The Conference

I have spent many years within the world of higher education and in spaces dominated by Western Society. In the past year I transitioned from that world into a space surrounded by my fellow Indigenous people. It has changed me for the better. Recently, I attended a conference and it reminded me that living in relationship to place and to community are THE best medicine for the spirit. 

Throughout the day, we were on a very tight schedule and little time was allocated to creating mission and vision statements as well as future goals, despite it being of central importance to the event. At regular intervals throughout different steps in the process, we received five-minute warning signs flashed in front of us; it was so rushed that I took a moment to take a short walk. If the statements were worth all of the stress, there would have been more time allocated for each task. I enjoyed the beauty of the place and the flowers that attracted all manner of insects to partake. The butterflies were abundant. It was a culture shock to step back into the induced stress of time crunches, limited opportunities to speak by cutting into conversations, and jargon that is spoken so often it becomes meaningless. While I must operate occasionally to lend my voice in that world, I now organize events very differently in a more traditional manner. They talked of power structures and in my world, power is connected with the creative forces of the universe that make up all things. So, while they spoke of power to discuss hierarchies, I thought of power in all of us that brings all persons, non-human and human, together as relatives. One language was used to separate and another to bring people together. 

I returned and sat down in one of the very rushed segments and stayed a bit quieter than I had been, just to listen to what was really being said. A grasshopper found a home on one of the gentleman’s arms and they just existed there listening. I smiled and thought, “I wonder what they want to bring to the table? What would the message be for the man and his arm if they took the time to listen?”

The gentleman stopped, held up his arm as he noticed his visitor, and said, “I’m being attacked by nature.” The cultural divide between us was momentous.

At its very core, the value of diversity is that where I may see something beautiful and someone else doesn’t, we can see the world together through a new set of eyes. Grasshoppers will become friends. Language will bring us together. We will all be better for it.