cc

Securing Human Well-Being: The Medicine

Wheel as a Conceptual Frameworkcc

ccccThe Canadian social security system is usually thought of as a bundle of rights

and programs that collectively constitute a "social safety net." The metaphor
"safety net" is instructive. It implies that normally people have what they need,
and that the net is a kind of insurance against catastrophe if it should happen that
someone "falls" off from the platform of "normal" self-reliance and prosperity.
The Canadian social safety net is made up of a blend of income security, health
and social insurance programs and a constantly changing array of "social
adjustment" services, designed to help those who are having difficulty staying on
the platform to "adjust" to mainstream expectations.cc

The principal mechanisms of the Canadian social security system include social
assistance, employment insurance, the Canada Health Plan, the Canada and
Quebec Pension Plans, Old Age Security and guaranteed income supplements for
seniors, housing programs for low income people, and a somewhat transient
array of other programs that come and go depending on political spending
priorities and available cash, including education and training subsidies, tax
credits, and programs aimed at helping "disadvantaged" groups to find their
place within the mainstream of Canadian social and economic life.cc

A basic assumption of the Canadian social security system is that only ten
percent of the population will ever really need the safety net, and that between
ninety and ninety-three percent will remain healthy, and secure in their place on
the platform of mainstream prosperity. Mac Saulis points out that in many
Aboriginal communities over ninety percent of the population would have to be
categorized as being out of the mainstream in terms of their current reliance on
social assistance, housing subsidies and other aspects of the social safety net.cc
In the Introduction to this document, we began our discussion with a fundamental
assertion that merely tinkering with and adjusting the Canadian social security
system for Aboriginal communities has not, and will not, work. We believe that a
starting place for Aboriginal social security reform must be to re-conceptualize
what social security actually means for Aboriginal people, such that what is
"secured" is human well-being and prosperity, or what the Report of the Royal
Commission on Aboriginal People refers to as "whole health" (RCAP, Vol. 3:34).cc

The following points summarize the implications of that starting place for this
discussion.cc

1. Social security for Aboriginal people must promote and "secure" a way
of life that produces "whole health", broadly defined as human well-being
and prosperity. Such a concept goes far beyond more money and program-
based solutions.cc

When conceived in this way, the delivery of programs to and for

communities, (no matter how generously funded or effectively designed)
can never bring "social security" to Aboriginal people. Until Aboriginal
communities can recover the wealth they once possessed in the form of
healthy social relationships, well-being will continue to be an illusive goal.
Those culturally generated relationships provided pathways of opportunity
for self-development and contributing to the social and economic well-
being of the people, as well as a dependable safety net for those who fall
upon hard times for whatever reasons.cc

This safety net was animated by love, sharing and caring, and it was
maintained through healthy relationships of respect, trust and mutual
responsibility as well as effective leadership.cc

These community capacities are sometimes referred to as "social capital".

What is implied by reconceptualizing social security in the way we have is
that in addition to certain financial security and "social adjustment
programs, it will be critical to invest in the rebuilding (i.e. healing and
development) of the fundamental relationships that generate and protect
human well-being. Only then can a sustainable system of "social security"
be built for Canadian Aboriginal communities.cc

2. As we stated in our introduction, a healthy person, family, community or

nation are those who are able to successfully address the fundamental
determinants of health.cc

3. Aboriginal communities (both on reserve and in urban settings) are

suffering from a complex web of health and social problems that have their
roots in generations of systemic oppression, which has included a litany of
atrocities and injustices that would now be considered flagrant crimes
 against humanity according to the Geneva Accords. A practical list of these
includes the psychological, physical, spiritual and sexual abuse of
Aboriginal children in residential schools: systemmic government and
church-based attempts to uproot and destroy Aboriginal spirituality,
cultures, language and identity, appropriation of Aboriginal lands and
resources and subsequent destruction of local economies followed by
enforced and prolonged ghettoization (the reserve system), poverty and
dependency on a debilitating welfare system; and grinding racism
encountered most noticeably in school, in the justice system, in attempts
to secure employment, and in basic human relations with non-Aboriginal
communities. Many of these patterns are still happening today.cc

4. Much of this externally originated oppression has also been internalized.

"Internalized oppression" refers to the phenomena of oppressed people
turning their hurt and anger on themselves and on each other (Memmi,
1967; Jackins, 1978; Freire, 1970). Examples of internalized oppression in
Aboriginal communities include physical and sexual abuse, alcohol and
drug addiction, suicide, criminal violence, public corruption and
repression, learned economic helplessness and dependency, generational
disunity between families, and racial/cultural self-hatred.cc

5. As we have described in our introduction, healing in Aboriginal

communities may be strategically defined as a process of removing
barriers and building the capacity of people and communities to address
the determinants of health.cc

6. In order to assist Aboriginal communities to address the full range of

determinants of human well-being and prosperity, it is necessary to have a
comprehensive understanding of the following.cc

a. What are the basic determinants of health? How are they related to
each other?cc

b. How can communities assess their current realities and conditions

in order to determine health states (i.e. where things are now)
relative to each determinant?cc

c. What are the basic status principles and processes of change that
are needed in order to bring about improvements in levels of well-
being relative to each of the determinants of health?c

7. Once these questions are answered, it will then be possible to describe

the kinds of supplemental programs and support mechanisms that can be
woven together to make up an adequate social security system for
Aboriginal communities.c
A. 
c


c c

 c
cc
an their book, Why Some People are Healthy and Others are Not, Evens, Barer and
Marmor (1994) draw together a useful synthesis of work that spans at least a
dozen disciplines as they compile available evidence on the critical conditions
and factors that determine human health. Their work was proceeded by a number
of creative leaps in health thinking that gradually encouraged a considerable
broadening of perspective from the dominant medical model, "which tends to
focus on disease rather than health, and is preoccupied with bio-mechanical
problems and solutions". (Evans & Stoddard, 1994: 31)cc

an Canada, milestones in health thinking can be traced as follows.cc

1. 1974 - The then Health Minister Marc Lalonde is credited with a

document entitled, "A New Perspective on the Health of Canadians," which
identified human biology, health behaviours, the environment and
availability of health services as "critical factors" affecting health status.
The Lalonde report placed particular emphasis on health behaviours. That
emphasis led to health activities guided by the following logic:cc
a. A great deal of ill health is caused by poor choices made by
individuals, and subsequent behaviours that undermine health (such
as choices to smoke, use alcohol or otherwise abuse the body).cc

b. The way to change behaviour is to give people information, i.e. to

educate them about the harmful affects of poor health choices and
behaviours.cc

c. Once people have been properly educated they will make healthy
choices and they will change behaviours negatively affecting their
health.c

There are several critical flaws in this logic. The principal weakness is that
it does not work in the real world. We know that information-based
education alone does not change behaviours. For example, it is estimated
that over ninety percent of Canadian high school and university students
understand the risk factors related to Ha and Aa
S (such as unprotected
sex, sharing needles, etc.). Nevertheless, in a major study conducted in
1988 (and subsequently confirmed by other studies), very few young
people have changed their at-risk behaviours despite the fact that they
have all the information that they need.cc

2. 1978 - The World Health Organization and UNaCEF held a landmark

conference in Alma-Ata, Russia from which the now famous "Alma-Ata

eclaration" emerged, and from which the World Health Organization later
developed a "Health for All" strategy. The Alma-Ata
eclaration is
significant because it further expanded the definition of "health" to include
"complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the
absence of disease." at went on to declare that health is a "fundamental
human right," that "gross inequity in health status between the haves and
the have not¶s of the world is politically, socially and economically
unacceptable," and that "people have the right to participate individually
and collaboratively in building health solutions." The Alma-Ata
eclaration
focused on primary health care, which brings medical services and
community health development into the same sphere of activity.cc

3. The next major shift could be seen in the "Ottawa Charter for Health
Promotion," released at the First anternational Conference on Health
Prevention, hosted by Canada in Ottawa in 1986. The Ottawa Charter
specifically listed the following "prerequisites" to determinants of health.c

· peacecc
· sheltercc
· educationcc
· foodcc
· incomecc
· a stable ecosystemcc
· sustainable resourcescc
· social justicecc
· equityc
an addition to more clearly specifying a broad-range of non-medical
determinants as being critical to human well-being, the Ottawa Charter also
went beyond the Alma-Ata conceptualization of health by asserting that
health promotion means helping people to gain some control over those
things which lead to health. This is significant because it is also one of the
key factors identified by the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal
People as being a pre-requisite to well-being for Aboriginal people.cc
Whole health, in the full sense of the term, does not depend
primarily on the mode of operation of health and healing
services - important as they are. Whole health depends as
much or more on the design of the political and economic
systems that organize relations of power and productivity in
Canadian society. (RCAP, ol. 4:315)c
The Commissioners cite Peter Penuche, an anuit leader from Labrador
speaking at a circumpolar conference in 1984, who eloquently explained
the relationship between sovereignty and health for the anuit people.cc
The annu are sick and dying because of a well-documented
syndrome of ill-health brought on by the enforced dependency
and attempted acculturation of an entire people ... for the annu,
health and ill-health are profoundly political issues,
inseparable from social and economic considerations. (abid.)c

espite the fact that Canada has been a world leader in advancing health
thinking, our own health systems are still very much dominated by the
medical model in terms of both strategic thinking at the most senior levels
and the way health dollars are spent.cc
 4. at has only been during the past four years that non-medical
determinants of health were officially integrated into a national policy
framework in Canada. This thinking was synthesized in a document called
"Strategies for Population Health: anvesting in the Health of Canadians"
which was approved by the Federal / Provincial / Territorial Ministers of
Health in 1994.cc

What is significant here is that a framework for rethinking what Canada¶s

health agenda should be (i.e. how money is spent) was developed and
agreed upon. That framework calls for an investment in the work of
addressing the determinants of health, and lists those determinants as
follows.c

a. ancome and social statuscc

b. Social support networkscc

c. Educationcc

d. Employment and working conditionscc

e. Physical environmentcc

f. Biology and genetic endowmentcc

g. Personal health practice and coping skillscc

h. Healthy child developmentcc

i. Health servicesc

The population health approach also recognizes the need for health action
at the level of the individual, families, communities, institutions, and
society at large. "Population Health" is the current (1998) "buzz word" in
official Health Canada circles.c
So What?cc
We share this brief history of health thinking in Canada for the following reasons:cc

1. at is important for Aboriginal communities to understand that their own

traditional approaches to thinking about health represented in such
symbols as the medicine wheel or the tree of life are only now being
discovered and validated by mainstream health professionals.cc

2. A careful examination of the literature on determinants of health, and

particularly the actual listed determinants that are identified in the
 published sources and the integrative models being proposed by groups
such as the Canadian anstitute for Advanced Research seem to us to be a
rediscovery of things Aboriginal elders knew many generations ago, and
also things that virtually all of the great spiritual traditions of humanity
have taught since time immemorial regarding the maintenance of harmony
and balance within ourselves as individuals, in our personal relationships,
in our family and community life, in the pursuits and activities of our
nations and in our fundamental relationships with the earth and the
Creator.c

adentifying
eterminants of Well-Being for Aboriginal

Communitiesc
an our professional practice, we have undertaken a simple and extremely
revealing exercise in dozens of Canadian and American andigenous communities,
as well as in many non-Aboriginal settings in both rural and urban settings.cc

A representative cross-section of community members are gathered in a meeting

or workshop. There are usually children, youth, men, women, elders,
professionals, unemployed people, traditionalists, entrepreneurs -- as wide a
diversity of people as we can get.cc

We then ask variations of the following "simple" question: "What is it that people
here need to have in their lives in order to have a good life, to have well-being and
prosperity?" The results have been remarkably similar across many communities
and cultures and also quite constant with what the "experts" are now saying in
the research literature.cc

What follows is a synthesis of this thinking, drawn from work with First Nations,
anuit, and Metis communities across Canada between 1994 and 1998. This list
should not be seen as a model to be copied, but rather a proof that in Aboriginal
communities people already know what the determinants of health are and that
part of our work in promoting community healing is to mirror back to them what
they already know in ways that promote learning and action.cc

he Determinants of Health to be "Secured" in Social

Security Reformcc
Health status relative to each of the following determinants needs to be defined
(in terms of a local community standard of well-being), measured and assessed
(in terms of current realities and conditions) and analyzed (in terms of what is
needed to transform health conditions.cc
1. Basic physical needs - adequate nutrition, clothing, shelter,
pure drinking water, sanitary waste disposal and access to medical
services.cc

2. Spirituality and a sense of purpose - connection to the Creator

and a clear sense of purpose and direction in individual, family and
community life, as well as incc

the collective life of the nation.cc

3. Life-sustaining values, morals and ethics - guiding principles

and a code of conduct that informs choices in all aspects of life so
that at the level of individuals, families, institutions and whole
communities, people know which pathways lead to human well-
being, and which to misery, harm and death.cc

4. Safety and security - freedom from fear, intimidation, threats,

violence, criminal victimization, and all forms of abuse both within
families and homes and in all other aspects of the collective life of
the people.cc

5. Adequate income and sustainable economics - access to the

resources needed to sustain life at a level that permits the continued
development of human well-being, as well as processes of economic
engagement that are capable of producing sustainable prosperity.cc

6. Adequate power - a reasonable level of control and voice in

shaping one's life and environment through processes of meaningful
participation in the political, social and economic life of one¶s
community and nation.cc

7. Social justice and equity - a fair and equitable distribution of

opportunities for all, as well as sustainable mechanisms and
processes for re-balancing inequities, injustices and injuries that
have or are occurring.cc

8. Cultural integrity and identity - pride in heritage and traditions,

access to and utilization of the wisdom and knowledge of the past,
and a healthy identification with the living processes of one's own
culture as a distinct and viable way of life for individuals, families,
institutions, communities and nations.cc

9. Community solidarity and social support - to live within a

unified community that has a strong sense of its common oneness
 and within which each person receives the love, caring and support
they need from others.cc

10. Strong families and healthy child development - families

that are spiritually centered, loving, unified, free from addictions and
abuse, and which provide a strong focus on supporting the
developmental needs of children from the time of conception
through the early years and all the way through the time of childhood
and youth.cc

11. Healthy eco-system and a sustainable relationship

between human beings and the natural world - the natural
world is held precious and honoured as sacred by the people. at is
understood that human beings live within nature as fish live within
water. The air we breath, the water we drink, the earth that grows our
food and the creatures we dwell among and depend on for our very
lives are all kept free from poisons, disease and other dangers.
Economic prosperity is never sought after at the expense of
environmental destruction. Rather, human beings work hand-in-hand
with nature to protect, preserve and nurture the gifts the Creator has
given.cc

12. Critical learning opportunities - consistent and systematic

opportunities for continuous learning and improvement in all
aspects of life, especially those connected to key personal, social
and economic challenges communities are facing, and those which
will enhance participation in civil society.cc

13. Adequate human services and social safety net - programs

and processes to promote, support and enhance human healing and
social development, as well as to protect and enable the most
vulnerable to lead lives of dignity and to achieve adequate levels of
well-being.cc

14. Meaningful work and service to others - Opportunities for all

to contribute meaningfully to the well-being and progress of their
families, communities, nations, as well as to the global human
family.c

These fourteen basic determinants of well-being identified in common by many

Aboriginal communities should be seen as an integrated, interdependent web of
factors, rather than as distinct in unrelated lines of action.cc

We often ask people to display their thinking about determinants in labeled

circles or balloons on a large sheet of paper (see diagram at the top of the next
page). We then ask participants to select one determinant (for example, strong
families) and to draw connecting lines to the other determinants that must also be
addressed in order to have strong healthy families. at quickly becomes evident
that most, if not all of the other determinants are intimately related to having
healthy families, and that in fact all of the determinants of well-being are
interdependent with all the others. As obvious as this point may seem, many
mainstream health practitioners are still struggling to understand the
determinants of health model. Because of the nature of their scientific and
technical training, it is difficult for many health professionals to escape a linear,
sequential and causal way of looking at health problems, and instead see an
integrated organic system of inter-related factors.cc
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an our own work with such professionals we have found that the medicine wheel
is a powerful conceptual tool for helping people to understand holistic and
integrative approaches to thinking about health. As we stated in our introduction,
the medicine wheel may be thought of as an ancient formulation of the
determinants of well-being model. at appears on the surface to be very simple,
almost too simple to deal with the complexity of fourteen interactive variables.
Actually, it is far more sophisticated then the determinantscc

imodel, or any of the population health models derived from it.cc

This is not merely an attempt to say "my model is better than your model". The
usefulness of any conceptual model of health development is its ability to show
the relationships between the various elements in the process. The determinants
model focuses on clusters of determinants, but does not facilitate seeing the
whole system within which people are living.cc
We have found that by using the medicine wheel model in conjunction with the
determinants of health analysis, a very useful multi-dimensional picture emerges
that can be used to understand not only the interactive relationships between
various clusters of health determinants, but also the nature of the overall social
system within which the transformation of health conditions must occur.cc

 he Medicine Wheel: An Integrative Scheme of hought to

Guide Actionc
c
c
c
c
c

The term "medicine" in tribal tradition refers to any substance, process, teaching,
song, story or symbol that helps to restore balance in human beings and their
communities. The medicine wheel is an ancient symbol which represents an
entire world view (a way of seeing and knowing) and the teachings that go with it.cc

We have not found a more powerful tool for modeling what is really going on in
development processes in any of the sciences and disciplines of the world.cc

At a midsummer gathering of indigenous nations held at Alkali Lake, British

Columbia, Canada in 1986, Phil Lane Sr., a distinguished Yankton Sioux elder,
was talking to a large gathering of tribal people representing over thirty-five
different tribes and nations.cc

He held a stick in his hand, and with it he drew a circle in the sand. "Our people
used the circle to explain many things," he said. "For instance, the circle
represents the hoop of the people. All of the people are a part. No one is
excluded. The hurt of one is the hurt of all. The honour of one is the honour of
all."cc

c
an this way he explained a very simple idea that has
very complex implications. The circle means that
everything is connected to everything else in life.
Nothing can happen to any one part of the circle
without affecting all the other parts.c

"The human people are not the only people in the

circle," the old man went on to explain. "The mineral
people, the plant people, those that crawl, those that
walk, those that fly, the four leggeds, even the air itself
and the water and the stars and planets beyond number--all of these are part of
the circle, and so are you, and so am a. What happens to any part of the circle
happens to all of us." And thus the elder introduced the concept of deep ecology;
of the profound interdependence of all things.cc

The medicine wheel is simply the circle divided into four parts. Seeing things in
fourness, or what Jung called "quaternity," is very common to most indigenous
people in the world (we were all once indigenous somewhere).cc

at is used to show how within whatever whole we are talking about:cc

the whole person,cc

the whole family,cc

the whole community, etc.,c

there are dimensions or parts that make up the whole, which are interrelated to
each other. The following sets of four constitutes the foundation of the model of
human and community development presented in the pages that follow.cc

The Personcc

Each human has the potential to develop capacities in four interrelated areas of
life:cc

1. mental: related to the activities and potentialities of

the mind; the thinking selfcc

2. emotional: related to the activities and potentialities

of the heart; the feeling selfcc

3. physical: related to the activities and potentialities of

the physical body, andcc

4. spiritual: related to the activities and potentialities of

the spirit self, and having to do (in development work)
 with the virtues and values that animate one's life as
well as the capacity to visualize and actualize new
potentialities within oneself or in relationships with
others.cc
cc

These dimensions are operating no matter who we are, and no matter at what
stage in life we may be.cc

c
Each aspect of the self is affected by all the others. So, for example, a sickness
affecting the physical body can also affect how well a child's intellectual faculties
function. A person filled with jealous and angry feelings about another person
may well find their mental capacities blocked, and their bodies filled with stress.
andeed, such stress is now known to be a very powerful source of disease.cc

At a primary level, most communities consist of children, youth, adults, and

elders, as well as other special interest groupings which may also be important to
consider because such groups have experiences that are different from the
mainstream within the community. Categories of this type might include single
mothers, people in recovery, the unemployed, handicapped people, etc.cc

Using the medicine wheel model of individual potentiality, it is possible to

generate a framework for understanding what is really happening in the lives of
any particular group within the community. For example, it is possible to consider
the conditions and needs of unemployed youth. Their mental, emotional, physical
and spiritual well-being can be looked at, both in terms of what it is now, but also
what it would be like if it was good (in the ideal sense). Such an examination can
best be done by groups of unemployed youth themselves, with the support of
those who have allied with them, including a skilled facilitator.cc

From such a reflection process, a base-line description of current conditions and

realities, as well as of the root causes of problems, can be developed. Out of such
an analysis will come an understanding of what is needed, and if the momentum
from the inquiry process is properly harnessed, one important outcome will be
focused action aimed at addressing the challenges faced by unemployed youth.
(Appendix A includes a full description of the Community Story Framework, a
community analysis, planning and mobilization tool which uses the basic model
of the medicine wheel to guide this type of process.)cc

an each of the four areas (mental, emotional, physical, spiritual), a list of

capacities and potentialities can be developed. Some authors call this kind of list
a competency profile. The wheel representing the individual person only makes
sense, however, if it is seen in relationship to the greater circles of which it is a
part.cc

Appendix B consists of a sample list of potentialities which can be associated

with each of the four points of the medicine wheel. They are organized according
to the four cardinal directions (compass points). Assigning one of the four
cardinal directions to each of the points on the circle is another common way of
using the medicine wheel. The device of attaching symbolic meaning related to
human capacity to each of the cardinal directions is one that has been used by
indigenous people in North America for centuries. an this rendition, a person sees
him or herself at the center of the wheel. an order to be a whole balanced person,
the gifts and qualities of all four directions must be explored and developed.cc

The Family or Clancc

ccc
ccc

Healthy families and clans hold their members as a mother holds her children. As
children grow in strength and wisdom, only gradually do they learn to be
responsible, and to care for those who have cared for them. The family is the
womb out of which the community and the nation spring. at is impossible to build
a healthy and prosperous community unless and until the families within that
community are healthy and strong.cc

Within the family are four interrelated dimensions of activity and potentiality that
are constantly at play:cc

1.
ominant Thinking Patterns - Concerning the dominant habits of

thinking that inform and drive decision making and color all the human
relationships the family engages in, both within and outside itself. This
category also concerns the way power and decision making occur within
the family, and how the family arranges priorities. Because whatever we
think about tends to expand in our lives, this category reveals much about
what is being created in the collective life of the family. An important key to
discovering the thinking pattern at the family level is to listen to the
conversation of the family.cc
 2. Human Relations - Concerning the nature and quality of the human
relationships within the family, and particularly the extent to which those
relationships foster human well-being and the unfolding of human
potential.cc

3. Physical Environment and Economy - Having to do with how the family

provides for its physical needs, including food, clothing, shelter, safety and
security, and the physical health of its members. at is vital to examine to
what extent the family's activities in this area of life either contribute to or
undermine the overall well-being of the family and its members.cc

4. Cultural and Spiritual Life - This category includes the beliefs, values,
morals and goals of the family. Both what the family members espouse and
what they actively practice are important dimensions to be considered.
Both affect the overall well-being of the family. This category also focuses
on the degree, quality and impact of the family's bonds with the Creator,
and the spiritual dimensions of life. at also concerns the degree, quality and
impact of the family's bond with the cultural community of which it is a
part.c

The wheel of the family (below) shows how each of these four primary
dimensions of family life are an interactive part of the whole family system. Each
part affects, and is in turn influenced by, all the other parts.cc

c
The Communitycc

What follows is a model (or map) of the dimensions that are involved in
developing a whole community, in its many dimensions and aspects.cc

Remember that in this study, we are concerned with the challenge of promoting
sustainable well-being and prosperity and the unfolding of human potential. As
we understand it, individuals have needs and potentiality in the areas of mental,
emotional, physical and spiritual development. andividuals don't emerge out of
thin air. Nor do they prosper disconnected from other human beings. All of us
come from some kind of family, and all of our families had patterns of thinking, of
human relations, of beliefs and values, and of physical survival that shaped us.cc

Families in turn live within communities like fish live in water. The invisible web
of relationships that make up community life can either have the aggregate affect
of leading to human well-being and prosperity, or to its opposite. Like individual
people or families, each community has its own commonality (the personality of
the group). an order to effectively initiate strategies that will alter (for the better)
the collective habits and relationships that are affecting people's lives within a
particular community, it is helpful to be specific about the nature of those
relationships and habits.cc

We map the processes of community health development in four interdependent

areas of activity and focus:cc

1. Political and Administrative - having to do with how power is arranged,

how decisions are made and how the governance and management of the
community's affairs occurs. Within community development processes, a
key indicator of health in this area is the quality and effectiveness of
people's participation in matters that affect their lives.cc

2. Social - having to do with the patterns of human relations, and including

such related areas as kinship patterns, social protocol, conflict resolution
and communication patterns. The social category is especially concerned
with the climate of openness and support for individual and group efforts
to bring positive changes to their own lives or to the community in general.
A useful indicator of health is the degree to which the community is open
to and supportive of learning. To what degree is the community
characterized by its ability to learn its way into the future?cc

3. Economic and Environmental - the economic life of the community

needs to be understood both in terms of how (and to what extent) people
get what they need in order to sustain themselves (in the physical sense of
basic needs), as well as in terms of the community's relationships with the
natural environment (the eco-system) upon which long-term economic
well-being depends. To get a clear picture of the impact of current
economic realities, it is important to go beyond income generation to
questions related to a) how economic activities are affecting other areas of
human well-being; b) how the natural environment is being affected; and c)
to the development and maintenance of long-term sustainable systems of
production. an many communities, moving from dependency to self-
reliance is also a critical component of economic development.cc

4. Cultural and Spiritual - this category refers to prevailing patterns of

beliefs, values, morals and goals that constitute the software hidden
beneath the surface of community life. Both what people say they believe
 in (the espoused or ideal culture) and what they tend to actively do in the
pattern of daily life (the lived or real culture) are important. A vital strategy
in mobilizing communities is to call people to the values by which they
want to live. at is also a fact of life in many communities that there are
multiple cultures and value systems that compete and collide within the
social space of the community. Usually one or more are dominant, and
others struggle for recognition and acceptance. An important indicator of
well-being in the spiritual/cultural area is the presence of a vigorous
dialogue on values, and a climate of deep mutual respect and appreciation
for diversity. The capacity to envision a healthy and sustainable future, and
to muster the human will to move together toward creating that future, is
perhaps the most important indicator of community well-being that we
know.cc

c
The Wider Worldcc

By the wider world we mean the entire human world outside the community. at
can refer to the tribe or nation, the various levels of government up to the nation
state and beyond, other countries and regions, or the global monetary market and
regulatory systems. Communities do not exist in isolation, free from the impact of
the world around them, any more than an individual person does.cc

an thinking about community health development, it is important to be able to see

how any particular community is organically linked to the wider world in which it
exists. For example, what happens in the board rooms of major corporations in
Europe or America can affect the political and economic well-being of many
ordinary people, their families and their communities in Saudi Arabia, Papua New
Guinea or Nigeria. A change in the price of oil, (perhaps as a result of a political
decision of the Arab Emirate in partnership with other allies) can affect who has a
job and who doesn't in Alberta, Newfoundland or Louisiana.cc

When people lose their jobs, families are affected. Under such stresses, the use
of alcohol and drugs and the incidence of family violence tends to increase. And,
of course, children are definitely affected. A child who is traumatized by family
violence or a marriage break-up can experience intellectual and emotional
paralysis. Unable to concentrate or remember or focus, the child fails at school,
and begins to act out in ways that cause her to lose friends and to be labeled by
teachers and social workers as a problem child. Perhaps a specific label is added
to this diagnosis, such as hyperactive and the child may even be given a drug
such as Ritalin to control the symptoms.cc

From this example, taken from actual cases in Canada, it is possible to see what
North American indigenous elders meant when they told us "everything is related
to everything else." By viewing the world we live within as an interactive system,
it is possible to see connections between things that people believe and do in
countries and institutions very far away, with what happens in the most intimate
relationships (husband and wife, parent and child) in some of the most remote
villages of the world (e.g. the Mackenzie alley in the Northwest Territories or the
Niger River alley in Nigeria). While it is usually not possible to influence or
control global political and economic processes, it is possible to create local
systems that are not so dependent on the markets or the shiftingcc

sand of political factions.cc

So, when thinking about community health development in any specific situation,
it is vital to understand the wider world in which "the community" exists.
Essentially the same four interactive categories which were used to describe the
community level can also be applied to the level of the "wider world," but the
impact they have on the development process is different enough to warrant
further explanation.cc

1. The Political and adeological Environment - referring to the political

realities, and the bureaucratic and policy environment (local, regional,
national, international) that are affecting the community's development
efforts, as well as to the ideological beliefs driving social, economic and
political forces affecting the community.cc

2. The Social Environment - referring to patterns of human relations; how

the community is affected by such things as racism and prejudice, or a
climate of contempt (as is the case, for example, for welfare recipients),
and also how the community is able to respond (with open heart or
numbed indifference) to the suffering and difficulties of other people. The
social climate within which community development takes place can have a
very tangible effect (positive or negative) on the community's perception of
its own capabilities. Managing public opinion and winning outside support
for development efforts is vital and necessary for many reasons, some of
them political and economic, others related to internal dynamics such as a
belief in your own dreams or the legitimization of community leadership.cc
3. The Economic and Ecological Environment - refers to the economic and
environmental realities within which the community's development takes
place. Economic and environmental conditions at the local, regional,
national and even international level can influence the outcomes of
community efforts. at is therefore extremely important that as communities
act locally, they are thinking globally.cc

4. The Cultural Environment - this category refers to several dimensions.

First, it refers to the tension between the dominant culture and the culture
of the developing community. Alvin Toffler called the dominant culture
"indust-reality" (Toffler), or the reality system of the industrialized
countries and regions of the world, characterized by the software of such
values as individualism, materialism, scientism, centralization,
synchronization, massification, etc. A spin-off of the global dominant
culture is that the organizational and bureaucratic cultures of Euro-
American businesses, military and government organizations have all
merged in a kind of global super-culture of the workplace. Nearly every
government office, United Nations Agency and humanitarian organization
in the world operates following the hidden rules of that dominant culture.
An assumption of the dominant culture is that all other cultures are inferior,
or primitive, or at least limited to the private (i.e. non-business, non-
professional) sphere. The dominant culture drives almost all professional
agencies¶ actions anywhere in the world in the fields of health, education
(such as schools, colleges and universities) and social welfare.cc

The critical reality relative to community health development in Aboriginal

communities is this. The culture of the community may well conflict with
the dominant culture driving the agencies that serve it. Almost all helping
agencies (which unconsciously follow the rules and accept the basic
assumptions of the dominant culture) work at cross-purposes with
communities that are marginalized by, or are ethnically outside the
dominant culture.cc

andeed, the dominant culture tends to be blind to the very existence of

cultural diversity. ats perspective, when viewing peoples who are
"different", is that they have culture-- those strange people with their quaint
ideas, their customs, languages, costumes, music, diet etc. -- they have
culture, and we have reality. We know we have reality because the
scientific method proves that our world is the real world. Such complete
cultural arrogance is blinded to other people's way of knowing, and is
unable to value other people's knowledge and experiences. The result is
that many community insights are discounted or simply not heard and
heeded.cc

The tragedy of all of this is that Aboriginal communities often internalize

the perceptions the dominant culture has of them. They begin to doubt
 what they know and to reject what they have experienced as being
somehow inferior or unimportant. Yet people can only develop based on
who they are (not on who they are not) and upon what they have and what
they know (not on what they don't have or what they lack). The self-doubt
created within communities about their own value and worth and their own
capacities is a very serious obstacle to authentic human and community
development.cc

Helping communities to sort out their own cultural foundations from the
dominant culture, and to learn to "be themselves" in a multi-cultural world
is vital to success in sustainable development processes. A profound
implication of this sorting-out process must occur at the level of belief,
values, morals and goals. The spiritual life of most communities in the
world has been undermined by the dominant culture media, and the
undertow of individualistic and materialistic values.cc

Survival into the twenty-first century may well depend on the re-birthing of
true community. The core of that process is binding the hearts and minds
of the people to life-sustaining, life-enhancing values and beliefs. Unless
love, forgiveness, honesty, and unity in diversity characterize our
communities, they can not survive; and if they do not survive, it is unlikely
that many of us will either.c

The following diagram shows the wheel of the world, and how the four interactive
dimensions discussed constitute the global environment within which community
development takes place.cc

Fitting it all Togethercc

When we talk about human and community development, we are talking about all
of the following:cc
 1. The development of the person, with respect to the mental, emotional,
physical and spiritual dimensions.cc

2. The development of the family (or clan) and small groups with respect to
dominant thinking patterns, human relations, physical environment and
economy, and cultural and spiritual life.cc

3. The development of the community with respect to its political and

administrative, economic, social, and cultural and spiritual life.cc

4. The context of the wider world within which human and community
development is taking place. This context includes the political and
bureaucratic environment, the social environment, the economic
environment, and the dominant cultural environment.c

So, in this map we have four large categories of development, all going on at the
same time, with each level affecting all the other levels. One way to think about it
is shown in the diagram below.cc

No matter at what level you try to intervene, you are actually always dealing with
all the levels.cc

For example, an economic development officer in the eastern Canadian province

of Newfoundland may be trying to work on job creation. She is struggling against
the reality that the economic climate of the region in which the community is
located is depressed because of the collapse of the cod fishing industry, due to
over fishing. This problem is made worse by the fact that governments are short
of money and can't afford to keep the entire population on welfare or subsidized
make-work programs. These are all global conditions (i.e. the wider world in the
model) affecting local development efforts in Newfoundland. Considering the
ecology and economy of the region, the economic development officer tries to
encourage people to start small businesses. But many families have either been
fishermen or fish-industry-dependent for generations. There is a prevailing belief
(mostly unconscious) in many families that if you can't go fishing (or some other
sea harvest activity) there is really no option except welfare or unemployment
insurance. Additionally, the hard times caused many men to turn to alcohol for
comfort. With alcohol comes a legion of social problems affecting families and
children.cc

Clearly, in this case of Newfoundland traditional fishing communities, the

challenge of reviving the economy can only be addressed by taking into
consideration all four interacting levels in the model (individual, families, whole
communities, and global conditions). andeed, after the initial shock (1994), what
has now begun to happen in Newfoundland is that communities have started
coming together to talk, to support each other, and to build solutions. Many
creative alternatives are still emerging. But almost everywhere, when positive
development has begun, it has emerged out of a community re-creation process,
and not out of the implementation of a technical solution.cc

an this section we have outlined the dimensions of need and potential growth
within individuals, families and groups, communities and society at large (i.e. the
world). Basically, we are presenting a tool for thinking about how the various
dimensions and levels fit together and interact. Each level of development
(presented in the model) takes place within a broader level.cc

andividuals develop within families, groups and organizations. Families develop

within communities, and so do groups and organizations. Communities and
organizations develop within the context of surrounding societal and global
conditions. The diagram below illustrates how all the dimensions and levels
mutually influence each other.cc
 c

The Wheel Turnscc

The models and concepts presented so far have identified the areas of need and
potentiality in human and community development. What it has not shown is
anything of the process of change. What follows introduces the key elements that
drive growth or development. The wheel, made of interlocking wheels within
wheels (see diagram above) turns through processes of learning and
transformation. These processes are propelled by certain key dynamics of
change.cc

1. ision - ision refers to our capacity to see ourselves in conditions

other than the ones in which we find ourselves now. at implies having a
picture of what life would be like in the future if it were good, in the sense
that what needs to be changed has in fact been transformed into the
conditions we believe are desirable. Authentic vision in human and
community development is not a pipe dream or a wish list. at is rooted in a
profound understanding of human nature and possibility. That
understanding allows us to see what a healthy, prosperous and sustainable
future would be like. ision also implies having a critique of the present
situation. af you can see what an ideal future looks like, you do so with the
shortcomings of the present in full view. andeed, you could not develop a
clear analysis of what is wrong with present conditions without having
some idea of what things should be like. Finally, a true vision (in the sense
 we use the term here, related to processes of human transformation)
implies having some idea of how to get from where you are now to where
you want to go (i.e. from present conditions, through a process of change
leading to the desired future). an very stark terms, if there is no vision there
can be no development.cc

2. amagination - at is impossible to enter into a condition that we cannot

imagine. Being able to see ourselves becoming healthy or prosperous or
unified is a necessary prerequisite to creating the conditions within
ourselves and in our lives that will create those described future
conditions.cc

3. Learning - an human and community development, learning is the

process of acquiring the attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and skills to make
the changes that are needed within ourselves or in our families,
organizations and communities. at is never enough to have a vision and to
make a plan. Most of us have habitual ways of thinking and acting. These
old habits of thought and action have created the world as we know it. No
matter what we visualize or desire in our future, if we keep thinking and
acting in the same old ways, we will always get the same old results. af we
are to create a new kind of future for ourselves (or within our families,
organizations or community), we will need to learn new ways of thinking
and acting that will lead to the new outcomes we desire.cc

4. olition/Participation - The word volition means will power. an personal

development "volition" refers to the exercise of focus or attention, choice
and perseverance in moving toward goals and in carrying out plans. When
we talk about the exercise of will within communities or groups of people
we use the term participation. Participation in community health
development means the meaningful involvement of the people whose lives
are being affected by the process of development in all parts of that
process (analyzing issues or problems, discovering solutions, making
plans, implementing strategies and projects, and evaluating outcomes).c

The interaction between these key elements for growth or change can be pictured
in the diagram below.cc
 c

C. Principles to Guide Actioncc

Part a of the report has been exploring a conceptual framework for human well-
being and prosperity, the true foundation for a viable social security system for
Aboriginal communities. The first section put forward a working list of the
determinants of health, synthesized from consultative processes with many
Aboriginal communities. A second section used the medicine wheel as a way of
expanding the determinants of health approach into an integrated model which
can be used as a basis for integrated community healing and development
planning. This next section explores principles which can be used to guide the
development of a social security system for Aboriginal community.cc

What¶s a Principle?cc

A principle, as we are using the term is a statement of basic truth about some
aspect of the process of human and community transformation. at articulates
what works or what doesn¶t, what is needed, what must be avoided, how the
process must proceed, and what it must include if the outcome is to be authentic
human well-being and prosperity, and not some counterfeit. And there are many
counterfeits. Much is said and done in the name of "health progress",
"development", "improvement" and "prosperity" that either ends up benefiting a
few at the expense of many others, benefitting no one, or else bringing real harm
to people or to the earth.cc
The following presentation of sixteen principles is the outcome of consultations
and experiences with Aboriginal elders and communities from all across North
America, as well as systemmatic reflection based on many field applications.
There are, of course, many ways these principles could be expressed, and so
these are offered as a work in progress, which needs to be adapted by each
community for their own particular needs and way of expressing themselves.cc

1. Human Beings Can Transform Their Worldcc

The conditions of our lives are not unchangeable givens. We are not trapped in
the world as we know it. How things are now is not how they always were nor
how they will always be in the future. andeed, the most fundamental characteristic
of the universe is change. Although many of us live within the illusion of
permanence, the reality is that our lives and the world around us are in a constant
state of change.cc

Many challenges and difficulties we face as human beings everywhere on the

planet are either the result of our own actions or those of other people. To a large
degree, human beings make the human experience what it is. We continuously
violate each other and the natural world upon which all life on earth depends. As
a human family, we dwell within the web of relationships we have made with other
people, nature, and the spiritual world.cc

The totality of the impact that web of relationships has on our lives, on future
generations and on the earth itself is what can be referred to as the human
predicament. Prosperity and poverty, sickness and wellness, justice and
oppression, war and peace -- all of these are products of those fundamental
relationships.cc

at is of the utmost value to know that those relationships can be changed. at may
be very difficult, it may take great vision, sacrifice and effort, and it may require
time to unfold, but the people need to know that healing and development are
possible.cc

an practice, the application of this principle implies making a shift from being a
passive recipient, or victim, of the realities and conditions within which we find
ourselves living; in other words, "stepping into history" (Freire, 1970). Moving
from the passive to the active state begins in consciousness. at begins in how we
see ourselves within the process of life as it unfolds.cc

This active approach of entering into a creative relationship with life, and of
consciously making choices that will lead to the making of a better world is the
choice of "stepping into history." Gandhi and his followers did it in andia.
Thousands did it in the former Soviet Union. Nelson Mandela and the ANC did it
in South Africa. Phyllis and Andy Chelsea did it in Alkali Lake, British Columbia.
And when they did it (each of them), they changed the course of history.cc
2.
evelopment Comes from Withincc

The process of human and community development unfolds from within each
person, relationship, family, organization, community or nation. Outsiders can
often provide catalytic support in the form of inspiration, technical backstopping,
training or simple love and caring. But because the essence of what development
is entails learning and the transformation of consciousness, there is no way to
escape the need for an inner-directed flow of energy.cc

For example, a child learning to ride a bicycle may need a certain amount of
encouragement, and may even require a bigger person running alongside her to
support the bike while she learns how to balance. Still, there is no getting around
the need for the child herself to get up on the bike and to try to ride it. No amount
of explaining, or riding the bike back and forth in front of the child to demonstrate
how to ride, will replace doing it.cc

an a similar way, people who are struggling to learn new patterns of life and to
transform their world need to drive change processes themselves if those
processes are to be effective and sustainable.
evelopment comes from within.cc

3. Healing is a Necessary Part of
evelopmentcc

Healing the past, closing up old wounds, and learning healthy habits of thought
and action to replace dysfunctional thinking and disruptive patterns of human
relations is a necessary part of the process of sustainable development.cc

Many wonderful projects and programs have been destroyed because the peoplecc

involved in them were unable to trust each other, to work together, to

communicate without alienating one another, or to refrain from undermining each
other, tearing each other down and attacking each other.cc

an some communities, alcohol destroys human potential and causes people to

retreat within the bottle to deal with problems that need to be addressed in
cooperation with others. an other communities, generations of in-fighting and
mutual hostility across family, cultural, clans, religious or political lines block any
chances of unified action. an still other organizations and communities, certain
personalities or groups hold the reins of power, and thereby control the
conversation of the community to such an extent that other people simply fall
silent and retreat.cc

Many individuals, because of their family background and personal history, carry
a great deal of resentment or fear or numbness that serves to paralyze them in
terms of building effective relationships with other people. These old hurts, and
the habitual responses to hurt that people carry, may well be there for good
reason. Some people (and sometimes whole populations) have experienced
horrendous suffering, and are carrying the burden of unresolved pain and conflict
inside them. at is therefore critical for people to learn that these habits of the heart
and the dysfunctional behaviours that go with them can be overcome and left
behind. The processes for doing just that are what we mean when we say
"healing". As long as these habits remain in place, people will be handicapped,
and even paralyzed and blocked from full participation in development
processes.cc

4. No ision, No
evelopmentcc

A vision of who we can become and what a sustainable world would be like works
as a powerful magnet, drawing us to our potential. Where there is no vision, there
is no development.cc

af people cannot imagine a condition other than the one they live within now, then
they are trapped. at is only when we are able to see ourselves in terms of our
potential and within healthier and more sustainable conditions that we can begin
to move towards creating those conditions within ourselves and in our
relationships with the world around us.cc

Helping people to develop a vision of a healthier and more sustainable future that
they can believe in and identify with is therefore one of the primary building
blocks of success in development work.cc

5. Healing and
evelopment Processes must be Rooted in the

Culture of the Peoplec
Healing and development must be rooted in the wisdom, knowledge and living
processes of the culture of the people. Culture may be described as the software
of the mind. at shapes how people think, learn and solve problems, what they
value and respect, what attracts and delights them, what offends them, and their
sense of what is appropriate.cc

More deeply, culture is the soil in which the tree of identity has its roots. People's
sense of who they are, and of their self-efficacy is bound up in their (often
unconscious) connections to their cultures. To disconnect or alienate people
from their cultural foundations is like plucking a plant from the soil in which it is
rooted.cc

The eminent American futurist, Willis Harman, had this to say about culture:cc

Whole societies can perceive things that observers from

other societies do not, so one has to be cautious about
claiming that some class of experience is universal...
(Noetic Sciences Review, Autumn 1988, p. 23)c
This implies that whole cultural communities may actually experience
phenomena such as alcohol and drug abuse and the process of addictions
differently than another.cc

Not only do distinct cultures have unique perceptions not experienced by other
cultures, but they also have unique gifts and abilities. They can know things, see
things, experience things, and do things that people from other cultures cannot.
This is a very important discovery. at means that each distinct cultural group has
people with unique strengths and capacities upon which healing and
development can be based. You cannot build on what is wrong or missing. You
have to build on who people actually are and what they have. at also means that
the effective approaches for solving actual social and economic problems may
look very different in different cultural communities.cc

Following is a list of some key areas related to healing and development that
need to be guided from within the culture of the people. We spell out those points
in some detail in order to stress that almost all cultures have ways of doing all of
these things. at is verycc

important to help people to discover their own ways of addressing each of these
areas.cc

a. The process used for consultation, for decision making and for reaching
consensus.cc

b. The analysis of current realities, conditions, and needs.cc

c. The interpretation of how the past has shaped the present and how
outside influences have affected everyday life.cc

d. A description of a sustainable future that is desirable and possible (i.e. a

vision).cc

e. An articulation of the values and principles that will guide development

action.cc

f. The selection and priority setting of the goals of development.cc

g. The selection of healing and program strategies.cc

h. The making of the plans.cc

i. How the health development promoting organization is structured and

how the program functions, who controls it, how it runs on a day-to-day
basis, who is selected to work in it (and how this selection is made), how
the organization fosters the participation of the people it serves, how
 conflicts are dealt with, how accountability is handled, and how money is
managed.cc

j. The indicators of success that are chosen.cc

k. Evaluation of the process and the outcomes.cc

l. How healing and development experiences are interpreted and ploughed

back into new analysis and new efforts.c

Appendix C contains some further information about the application of this

principle to community healing and development processes.cc
ccc

6. anterconnectedness: The Holistic Approachcc

Everything is connected to everything else. Therefore, every aspect of our

healing and development is related to all the others (personal, social, cultural,
political, economic, etc.). When we work on any one part, the whole circle is
affected.cc

The primary implication of the principle of interconnectedness for development

practice is the requirement of taking a whole systems approach. This means that
we can only really understand a particular development challenge in terms of the
relationships between that issue and the rest of the life-world in which that issue
is rooted.cc

For example, in many tribal communities, alcohol and drug abuse can not be
understood by focusing on the medical fact of chemical dependency. at is only
when we consider the historical and cultural context in which the abuse is taking
place that it becomes clear how substance abuse (in those communities) is a
social phenomenon with profound spiritual roots. Once this was recognized,
many North American tribal communities began to address the issue of
alcoholism by combining personal healing, counselling, economic development
and cultural revitalization. All of these dimensions needed to be addressed on a
community-wide basis before individuals in significant numbers began to leave
alcohol behind. Many communities that have taken this holistic approach have
gone a long ways toward eliminating alcohol from the community system.cc

The principle of interconnectedness provides the following critical guidelines for

community work. Personal growth and healing, the strengthening of families, and
community development must all go hand-in-hand. Working at any one of these
levels without attending to the others is not enough. Personal and social
development, as well as top-down and bottom-up approaches must be balanced.
This is the true meaning of a holistic approach in community development.cc
 7. The Hurt of One is the Hurt of All; The Honour of One is the
Honour of Allc
af everything in our world is connected to everything else, how much more must
we human beings be connected to each other? The basic fact of our oneness as a
human family has always been known and understood by the wise, and often lost
sight of and even opposed by the frightened and the foolish. Nevertheless, the
reality is that what happens to some of us really does happen to all of us. This
principle has profound implications for human and community development.cc

The point is this: we all must live in a common social environment. We have
recently begun to learn that if we poison the air we breathe and the water we
drink (i.e. the environmental commons), we are poisoning ourselves. Similarly, if
we poison our relationships with other people who live in the same social world
as we do (the social commons), then we and our children will sooner or later
discover that we have poisoned our own lives.cc

The primary implications for community healing and development of the

principle, "the hurt of one is the hurt of all; the honour of one is the honour of
all," are fairly straight-cc

forward:cc

a.
evelopment for some at the expense of well-being for others is not

sustainable (and will probably cause long-term harm to the community).cc

b. at is vital to foster a spirit of mutual respect and cooperation, such that

improvements and accomplishments in the lives of some people are seen
to be an achievement for the whole community.cc

c. Similarly, it is essential that the community believes (and acts upon the
belief) that the misfortune of anyone is the business of everyone.c

This principle directly challenges the popular dominant cultural doctrine that
every individual is responsible only for him or herself, that the community bears
no responsibility for the well-being of its members, and that individual prosperity
is born of individual effort and merit alone. We now know that the doctrines of
individualism and materialism are dangerously blind to the consequences of
ignoring our fundamental inter-connectedness as human beings. an the process
of creating sustainable human community, these doctrines (along with all types
of racism and religious intolerance) are a virulent ideological contagion. They are
death to sustainable human well-being and prosperity.cc

What we think about expands in our lives. af we espouse separateness, we create

it. For this reason, increasing the community's capacity to see itself as inter-
connected -- as one -- is a very powerful strategy for generating sustained
cooperative action. Because we live in a world of competing dreams and
ideologies, it is vital to nurture and deepen the community's ability to be
animated by the vision of our common oneness and our mutual responsibility to
serve and protect one another.cc

8. Unitycc

Unity means oneness. Without unity the common oneness that makes
(seemingly) separate human beings into community is impossible. Without a
doubt, disunity is the primary disease of community.cc

Science tells us that the physical universe is made up of billions upon billions of
tiny particles called atoms, bound together in fields of energy. These energy
fields take many different shapes and patterns: stars and planets, trees and
rocks, fish and fowl, and human beings. Clearly there is some cohesive force that
holds the particles together in the forms that we see in our world. amagine what
would happen if the cohesive force that holds all of the particles together that
make up the Rocky Mountains were to disappear. The mountains would simply
crumble into dust. an the human world, the cohesive force that binds us all
together is love. While most spiritual traditions on the planet have been trying to
tell us this for centuries, science is only now beginning to come to grips with it.
We have now learned, for example, that people who feel the love, support and
caring of family, friends and community have stronger immune systems, and are
therefore more resistant to disease than people who feel isolated, alone and cut
off.cc

When human beings are connected to each other in a complex web of

relationships for mutual support and cooperation, it doesn't matter what area of
life these relationships focus on (governance, economics, recreation, the arts,
etc.). af the feelings between the people are good, then the enterprise will
probably flourish. Conversely, if the feelings go bad, the enterprise will probably
fall apart, no matter how clever the plans and strategies of the group may be.cc

What is critical to realize is that building and monitoring common oneness (i.e.
community) requires the involvement of the human heart and spirit, as well as our
minds (thinking) and our physical energies (i.e. time and work).cc

Unity is the term we use for the cohesive force that holds communities of people
together. at is a fact of our nature as human beings that we need the love,
support, caring and respect of others in our struggle to heal ourselves and
develop our communities. Unity is the starting place for development, and as
development unfolds, unity deepens. The strategic implications of this vital
principle for Aboriginal community healing and development is that restoring and
maintaining unity must be seen as a pre-requisite at the foundation of the
community healing process.cc

9. Participationcc
Participation is the active engagement of the minds, hearts and energy of people
in the process of their own healing and development. Because of the nature of
what development really is, unless there is meaningful and effective participation,
there is no development.cc

On the personal level, we use the term volition (the exercise of human will) to
refer to the capacity to focus, to choose, to adopt goals, to persevere and to
complete what we set out to do. We refer to this capacity as will power. Nothing
can be achieved in our life (and all of our hidden potential remains dormant)
unless and until we engage our own volition. As human beings, we must direct
our energies toward a goal in order to achieve it.cc

This is also true of communities, and the collective will of the community is
engaged through the process of participation. Since authentic development is
driven from within, through learning (i.e. acquiring capacity) for personal and
social transformation, there is no escaping the necessity of involving the people
whose development is being promoted in every aspect of the process.cc

Participation is to development as movement is to dance or the making of sound

is to music. af you take away sound, you have no music. af you take away
participation, you have no development.cc

The term participation is used to refer to many different types of involvement on

the part of community members. Not all of these are equally valid in view of the
definition of authentic development explored above. Appendix C presents a chart
describing these various types of participation in terms of their relevance for
community healing and development work, as well as some common barriers and
obstacles to participation.cc

10. Justicec
The principle of justice in development implies that every person must be treated
with respect as a human being, regardless of gender, race, age, culture, religion,
personal beliefs or any other reason. This means that every person must be
accorded equal opportunity to participate in the processes of healing and
development and to receive a fair share of the benefits. Unless development is
driven and guided by the quest for social and economic justice, some people will
always benefit at the expense of others. And when some people become enriched
through a process which at the same time impoverishes others, sustainable
community (common oneness) is impossible. The circle has been broken.cc

This type of "development" is one of the primary causes for the alienation of
hundreds of millions of youth around the world from their communities and
cultures. at is often the principal cause of the breakdown of law and order and the
true source of many ethnic conflicts, some of them prolonged and deadly.cc
Unless justice animates all that we do in human and community work, what we
are doing is not development.cc

11. Spiritc
Spirituality is at the centre of authentic healing and development. The vast
majority of people on earth understand that, as human beings, we are both
material and spiritual in nature. at is therefore inconceivable that human
communities could become whole and sustainable without bringing our lives into
balance with the requirements of our spiritual nature.cc

an down-to-earth terms, this understanding implies the following:cc

a. Putting the love of God (the Unknowable Essence, the Lifegiver) in the
centre of every relationship, every meeting and every activity.cc

b.
rawing on the wisdom, teachings, principles, laws and guidance that

come from the rich spiritual traditions of the people to inform our
understanding of the goals, purposes and methods of development.cc

c. Practicing life-preserving, life-enhancing values, morality and ethics

(such as honesty, kindness, and forgiveness).cc

d. Strengthening our spiritually based development capacities, which

include:cc

i. the capacity to have a vision, dream or a goal that describes our

potential (i.e. what we could become);cc

ii. the capacity to believe in that vision, dream or goal to such an

extent that one is able to align one's heart and mind to its
achievement;cc

iii. The capacity to express that vision, dream or goal through

language, mathematics or the arts;cc

iv. the capacity to actualize that vision, dream or goal through the
exercise of our volition (i.e. our will) to choose, plan, initiate,
persevere through difficulties and complete processes of growth and
development.c

How spirituality is expressed depends entirely on the culture and religious

perspectives of the people. There is no right way or wrong way. Or, as one old
Metis woman in a northern Saskatchewan community put it, "The Creator is not in
competition with Himself." at is certainly true that people fight over religion, and
that it can be made a source of contention, prejudice and disunity. The problem in
these cases is not spirituality, but the lack of it. Spirituality is not religion nor is it
tied to any particular set of beliefs. When viewed in a spiritual light, all people are
the children of the same Creator. The differences between us are insignificant.
Our reality is oneness. From that place, the most powerful force in development
is love. at is the cohesive force of love that makes community, and life itself,
possible. Without love between the hearts of the people, healing and
development is not possible. And when love is present, solutions can usually be
found for even the most difficult of problems.cc

12. Morals and Ethicscc

Sustainable human and community development requires a moral foundation.

When morals decline and basic ethical principles are violated, development
stops. Essentially, moral and ethical standards describe how human beings must
think and act toward themselves, the Creator, each other, and the earth. There
has never been a successful society in the history of the planet that did not have
moral standards, laws and protocol that people were required to follow.cc

Moral and ethical standards are not mere limitations imposed on our freedom by
the conservative or the prudish. On the contrary, these standards describe where
the boundaries of well-being may be found. They are like highway signs that tell
us to slow down on this corner, to be careful on that hill, or to drive with caution
when the road is slippery. We can choose to ignore them, but we do so at our
own peril.cc

an healing and development work, the violation of moral and ethical standards
can destroy months and even years of good work. Like a young plant just
breaking ground and experiencing the heat of the sun and the strength of the
wind and weather for the first time, developing people are often very vulnerable. at
doesn't take much to destroy their faith and confidence in themselves, or in the
processes of growth. an those early stages, people often look to their facilitative
leaders and professional helpers to be role models of wellness. an a sense, these
facilitators are living proof that the process is real, and that the dreams people
have dared to believe in can come true. Later, when they become stronger and
more self-reliant, they will learn to see the strength they are looking for within
themselves. But even then, the violation of ethical and moral standards can
seriously undermine personal growth, healing, and community development
processes. The most common violations that cause trouble all over the world are
the following:cc

a.
ishonesty - lies told to the people, covering mistakes; stealing money;

hiding self-serving agendas and purposes.cc

b. Sexual Misconduct - sexual relations between professionals and clients,

or trainers and community learners or sexual abuse of children or the weak
and vulnerable (ranging from seduction to rape, but always containing the
 element of the more powerful taking advantage of the weak and
vulnerable).cc

c. Alcohol and
rug Abuse - ranging from closet addictions to open

drunkenness. This problem usually causes many others, such as
accidents, a breakdown of morality, and a general collapse of discipline,
responsibility, accountability and the quality of work.cc

d. Backbiting, Slander, and Gossip - speaking negatively about others, or

spreading "information" calculated to undermine the reputation and the
public trust and confidence of others is one of the most destructive
behaviours impacting the heart and soul of community wellness. This is
because such behaviour destroys unity. at sets up barriers between the
hearts and minds of people. at corrodes trust and rots away common
oneness. Nothing dampens the enthusiasm of the people for participation
in community healing development activities more effectively than
poisonous talk. Usually, at the root of such talk may be found hurt,
jealousy, or competition for power, influence, or money.c

Appendix C contains a sample list of the moral capacities which leaders in

community healing and development processes need to acquire.cc
13. Learningc
Human beings are learning beings. We begin learning while we are still in our
mother's wombs, and unless something happens to close off our minds and
paralyze our capacities, we keep on learning throughout our entire lives.cc

Learning is the process of acquiring new information, knowledge, wisdom, skills

or capacities that enable us to meet new challenges and to further develop our
potential. Learning leads to relatively enduring changes in behaviour. andividuals,
families, organizations, communities, and even whole nations of people need to
learn.cc

Because learning is the key dynamic at the heart of human development (in one
sense, since we can say that human development is a process of learning), there
is no way of separating learning from the process of community health
development either. Unless people are learning, community health development
is not happening. This principle tells us that the promotion of various kinds of
learning is an important part of what individuals and agencies who are facilitating
community healing and development initiatives must be doing.cc

For purposes of devising learning strategies in healing and development work,

we have found that distinguishing the following categories (or types) of learning
has been helpful.cc

a. Critical Learning - enabling people to learn to analyze their own

situations and behaviours, as well as the social, economic, political and
 cultural forces that influence their lives, and to uncover the root cause of
situations that require change. Critical learning is directly related to
transformation. at is learning to see and to articulate the obstacles and
barriers to development that exist both within us and around us.cc

b. Transformational Learning - enabling people to see possibilities and

potentials within themselves, and to envision a sustainable, desirable and
attainable future. Transformational learning is also learning to generate and
sustain the processes of healing and development that constitute the
journey to a sustainable life.cc

c. Relational Learning - refers to learning for inter-personal well-being.

Relational learning involves the acquisition of virtues and the practice of
values that promote good human relations. at also involves learning the
skills and positive interaction patterns that lead to healthy human relations.
Relational learning requires learning together with other people because
much of what needs to be learned is connected to the habits of thinking
and acting that only arise when people are together.cc

d. Operational Learning - refers to everything we need to learn in order to

accomplish what we need to do in the process of healing and development.
Operational learning includes acquiring:cc

i. information,cc

ii. in-depth knowledge and wisdom,cc

iii. new skills,cc

iv. new behaviours and habits, andcc

v. new values and attitudes.cc

14. Sustainabilityc

To sustain something means to enable it to continue for a long time. an

community healing and development, we can think of sustainability in a number
of ways.cc
a. Process or program sustainability - refers to the life and vitality of the
community's own process of learning and growth. Funders often ask how
communities will sustain the process after the money has run out. A
process that can only go as far as the money goes is not sustainable.
Usually process sustainability is linked to community ownership and to the
level of freedom from dependency thinking. Communities that depend on
government or other outside funds and on professionals to initiate, lead
and sustain their community healing and development activities cannot be
said to be engaged in sustainable processes.cc

b. Environmental (or bio-system) sustainability - refers to the well-being of

the natural systems upon which all life on earth depends. The quality of air,
water and soils, the preservation of fish and wildlife habitat, and of forests,
inland waterways, reefs and oceans, bio-diversity and the integrity of the
gene pools at the base of life are all issues related to the sustainability of
the natural environment. The global environmental crisis is the result of
many people in many places taking actions that may have brought wealth
to some groups, but has also caused serious damage to the natural
environment upon which other people and future generations depend for
their survival and well-being.cc

c. Social and cultural sustainability - refers to how development action

impacts the social world of the people. There are many kinds of
development that bring one kind of improvement along with another kind of
harm to communities. Community health, cohesiveness, self-reliance and
culture are a few of the dimensions of life that can be affected. For
example, along with the Alaska pipeline and North Slope development
came an increase in alcohol and drug abuse and family violence, and a
disconnection from the land and their own culture for many Alaskan Native
people. All over the world, dominant culture schooling educates the
children of minority cultures into devaluing their own identity and
mistrusting their own cultural resources. ery often when money comes
into a community for a development project, people are pitted against each
other for control of the process and for a share of the benefits. an each of
these examples, one kind of benefit brought another kind of deficit.cc

d. Economic sustainability - refers to the continuous production of wealth

and prosperity. af a community depends on fishing (as many in
Newfoundland did) and has no other means of earning a livelihood, the
ability of that community to sustain itself over the long run is utterly
dependent on the continued abundance of fish stock, as well as on market
conditions for the sale of fish. Clearly, economic sustainability (like
biological sustainability) is enhanced by a diversity of strategies. Economic
sustainability refers not only to producing wealth, but also to the equitable
distribution of that wealth so that all members of the community can meet
their basic needs.cc

e. Political sustainability - refers to the processes through which decisions

are made and power is arranged and distributed. A community
development process is not sustainable if the political forces against it are
stronger than the political forces within it. For this reason, it is very
important to win over the support of political leaders and organizations that
 control the political and economic environment in which community
development is occurring.c

There are many kinds of sustainability, as this brief discussion illustrates. The
challenge to developing communities is to harmonize environmental, social,
economic, political and cultural needs, and not to promote one kind of
development at the expense of another.cc
15. Move to the Positivec
Solving the critical problems in our lives and communities is best approached by
visualizing and moving into the positive alternative that we wish to create, and by
building on the strengths we already have, rather than on giving away our energy
fighting the negative. Whatever we think about expands. Try not thinking about
Miss Piggy, or not thinking about anything. The only way you can do it is to think
about something else. af we think about how sick or weak or incapable we are, we
give strength and endurance to the very weakness we wish to escape. af we think
about all the things we don't like about another person, those are the very things
we see and reinforce (whether negatively or positively) in our interactions with
them.cc

Likewise, in community health development work, it is much more fruitful to

focus energy on building the alternative than it is to try to oppose and undermine
what we do not like. This in no way implies that we should allow injustice or
unhealthy conditions to continue. The principle of moving to the positive
suggests that we should clearly visualize what it is we wish to achieve in terms of
positive conditions (health, prosperity, social justice, racial unity) and begin
building that. anstead, many people focus their program energies on trying to
eliminate the perceived obstacles to the things they wish to achieve.cc

Consider the example of disunity in a community. One approach to solving this

problem might be to identify the people we believe are the source of the problem
and to attempt to convince them to change. Unfortunately, when confronted with
a challenge to one's character or personal behaviour, many people become
defensive. A usual response includes one or all of the following: a) deny that
there is a problem, b) discredit the person who challenges you, c) blame
someone else for the problem, or d) justify the behaviour for which one is being
criticized and increase it.cc

Another approach to disunity would be to gather together those people who want
unity and to begin to behave toward each other in a unified way. The result of this
strategy is that you have created unity. Other people can join this new pattern,
but if they wish to partake of its benefits, they will need to behave according to
the principles and rules that produce unity.cc

While this may be a somewhat simplified example, it is in fact a very powerful

community healing and development strategy. Many North American tribal
communities have already created sobriety movements that will eventually end
the terrible burden of community alcoholism using this strategy. Recovering
alcoholics and non-drinkers formed core groups and worked on their own healing
as well as the creation of healthy human relations between them. Gradually these
islands of health attracted others, and the core groups grew in strength and
influence until a critical mass was reached and whole communities were
transformed.cc

16. Be the Change You Want to Seec

"Be the change you want to see." These words came from Gandhi, the great
transformational leader of andia who led a peaceful revolution that succeeded in
freeing his country from British colonial rule. Essentially what he meant was that
trying to convince other people to change doesn't work. af people wanted
liberation from British rule and a return to the positive cultural values of all of
andia, then they would need to begin to act as if that transformation had already
occurred. By becoming the alternative (i.e. be the change you want to see), you
have in fact created that alternative.cc

an whole health development processes, the most powerful strategies for change
always involve positive role modeling and the creation of living examples of the
solutions we are proposing. That is why, as development practitioners, we must
strive to be living examples of the changes we wish to see in the world.cc

This principle also applies to development-promoting organizations. A sick

organization cannot promote health. An organization crippled with in-fighting and
disunity cannot build community in the world. Unless our organizations reflect
the principles and values we espouse in our work with the people, why should
anyone take us seriously? By walking the path, we make the path visible.cc

. The Big Picturecc

There is no escaping the fact that Canadian Aboriginal people are a part of the
human family. And while it may be easier not to think about it, there can be no
doubt that whatever is happening to the rest of the world is also happening to
Canadian andigenous people.cc

Much has been written in the past several decades about large global patterns
and trends that are sweeping across all boundaries and affecting everyone on the
planet, regardless of geography, culture or national identity.cc

Following is an abbreviated summary of global patterns and trends that we

believe are of particular significance to the process of promoting well-being and
prosperity in Canadian Aboriginal communities. an addition to listing the trends,
we have selected two of them for further discussion because we feel these two
will have an extraordinary impact on community healing and the process of social
security reform.cc
1. Environmental
estruction - The rape, and in some cases, irreversible
destruction of natural ecosystems such as forests, ocean reefs and
waterways, along with the alarming loss of bio-diversity everywhere on the
planet and the industrial poisoning of the air, the soil, and the water
continue despite the global environmental movement's best efforts.
Everywhere, communities are being asked to choose between the
environment and the economy, when what is needed is a development
agenda thatcc

brings health, economy and environment into an integrated strategy.cc

2. Global Corporation versus Local Economy - There is a very powerful

pattern of large corporations working as a group (i.e. a network) across
many national boundaries to ensure the steady growth of their businesses
and profit. A part of this pattern is to put constant and sometimes painful
pressure on governments everywhere to remove barriers that might
interfere with "growth"--"barriers" such as social concerns, the protection
of local economies, and environmental protection regulations. An aspect of
this pattern is to convince governments to shift spending away from social
programs (health, education, social security, etc.) and instead to subsidize
corporate initiatives. This is often done in the veneer of "job creation." an
many countries, the economic "crises" people are experiencing (which has
led to extreme hardships and suffering in many places) is created by these
forces. The gap between the wealthiest and the poorest is widening
everywhere, and the sheer numbers of the poor are increasing.cc

3. Population - The world's population is increasing by nearly one hundred

million people a year. an many places this is undermining hard-won gains
made in health, food production and other aspects of human betterment.

evelopment is not able to keep up with the sheer numbers of people that
need food, shelter, medical care and a means to earn their livelihood.
ancreased population pressure is also forcing the poorest everywhere to
further undermine the natural environments they live in, as people cut
down forests for fuel and space to grow food or otherwise overuse or
abuse the environment in a desperate bid to survive. The essential problem
is that more people need more resources. And there is always a limit to
how thinly resources can be spread.cc

4. Social and Cultural
isintegration - The basic social and cultural

relationships of human beings and their communities are rapidly
disintegrating. The signs are present everywhere. For example, there is a
global youth crisis. Large numbers of young people in every country on
earth feel angry and disconnected from their families, their communities,
and from any hope for themselves in a healthy and prosperous future.
iolent crime, addictions, communal and family violence, sexual abuse,
divorce and family disintegration, and the breakdown of trust, mutual
cooperation and a sense of common oneness (the real meaning of
community) and purpose are all clear signs of this deadly pattern of
disintegration. Nor is any people exempt. The squatter settlements of the
poor in Africa, Latin America and Asia, as well as the urban "jungles" of
America are equally stricken. Even the children of the rich have been
affected. at is important for Canadian Aboriginal communities to know that
much of what they are experiencing in terms of human crisis is also
occurring worldwide.cc

5. People's Empowerment versus Political and Economic Repression - On

the one hand there is an unmistakable demand for a voice and power
coming from the masses of community people in every country. at is clear
that people everywhere are determined to gain some measure of control
over the forces and conditions most affecting their lives, and that they are
no longer willing to remain passive victims of political, economical and
social forces.cc

On the other hand, this demand for increased sharing of real power and
decision-making, and an accompanying trend to distrust and challenge
leaders who do not walk in a participatory manner with the people, has
contributed to another contradictory pattern. an many place governments
have become more defensive, rigid, abusive and uncompromising in an
effort to preserve the system that has given them power and privilege.
Sometimes, this has led to overt brutality and repression. Other times, it
shows itself as economic reprisals (such as closing projects, firing key
people, etc.) or simply ignoring the voices of the people. As abuses and
repression increase, even greater numbers of people react with further acts
of violence, either directed against this government or else directed at their
own community members (internalized oppression) or at other groups who
are easy targets.cc

6. The anformation Revolution - There is practically no people on earth that

are not "wired" into an emerging global communications network. Radio, e-
mail, and internet have made the concept of the global village a reality that
is within the foreseeable futures of most people on earth. While a
significant proportion of the earth¶s population have never made a phone
call, almost everyone listens to radio broadcasts and most can easily walk
to a telephone or a simple radio unit that allows direct voice contact. an
most urban areas where the majority of the world¶s population live,
television is common and it is only a matter of time before the "virtual
revolution" penetrates to at least the most educated everywhere.cc

The implications of the information revolution, both positive and negative,

are staggering. On the one hand, providers like CNN make events such as
the Olympics in Nagano, Japan or the activity of weapons inspectors in
araq every day events in the living rooms of Europe, North America and
much of the rest of the world. On the other hand, re-runs of shows like

allas, Sienfeld, and NYP
Blue are translated into local languages and run
on television all over the world. The penetration of an emerging global
culture through international media is clearly affecting the vision, values,
morals and expectations of human beings everywhere, regardless of
culture or geography.cc

The potential for access to information, for the fostering of collaboration

and consultative processes, for education and research and for the
empowerment of virtual networks of people with common interests and
concerns (for example political or economic cooperation between the
indigenous people of the Americas) is yet relatively untapped.
Nevertheless, we see the global trend to be of enormous importance (both
negative and positive) to the work of promoting human well-being in
Canadian Aboriginal communities.cc

7. Global Mind Change: The Emergence of a Worldwide Counter-Culture of

Hope - Futurists and global thinkers such as Marilyn Ferguson (1980),
Willis Harman (1988), and Paul Ray (1996) continue to synthesize and
document the emergence of what we have called a "counter-culture of
hope." This paradigm is in clear contrast to the global dominant culture¶s
values and agenda which are replicated and promoted through a world-
wide bureaucratic system (i.e. business, government, U.N. agencies, large
humanitarian aid and development organizations, etc.), and which, whether
consciously or not, tends to contribute to global problems more than
toward building solutions, especially when those solutions are related to
widening economic disparity, to a deepening environmental crisis, and to
the need for the empowerment of communities to discover sustainable
solutions to critical human problems.cc

What is happening is that within every society on earth and from every
walk of life, people are waking up to a number of cultural realities and are
beginning to move their thinking and their own lives toward the practical
realization of a new vision for a sustainable world. One of the hallmarks of
this counter-culture of hope is the following values, goals and
commitments.cc

a. The spiritual connection - These people have rediscovered that

human beings are essentially spiritual beings on a material journey,
and that reconnection to the invisible and eternal source of all life is
a fundamental key to human healing, development, well-being and
prosperity. an practice, this means that there is a sincere effort to
animate all human relationships with love, caring and respect and to
hold oneself accountable to a very high moral and ethical standard.cc
b. Sustainability of life systems - Beyond environmentalism, this
movement understands more deeply the need for sustainable human
relationships and communities as well as ecological sustainability,
sustainable economies and sustainable political systems. This
commitment covers a broad range of issues including rebuilding
neighbourhoods and communities, stopping polluters, challenging
the power and unsustainable activities of global corporations, and
supporting the strengthening of local cultures.cc

c. World embracing vision - This global mind change involves a shift

to identifying with the whole human family and not just a small part
of it. at actually sees that whatever hurts a part of humanity hurts us
all. at sees racism and social injustice as a distortion of our basic
humanness and cultivates a strong sense of responsibility and
optimism related to the work of healing the planet, re-balancing
injustice, and fostering the well-being and prosperity of all.cc

d. Critical shifts - This movement actually promotes a number of

critical paradigm shifts such as:cc

‡ a shift from emphasizing "power over" to "power with" or

"power from within."cc

‡ a shift from simply treating symptoms and Band-Aid

solutions to a search for root causes and wider patterns, and a
commitment to the transformation of whole systems that have
created imbalances.cc

‡ a shift from viewing economy as the only drawing force of

human well-being to a perspective that balances and seeks to
harmonize health, environment and economy.cc

‡ a shift from valuing material, wealth and power over

everything else to one that values a balance between material
success and psychological and spiritual processes such as
inner peace, a sense of purpose, healing and the realization of
human potential.cc

‡ a shift from male-dominance and functionalism as prime

values to balancing masculine strengths with feminine
strengths, and in particular, emphasizing healthy relationships
at all levels of human systems.cc

‡ a shift from centralized one-size-fits-all operations and

services to localized human-scale, tailor-made programs,
technology, goods and services.cc
 ‡ a shift from learning as a product of a factory-like schools to
a view that learning is a basic human capacity and need
across the life span, and that promoting appropriate learning
(or capacity building) is a primary prerequisite for healing,
social transformation and human betterment.c

e. From talk to action - a critical feature of the movement is that it is

not a philosophy, it is a way of life. at almost always entails some
form of commitment to action, whether that action is taken in the
professional, personal, artistic, political or socio-cultural and
community domains.c
Suffice to say that this worldwide pattern has been steadily gaining ground
over the past three decades, and that it has sparked enormous creativity
and change all over the world and in every walk of life including within
government, the arts, scientific research, the military, business and
industry, the environmental, human rights, anti-poverty, women's, and the
human potential and healing movements.cc

Two important implications of this phenomenon for the work of promoting

sustainable well-being and prosperity in Aboriginal communities are:c

× First that Aboriginal people will find valuable and committed allies in all
walks of life who are already working to promote many of the same trends
of changes in society at large as will need to occur in Aboriginal
communities as healing and community restoration proceeds.c
× Second, Aboriginal communities may find valuable resources and models
to learn from because there has already been an enormous and extremely
diverse wave of experimentation in alternative approaches to economic,
political, social and personal transformation. This process is still occurring
worldwide.c

A Second Lookcc

This section includes follow-up discussions on two of the seven trends listed
above; namely, a) global corporations versus local economies and, b) people's
empowerment versus political and economic repression. As we mentioned above,
we have undertaken further discussion on these trends because we feel they are
(or will have) a profound impact on community healing and the building of an
effective social security system for Aboriginal communities.cc

1. Global corporation versus local economyc

at has been clear for several decades that many national governments (including
our own) are not able to predict and control the ups and downs of their own
economies. This is a critical point to face when we consider that many Aboriginal
communities are largely dependent on transfer payments that come from the
Federal government.cc
The Canadian government's fiscal policy has been radically altered by "the debt
crisis" and subsequent "cutbacks" that were "necessary" in order to "balance the
budget." While it is beyond the scope of this study to engage in an in-depth
analysis of the phenomenon, we feel it is critical for Aboriginal communities to
understand that what has happened (and is still happening) in Canada is part of a
worldwide pattern. Key features of that pattern are variations on the following
themes:cc

a. A national economy is characterized as being "in crisis" because of

gross overspending, particularly in areas related to social security and
human well-being.
eep cutbacks in spending are prescribed.cc

b. The primary areas targeted for cutbacks are invariably health, education
and welfare.cc

c. an general, there is an ideologically driven attack on the concept of the

"public good" that runs as follows. Taking care of the welfare of people is
said to be a "private" matter. People are poor largely for reasons of their
own making. at is not the responsibility, or even right, of the government to
use tax revenues to pay for social security. That responsibility lies with
individuals, civil society ( i.e. communities), and the private sector. Public
servants and government programs are characterized as a "drain on the
economy" using up tax dollars better spent on "job creation" (which really
means subsidizing corporate sector ventures).cc

d. Major spending cuts were made based on the above assumptions and
arguments. an practice, this has meant that there is "no money" for healing
programs, community capacity-building and training, youth development,
community economic development, or many of the other vital areas that
Aboriginal communities need to strengthen as part of building an adequate
social security system.c

While there has been some minimal "reinvestment" in social programs, the global
trend continues and pressure on the government of Canada to "adjust" to a set of
standards that serve international corporate interest is increasing as evidenced
by the conditions the Free Trade Agreement or a new Multilateral Agreement on
anvestment (MAa) that is now being negotiated. These international agreements
are, in part, designed to remove "barriers" to corporate activities, including
preventing national governments from allowing social and environmental
concerns to challenge the interests and objective (and profit) of big business.cc

amplicationscc

We see a number of important implications in these political and economic trends

that will impact the process of building a sustainable social security system for
Aboriginal communities.cc
 a. The long-term trend is for the amount of money available from
government for social programs to become less and less. at is unlikely this
trend will be reversed in the near future. There has already been
somewhere near a forty percent cut across most social programs.cc

b. The healing and community restoration process that must be an integral

part of building an adequate social security system is likely to need a
considerable infusion of reliable funding for at least a decade after which
the communities should anticipate a gradual reduction in health-related
costs. an short, social spending will need to be higher during the initial
phases of building a social security system -- probably higher than ever
before. This spending must be considered a long-term investment in
human well-being.cc

c. These two conflicting trends (increased need for stable funding versus
decreased availability and dependability of government funding) can only
be resolved by a shift in thinking within Aboriginal communities about how
to finance social security reform that moves away from complete
dependence on government funding.cc

d. Another key implication of these global trends is that, unless Aboriginal

communities do make a paradigm shift toward self-relevance in social
security financing, community sovereignty over what that system will be
and how it will operate will likely be increasingly undermined by
restrictions tied to government funding flowing from agendas far removed
from the communities and their needs.cc

e. Finally, the need to move toward greater self-sufficiency in financing

social security implies that wealth production (in the form of community
enterprises and investments) will have to be an integral part of a
sustainable social security system for Aboriginal communities.cc

2. People's Empowerment and the Rise of Civil Societyc

The clamorous discontent of masses of people demanding that they have a voice
in redesigning their future can be heard on every continent. an many places,
ordinary people are no longer willing to allow their governments and leaders to
think for them and to make decisions affecting their well-being and that of future
generations. Nor are most people willing to remain silent and passive in the face
of blatant social problems or injustices. This increasing demand for meaningful
and effective participation in processes of societal governance and in the design,
implementation and evaluation of programs and processes of social and
economic development has led to markedly different societal outcomes
depending on how those in power respond to the demands for participation.cc
an places where the response has been positive, there has been a rapid
development of what is known as the "civil society" sector, consisting of a
diverse array of voluntary non-government and private organizations all working
to improve various aspects of human well-being. Networks of organizations from
all sectors (government, non-government, voluntary and private) have formed
"collaboratives" or organized coalitions to carry on important work. One of the
hallmarks of this movement, wherever it occurs, is that it works to empower and
engage people in building solutions to human problems, and further, it takes
guidance, direction and inspiration from the people it most seeks to serve.cc

an contrast, in places where the powers that be have attempted to silence (or
simply ignore) the voices of community people (or various parts of the
community), the outcomes have been decidedly unpleasant.
epending on the
nature of the barriers those in power employ to silence and disempower
community people, and also depending on a wide range of cultural, social and
economic factors, the consequences have included various combinations of the
following.cc

a. Withdrawal - Community people turn inward, withdrawing their energy

and attention from the community. Outwardly this looks like apathy and
passive acceptance of the way things are. People seem unwilling to give
their time and energy to efforts to improve human and community
conditions.cc

b. The Collapse of a Sense of Community - Common oneness based on a

shared sense of purpose, on values and on a desired quality of life
disappears. The consensus underlying collective life is broken. People no
longer feel tied together in a mutual web of shared responsibility.cc

c. Splintering,
isunity and
ysfunctional Human Relations - Because their

normal creative energy has been blocked and their voices silenced, many
people feel hurt, angry, degraded and extremely mistrustful of others
(especially those in authority).
ysfunctional patterns such as malicious
gossip and backbiting, telling lies, theft, manipulation, power games,
abusive behaviours and addictions cripple positive efforts to improve
community conditions. Even within like-minded groups (such as churches),
groups splinter off rather than facing the deeper roots of conflict.cc

d. iolence, Sabotage and Revolt - Many people who feel they have no way
out, no way to improve a miserable existence, become either self-
destructive (depression, addiction, suicide) or violent toward others. At a
very basic level, this violence takes the form of physical or sexual abuse or
violent attacks on other people. Sometimes it becomes a somewhat
mindless social ritual, as for example when groups of youth trash a school
or someone's home. Sometimes it becomes much more calculating and
strategic, when, for example, a particular person is attacked (sometimes
 their property, sometimes their person or their relatives). Finally, all of
these levels of rage and violence have been successfully channeled into
organized attacks on those in power in order to either force change or to
actually overthrow the existing system. This later case is usually called
civil war.c

amplicationscc

The most important implications of this trend for community healing and
Aboriginalcc

social security reform are as follows.cc

a. Social security reform must be carried out in ways that create and
protect viable mechanisms and processes for people's participation.
Otherwise, the very process of trying to bring well-being to communities
will end up deepening the sickness.cc

b. Conversely, if new patterns of participation are established in and

through the process of community healing and restoration, the process of
social security reform will itself make an important contribution to
community healing.cc

c. Finally, some First Nations communities have seriously blocked people's

participation in order to maintain present power arrangements and to
prevent healing processes from going forward. This is, in our view, the
simple truth. Those community regimes will likely block and undermine any
authentic attempts at social security reform of the kind we are proposing in
this study. at will be critical to find ways of addressing this problem for the
sake of the children and other innocents suffering without recourse or
respite within those communities.c

Summarycc

an this chapter we have provided a framework for thinking about community

healing and Aboriginal social security reform. Our discussion first proposed
definitions of social security and of community healing that are anchored in the
concept of "whole health" as discussed in the Royal Commission report. This
approach implies that what must be "secured" is sustainable human well-being.cc

an order to understand what such a broad concept of social security would mean
in practice, and how community healing is related to it, two complementary
models were discussed, namely, the determinants of health model and what we
believe is its ancient Aboriginal parallel, the medicine wheel model.cc
We then presented a discussion on principles to guide action. The intent of this
discussion was to provide a frame of reference for developing and evaluating
strategies for healing and change that are in harmony with what Aboriginal
cultures know about who we are as human beings, and how human beings heal,
learn and develop their potentialities.cc

Finally, we presented a big picture discussion intended to highlight some of the

important global patterns and trends that are influencing the social and political
context within which Aboriginal community healing and social security reform are
taking place.cc