حوار مستقل
نطاق التركيز الجغرافي:
كندا, المكسيك, الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية
Major focus
The main focus of this dialogue was recognizing the grief, trauma, and care of Indigenous Peoples across North America. As the first dialogue in a series, it was about acknowledging and recognizing where we are collectively with the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of it, including environmental destruction, climate change, food system destruction, and nutritional trauma over generations. We connected our dialogue to Action Track 5: Building Resilience to Vulnerabilities, Shocks and Stress. Denisa Livingston, (Diné Nation), UNFSS Champion hosted this dialogue and co-moderated with Dialogue Cu
... قراءة المزيدrator, Dr. Rod McCormick is an Indigenous mental health clinician and researcher at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, Canada. He opened the dialogue by introducing concepts related to the theme, including challenging the terminology of resilience, Indigenous “relational lens” and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, ecological grief, the importance of grief ceremonies and the concept of the “backswing” in going forward. We questioned the term “resilience” from Indigenous versus western worldviews. Noting that Indigenous Peoples internationally are opposing “resilience terminology” when describing Indigenous Peoples, because it applauds people for surviving and makes it easy for policy makers to avoid looking for real solutions. It shifts responsibility for both the cause of the crises and the solutions. For example, the Maori criticism of resilience theories “is that by definition they assume an acceptance of responsibility for our position as disadvantaged individuals. That is by examining and developing theories and models of resilience we buy into the idea that this is the way it is and we need to simply get better at the idea of bouncing back and being resilient. Resistance, however, represents an approach of collective fightback, exposing the inequitable distribution of power, and actively opposing negative social, political, and economic influences.” Adopting the Indigenous “relational lens” makes things look different and compels investigation into different dynamics in system relationships, such relational lenses are central to Indigenous Peoples’ Traditional Ecological Knowledge systems and healing practices that have sustained their populations since time immemorial. We explored the topic of Ecological Grief. Dr. McCormick has been focused on ecological grief in his clinical work and research, and “Anticipatory Grief” - the emotions, actions and mourning stimulated by awareness of impending loss/death. He shared examples of the ecological and anticipatory grief that Indigenous Peoples’ communities are experiencing as their traditional fishing rivers dry up, the loss of sea ice in the Arctic, as species go extinct, as forests burn, or as lands are cleared or destroyed by extraction. He shared specific examples of farmers in India and reindeer herders in Norway and Sweden are committing suicide at alarming rates. The importance of Grief Ceremonies: Dr. McCormick explained he and his partner developed a grief support program many years ago, and incorporate ceremony as one of the important approaches to grief; further describing that Grief ceremonies help move families through three important tasks: 1. Recognize the loss; 2. Reaffirm the continuance of the family/community; 3. Recognize the altered relationship with the deceased. The concept of the “backswing”. The backswing is needed to generate the power to move an object forward (like a hammer, broom, golf club, baseball bat). The backswing leads to contact and the follow through leads to good results - this metaphor applies to healing. “Re-search” is a search again for what we once knew. In order to proceed on a healing journey, we must first collect the medicines and resources we need. When our families, communities and organizations are facing a crisis then they too need to look back to rebuild their confidence and strength. They too need to review past accomplishments, identify skills and communal attributes and healing resources to prepare themselves to move forward with increased motivation and direction. قراءة القليل
مسار (مسارات) العمل: 1, 4, 5
الكلمات الأساسية: Data & Evidence, Environment and Climate, Governance, Human rights, Innovation, Policy, Women & Youth Empowerment