'Nakwaxda'xw First Nations by AFTAB
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AN EXPERIMENT IN THERAPEUTIC PLANNING: Learning with the Gwa’sala-’Nakwaxda’xw First Nations by AFTAB ERFAN A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (PLANNING) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) September 2013 ©Aftab Erfan, 2013 Abstract Many of the communities in which planners work are characterized by deeply rooted conflict and collective trauma, a legacy of various forms of injustice, including some that have been enabled by the planning profession itself. In this context, can planning play a healing or therapeutic role, without recreating or perpetuating the cycles of oppression? This dissertation reflects on my community-based action research on Tsulquate, a small First Nations reserve on Vancouver Island, where the Gwa’sala and ‘Nakwaxda’xw people have lived since relocation in 1964. Between 2009 and 2012, and particularly over a year of intensive fieldwork, I engaged in this community to assist in the ambitious task of addressing intergenerational trauma, the importance of which was expressed within the Band’s newly created Comprehensive Community Plan. Written as mixed-genre creative analytic process (CAP) ethnography, the dissertation tells the stories of my engagement, and in particular of a series of public, intergenerational workshops I facilitated using a methodology called Deep Democracy. I document evidence of modest but promising patterns of individual and collective ‘healing’ and ‘transformation’ in the course of the workshops, and evaluate the effectiveness of my tools and approaches using first person (reflective), second person (interpersonal), and third person (informant-based) sources of information. I argue in favour of a role for a therapeutic orientation in planning, suggesting that planning is in fact particularly well-suited to a therapeutic task given its collaborative-community focus, its ability to connect the past to the future, its practical orientation, and its relative lack of ‘baggage’ compared with the other helping professions. The ability to play a therapeutic or healing role is contingent, however, not only on planners learning new skills, but also on developing a set of ‘metaskills’ or personal attitudes – compassion, playfulness and beginner’s mind – that are essential for effective and ethical involvement in such sensitive settings. I argue that reflective practice is key to the making of therapeutic planners, and outline a developmental path based on a combination of personal and assisted reflective practice: journaling, meditation, artistic practice, peer coaching, and supervision. ii Preface This dissertation is an original, independent and unpublished work by author, Aftab Erfan. Proposal for the research was approved by the UBC Behavioural Research Ethics Board (Certificate Number H10–01244). This dissertation is entitled “An Experiment in Therapeutic Planning” to signal the exploratory nature of this work within the emerging area of therapeutic planning. It is not intended to instruct a person to become a therapeutic planner and anyone reading this dissertation will be advised against thinking that it is a manual for practice. iii Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ......................................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................................... iv List of Illustrations ................................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. vii Dedication ................................................................................................................................................... ix 1.0 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. How this inquiry came to be .......................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Research and data gathering methods ................................................................................... 10 1.3. Process facilitation methods ...................................................................................................... 16 1.4. Analysis and writing methods ................................................................................................... 32 1.5. The setting and characters .......................................................................................................... 36 2.0. Beginning................................................................................................................................. 47 2.1. First Encounters .............................................................................................................................. 47 2.2. Tsulquate: a pedestrian eye-view ............................................................................................. 52 2.3. A local history of colonial planning.......................................................................................... 58 2.4. Stumbling as education ................................................................................................................ 68 2.5. Something is resonating............................................................................................................... 83 2.6. Illusions of helpless heroines .................................................................................................... 90 2.7. What ethics are we on? ................................................................................................................. 98 2.8. Should I stay or should I go now? ........................................................................................... 105 2.9. Powerlessness of words ............................................................................................................. 113 2.10. The trouble with talking about healing ............................................................................. 115 2.11. Three dreams .............................................................................................................................. 124 3.0. Middle .................................................................................................................................... 131 3.1. Parenting or the governance of the household ................................................................. 131 3.2. In the hot seat ................................................................................................................................ 138 3.3. Grandparents debriefed ............................................................................................................ 144 3.4. Putting on the showgirl .............................................................................................................. 150 3.5. The trouble with pencil crayons ............................................................................................. 155 3.7. Baby-making machines .............................................................................................................. 170 3.8. Getting caught in the field ......................................................................................................... 173 3.9. Girls who cut ................................................................................................................................... 178 3.10. Ocean as change-agent ............................................................................................................. 186 3.11. What to do about Johnny? ....................................................................................................... 189 3.12. Evaluating our work ................................................................................................................. 195 4.0. End .......................................................................................................................................... 207 4.1. No time to dry our tears ............................................................................................................. 207 4.2. Death close to home..................................................................................................................... 210 4.3. Grieving ............................................................................................................................................ 216 4.4. Letters to Jane ................................................................................................................................ 219 4.5. Where do we go from here? ...................................................................................................... 222 4.6. Sitting in the water ....................................................................................................................... 225 4.7. I'm good at the monkey bars ...................................................................................................