At our last managers’ training day, we talked about Conversations That Matter and ways to increase our use of the videos. One suggestion was to send out reviews of videos you have watched to give people encouragement to watch additional videos. I recently logged in to watch:
An Aboriginal Perspective on Diversity, Disability and Invisibility
I thought this was an interesting video for a few reasons:
Lorna Williams grew up in Mount Currie and talks about how her community changed as their families started interacting with government and non-aboriginal systems.
She talks about how the disruption of their families disrupted their whole culture – their traditions rely upon keeping children, parents and grandparents connected with each other and with nature – and these connections are very difficult to re-establish. Along with the loss of culture, came the perception of “less than” that these damaged families were then perceived as being less capable, less intelligent, less reliable.
She talks about how our majority culture assumes that our ways are best ways and doesn’t even explore the possibility of alternative teaching methods, alternative values, alternative family models.
How should we respond to people we support and their families if they have aboriginal cultural connections?
- Listen to them.
- Respond with respect and humility – willing to learn what is important to them and their families.
As well, I just received the following update when I logged in:
Did you know that every video has closed captioning?
Click on the CC icon to turn
captions on or off.
If you have a recent favourite video, comment below or send me an email and we can make a new post about your favourite video, what you enjoyed about, why people should watch it.