June 1, 2023
Dear Friends, Family, and Colleagues,
Welcome to the first Riverstone Consulting Newsletter!
Where shall we begin? I really want to tell you the story behind the Decolonizing Spaces Webinar I will begin to facilitate in September because it is at the heart of my new creative + consulting company.
The story begins with my reading of Elaine Alec’s book Calling My Spirit Back in November 2021. Elaine Alec is Syilx and Secwepemc and she shares her personal story from a place of authenticity, love, and vulnerability. I highly recommend reading her book.
After reading Elaine’s book, I found out that she was offering an online “Cultivating Safe Spaces” program which I took in the spring of 2022. I took the program because I was curious. My curiosity was:
“Is it possible for me to host uncomfortable conversations from a place of love and care so that we can move together towards cultural shifts and systems change?”
The simple answer I found out is yes, by understanding oneself. However, what I have also been finding out over the last 18 months is that this simplicity is made complicated by layers of colonization. Colonization promotes fear, sickness, exclusion, oppression, and shame about ourselves, each other, and the land. That’s heavy, isn’t it? So, how do we bring awareness to this, how do we share our stories, how do we heal, and how do we move forward?
Through the Cultivating Safe Spaces program and monthly calls that Elaine hosts, I have been peeling back the colonized layers of myself. One way that I have been doing that is by beginning to understand and ACCEPT my perspective as a creative innovator who thinks in a non-linear way, who asks A LOT of questions, who takes time to process, who needs time to research from every perspective, who answers questions with more questions, and who believes it is possible with healing and imagination to change culture and systems.
These may seem like highly desirable characteristics in our society, but being in spaces that want to hold onto the status quo while saying they support change, being in spaces that avoid uncomfortable questions by saying they are inappropriate, and being in spaces that exist in a state of reaction and urgency is simply exhausting for me as a creative innovator.
In November 2022, I took Elaine Alec’s “Train the Trainer” program where Elaine GENEROUSLY guided us through how we might facilitate the Cultivating Safe Spaces program ourselves and run our own business. Since then, I have been asking myself,
“How do I facilitate this content/framework in a way that is
authentic for me?”
I think this is an evolving process that comes with awareness, humility, and an unraveling of colonization. I know that through my personal unraveling, I surface what is difficult and uncomfortable. I am starting to embrace that because in doing so I have the ability to visualize change through imagination and creativity.
The Cultivating Safe Spaces content resonates with me because it embraces my imagination, it is heart-centred, it doesn’t provide “answers” but offers protocols/observations/experiences, it is a memory of time before colonization, it supports everyone to reflectively be themselves, and it is connected to the land and the peoples of the land where I am.
I would love to have you join me for one of my webinars this fall!
Photo at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers by Motif Photography
Note #1: Click on the button above for all the details of what I am calling the “Decolonizing Spaces Webinar” including when it will be happening, the topics, the cost, the registration process, etc.
Note #2: If you would like to talk about how you can bring this webinar/conversation/consultation to your group, collective, or organization - please email me at geraldine@riverstone.consulting and we will explore all the options!
Note #3: I created a poster (see below) that provides a quick summary for the Decolonizing Spaces Webinar. If you would like to have this poster to share with your connections or hang up in your community space, please let me know and I will email/mail/drop it off for you. I appreciate your support so much. Thank you!
FEATURE
In every newsletter, I will be highlighting an Indigenous woman/organization because I know they see the pathway forward in decolonizing. I believe that it is our responsibility to listen and follow.
Meet Awo Taanaakii (Shield Woman), a Blackfoot Siksika woman whose presence of story, spirituality, healing, care, and laughter can be found throughout Mohkinstsis (Calgary). For example, in 1986 Ruth Scalp Lock had a vision to create a shelter in Calgary for Indigenous women and children seeking refuge. After advocating for many years, the Awo Taan Healing Lodge was finally opened and now supports women and children from all cultures in crisis. These families are supported within an Indigenous framework of the Medicine Wheel - emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical.