giving his name and occupation and stating that he was looking
for a wife.  Someone called out "how many horses have you got?" Laughter...his response: "None.  They ran away and we were too lazy to brand them!"  I LOVE the way we laugh at ourselves!

This was a remarkable event and very important in the life of the impoverished urban aboriginal community of Vancouver.  Open Space has opened a tremendous set of opportunities for people.  A whole new leadership came forward, and a fresh momentum was established.  And equally importantly, this may become known as the event during which Open Space took hold in the Aboriginal community in British Columbia.  Everybody is now talking about using it.  First Nations people recognize this technology, as I've said before, and meeting this way is a very profound process of rediscovery and is very important to unleashing the cultural models that have colonized us for hundreds of years.  There is a HUGE appetite for this now...I can't state it enough.

I'd  like to thank Harrison Owen, on behalf of the many people who thanked me yesterday for the technology.  You have given us a great gift, even if it was only by holding a mirror up to ourselves.  Open Space represents a beautifully natural and indigenous technology that is reawakening a power among a great many First Nations people in this area.  It's very exciting to be a part of that.