The recent un/covering of unmarked graves and murders of Indigenous children forced to attend residential schools calls Canadians and the world to re-examine histories of the colonization, genocide and enslavement by the British Empire. This call requires awareness of how current privileges are built on Colonialist forces across the world to accumulate wealth, enforce cultural dominance and exploit indentured labour. How can we use our understandings to meet the demand for reparation, remembrance, recognition and reconsideration from Indigenous peoples, refugees and black , white and brown bodies with different histories, experiences and identities living on colonized lands in Canada and in many parts of the world.
How do we make collective sense of ourselves as colonizer and colonized? How do we use language to express these differences of power and history within society and to describe their impact on our bodies and daily lives? What helps us name and address oppressive power relations under capitalism? What opens up our tendency to rigidity in how we see and understand one another by ignoring the complexity of multiple identities that exist within each of us?
How can we explore and reconfigure our (un)conscious understandings of ourselves and our relationships through exploring our internalized constructions of authority and authorisation, to undo, redo and explore our thoughts and feelings in the hope that something different might emerge that moves us towards holding a curious regard for one another, resisting oppression and seeking reconciliation and reparation?
This experiential learning workshop draws on the group relations tradition (www.tavinstitute.org) and will include large and small study groups; storytelling, review and application groups, and movement to uncover our projections, our defenses and the forms our resistance takes.
Conference Directorate
Barbara Williams, Co-Director
Jo-anne Carlyle, Co-Director
Jo-anne Carlyle PhD, Clin. Foren. Psychol., Org. Consultant, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist. Having worked as a clinician, researcher, teacher and consultant for over 30 years, she is transitioning to work with greater social impact for the final phase of her career.
Rod Smith, Director of Administration
Rod Smith, PhD, Leadership Studies, Assistant Professor, US Air Force Academy, uses group relations theory to teach leadership to undergraduate and graduate students in support of developing inclusive leaders of character. He is a board member for the AK Rice Institute (AKRI) and the Adaptive Leadership Network (ALN).
Staff Consultants
Anita Prasad is Exec Director of Working for Change, a survivor based organization building economic and social mobility in communities that live in poverty. She has been a grass roots community development and social justice worker for two decades; and involved in group relations for six years.
Consulting Practitioners
The consulting practitioners will work with the consultants to support the learning of members and the conference as a whole.
Anna Turley is a consultant who works with feminist and human rights organizations in the areas of leadership development, governance, organizational strengthening and strategic communications. She has a particular interest in supporting shared leadership and networked governance and uses a collaborative and pedagogical approach to working with leaders, best thought about as ‘walking with’. Anna has an MSc in Development Studies and lives in South Africa.
David Westbrook, MA, CTP Dipl. is a former psychotherapist and conscientious resistor of government certification and other reifications in “mental health” discourse and practice. I have been engaged in psychodynamic group work almost continuously since 1997; as psychotherapist in training, as group member, as peer, and as facilitator. My Group Relations experience began in 2017 and I am greatly looking forward to my first conference in a consultant role.
Kristine Stege is a dynamic HR professional with legal background and experience working for various public and private sector organizations in Canada, France and Latvia. Kristine has an MBA with a focus on Organization Studies and LL.M in International and European Law. Kristine is particularly interested in exploring the nature and emergence of difference, leadership and authority in groups.
Kathy White PhD, is a psychologist/psychoanalyst practicing executive coaching and organizational consultation. Principal, Pogue White Consultancy, LLC, New York.
Context
The definitions, quotes and images below give some idea of the context that the Directorate and staff team are working with in preparing for this year’s conference. We will look forward to hearing the ideas, images and stories that members will bring to inform the conference work.
Colonialism
Colonialism is the process of a country taking full or partial political control of a dependent country, territory or people. It occurs when people from one country settle in another country for the purpose of exploiting its people and natural resources. Colonial powers typically attempt to impose their language and cultures on the indigenous people of the countries they colonize. Colonialism is similar to imperialism, the process of using force and influence to control another country or people.
By 1914 most countries of the world had been colonized by Europeans.
https://www.thoughtco.com/colonialism-definition-and-examples
Conference Events
Large Group Story Telling: in this event, you will have the opportunity to share stories of difference.
Small Study Groups: the task of the Small Study Group is to studyconscious and unconscious group dynamics in the exploration of difference from whatever is happening in the group as it is unfolding in the here and now. Two consultants will be available.
Training Small Study Group: in this event, more experienced members will have an opportunity to review conscious and unconscious group dynamics in the exploration of difference from whatever is happening in the group as it is unfolding in the here and now.
Large Study Groups: the task of the Large Study Group is to study the large group process as it happens in the here and now. There is the opportunity to consider the dynamics of large groups and the processes of exploring difference in a large group. Three consultants will be present in order to help the Large Study Group to think about its own process and what is happening.
Learning Experience Groups: the task is to review your learnings in the conference and explore how you might take those learnings into your work, leadership, community or family.
Movement Sessions: There will be two movement sessions during the course of the conference. Members will be facilitated to collectively explore difference through movement.
Plenaries: The conference will open and close in full plenary of members and staff. The opening plenary provides an opportunity to introduce the conference and for members and staff to reflect on their thoughts and feelings about joining the event. The closing plenary will provide an opportunity to reflect on the conference and to share thoughts about how to continue the work.
Research Study
The Online Exploring Difference Conference will include two sixty-minute movement sessions. You are hereby invited to participate in a research project about these movement sessions. Your participation in this research is entirely voluntary – you do not need to consent to participate in the research in order to take part in the movement sessions or the rest of the Exploring Differences Conference. Also, if you consent initially, you can withdraw your consent at any time.
Dr. Janelle Joseph of the University of Toronto Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education is researching how these movement sessions affect participant learning during and after the workshop.