EVOLVE Communities

 “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anaemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

I write this sitting in what is the most special place in the world to me; a place where I seek and find clarity and guidance if feeling ambivalent or confused. The sun shines on me, as I look out over Baranguba (Montague) Island, feeling encircled, nurtured and protected by the cove within which I sit, book-ended by sacred rocks and the sounds of the ocean washing over me. I went to my office this morning brimming with ideas, in great anticipation of writing this newsletter. However, when I picked up pen, I found that I was stuck inside a cacophony of thoughts. It felt like there was a veil between me and a clear concept that I wished to share with you, and I could not lift that veil. In an attempt to do so, I came to my favourite “clearing space”. What occurred to me was that what I was experiencing in that moment was a tension between clarity and confusion, and that exquisite tensions of this kind underlie much of our work. And so I began to write….

Much of our work with community and as facilitators is defined by how we dance between ‘exquisite tensions’. To give an example at the simplest level: In Evolve’s community engagement training, we co-design the training with participants. What emerges from this is a diversity of needs and an exquisite tension between information (too much, too little, too complex, too simple, too generic, too specific). In constant communication with the participants, we dance between these tensions to find a way forward that will meet all needs. On a deeper and more profound level underlying our work, is the tension between love and power. In the words of Adam Kahane (2010, Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change):

To co-create new social realities, we have to work with two distinct fundamental forces that are in tension: power and love. In order for each to achieve its full potential, it needs the other. Adam Kahane, 2010.

This tension (between power and love) in working with community is paramount. In a recent survey of Evolve readers (the results of which are summarised below), I asked how you would most like for me to communicate with you. Many of you requested that I share more case studies from my work and that of Evolve. Interestingly, in itself this is a dance between a tension of ensuring that I respect the confidentiality of clients and all participants, with a strong desire to share learning from my experiences with you, particularly from mistakes that I make. I share a story with you now with this tension in mind.

I am on the precipice or eve of a milestone for a project that is very dear to me, and that I have been working on for the past five years. In this project, I feel deeply privileged at the opportunity to have worked with the Boards of Management for, and Aboriginal owners of, Gulaga and Biamanga National Parks, to help them create their vision and management framework for the Mountains for the next 10 years. In terms of the approach (the how), the design has been embedded in the principles of participatory planning, drawing from a range of tools and approaches (in fact over the course of five years I think we have drawn from the full spectrum). The most powerful of these approaches have always been around being on the Mountains and storytelling through a variety of forms. The highlight for me was a recent workshop for Aboriginal owners held on Gulaga Mountain where people expressed, through whatever art form they chose, “What calls me back to the Mountains”. Holding the workshop in a retreat space at the base of Gulaga automatically took us into, what I felt, was a balanced space between power and love (this is for a host of reasons, including that in a conventional meeting room, the power and comfort sits with those of us who are more used to operating in this space).

The milestone that we reach tomorrow involves reviewing the first complete draft of our work from the past five years. I have a mixture of feelings around this: nervousness, excitement, and some resistance to this part of the journey coming to an end. I think most of my nervousness relates to exquisite tensions – between information (too much, too little), direction (too much, too little), style (too narrative, too technical), legislative requirements (not satisfied, over-emphasis) and so on. In this work, I think that where the tension most often pops up is arising from elements of what Kahane terms as “power-over”.

Degenerative power is described as ‘power over’ or the forcing or maintaining of oppression over others in ways that result in the reduction of an individual or community’s capacity to heal.

“Power over” in my work, particularly with Indigenous communities, can often expresses itself as, despite intentions to the contrary: We-are-pretty-much-doing -things-our-conventional-way,-business-as-usual,-and -retrofitting-this-system-to-the-needs-of-participants. An awareness of the potential for power-over is paramount for me now now as EVOLVE is in the midst of designing a large participatory planning project for two remote Aboriginal communities in the Carpentaria, with a mindfulness of not ‘doing engagement to’ rather than ‘with’.

As a backdrop to all of this is a book that sits beside me “My People’s Dreaming: An Aboriginal Elder Speaks On Life, Land, Spirit And Forgiveness” (2010) by Max Dulumunmun Harrison. This book also tells the stories of the two Mountains and Baranguba island. I recommend this book, for its beauty and for its clarity and wisdom. In addition to the book, is a wonderful program on Message Stick – Uncle Max: The More I Give the More I Keep (March 2010). In the book, Max Harrison concludes with describing a tension between forgiveness and resentment (which could also possibly be viewed as power and love):

Forgiveness is one of the highest extreme levels of acceptance. It is one of the greatest achievements if you can forgive – your spirit stays free. It is not caught up in that turmoil of anger and that resentment that is carried to your grave or through your life. You must strive to be free of that to have free spirit, to have a spirit that is not tarnished in that sense.