![]() I recall one of my Deans telling me that he’d taken the latest group of students up for their weeklong placement. Some of these are horror stories and we must not look away.’ As importantly, she argues that without listening, ‘non-Indigenous today can risk the same old rushing in, do-gooding, problem-solving - simplistically thinking we comprehend situations, and speaking “for” others.’ This reminded me of a similar conversation that was had in Australia when the impact of the missions and the Stolen Generations (equivalent to the Sixties Scoop) dominated the headlines.Īt the time, the university I was at ran an in-country program where we embedded non-Indigenous students with Indigenous communities. Listen to the Indigenous voices and experiences themselves - silenced for so long. Helena Burns, in her column A la Carte, makes a good point about how western cultures have always approached Indigenous peoples and notes, ‘It’s of the utmost importance to listen right now. And then Governments feign surprise when agreements aren’t reached. We have seen this most glaringly in recent times in relation to how Governments have worked with First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, often bringing settler values and solutions to issues, rather than sitting in community with Elders to understand Indigenous points of view. Our dominant cultural and political institutions are structured around laws, practices and values defined and developed by those traditionally in power, and so they are often deaf to voices and practices that are not their own. It is also why many of our institutions are almost systemically structured not to allow the voice of minorities to be heard. This critical fact is a major reason that so much grief continues across so many areas. We arrive with our minds made up, and it is difficult to hear when we are speaking. For some commentators, the real issue is that so many of us are primed to respond even before we have fully heard another’s point of view. Many motivators and healers speak about the difference between hearing and listening, with one comic wisely noting that the biggest mistake by most human beings is that they hear quickly, listen half, understand a quarter and tell double. Reams of books have been dedicated to defining ‘how’ to listen, and even define ‘types’- Deep listening, Full listening, Critical Listening, Therapeutic Listening and so forth. ![]() Listening is often referred to as an art - as in the ‘art of listening’.
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