Journeys Toward Understanding: A Way Forward from the 60s Scoop Volume 1

Circles of Understanding challenges us to muster the required courage and humility to search our hearts for the daunting process restoring our relationship as those who serve and those who were served. If we fail, we can be left with an emotional impasse, of shame, blame and anger.The Circle process finds its logic in the patterns of nature. It follows the same cycles that we find in the natural world. The Medicine Wheel serves as our anchor in this process of reconciliation. The Circle is made up of four quadrants, Spiritual, Emotional, Physical, and Intellectual, and guides us in our search.The Spiritual quadrant, we set the tone for the work and reminds us that we are all related, with different experiences and understandings but with unique contributions to make to the process. No person has all the answers and is but a piece of the puzzle. Our full engagement is all crucial. The Emotional is where we tell the stories. They may not be easy to hear and may elicit some deep emotions. Try to stay engaged in listening from the heart as this builds trust and understanding. You will begin to wonder why and how this could have happened. In Indigenous teachings, the Physical quadrant is not only about our bodies and paying attention to its needs and to maintaining good health; it also pays attention to the relational - how things are connected. For the Scoop issue, we seek answers to the question of why and how? We examine the experience of Indigenous peoples with government and legislative mandates that are foundational to the functioning of our society, analyze how they all fit together and have brought about these stories.Finally, we end with the Intellectual quadrant. We can come to a place where we can make good decisions. We present ideas on how to break harmful cycles. We look at what others are doing and see that we are not alone in trying to produce needed change. Now is the time to present our own ideas and test them based on what we have learned.