Decolonising our Approach to Systems Change

Last month I had the privilege of facilitating a retreat for a group of extraordinary young environmental leaders from across the US through the Walking Softer Foundation. From eliminating herbicide use from college campuses to producing stunning art installations to raise awareness and engage the public on environmental issues, this group moved me in the direct actions they were taking in their communities to restore and care for nature.

I had the opportunity to share with the group a systems change model that we have developed here in Aotearoa New Zealand, through the Emerge Institute.

Those who work in ‘systems change’ are probably familiar with iceberg models. The premise is quite simple - what we see is above the water, the symptoms, and the majority of what holds a problem in place is unseen, beneath the water, which must be addressed to create lasting change, particularly the mental models or belief systems that we hold as a society. Here is a simple example that is quite popularised online with an example around thinking more systemically about catching a cold:

A lot of traditional approaches to systems thinking encourage us to ask why, many times, in an effort to uncover the various root causes that might lead to an issue. We see this with the example of catching cold illustrated above though the same questions can be asked of more complex issues. Why is there so much litter on our beaches? What drives this behaviour in people? What drives recycling infrastructure? What drives company decisions on the materials they use? What might be some of the power structures and belief systems leading to these outcomes? And how do we begin to shift these?

All very useful questions. Our models however tend to stop here at the more cognitive, intellectual processing of an issue. This systems model encourages changemakers to look deeper, beyond structures and mental models, to how a problem might be impacted by trauma held in a community, organisation, intergenerationally and in our own bodies and to consider how we access and work with the life force within us. It encourages us to rethink the very way we engage with these issues and consider other worldviews and knowledge systems.

How might we heal trauma from colonisation to create more equitable and just outcomes for our people?

How might we heal our relationship with Mother Earth, from one of disconnection and exploitation to one of reconnection and reverence? 

This is all begins with ourselves. What is the inner place each of us innovate and lead from? What pain and resistance in us needs healing as part of our service and contribution?

How much of our efforts to create a more flourishing future are coming from a place of anxiousness, fear, guilt, pressure, or other contracting state?

And from such a state how can our actions and efforts create a future of true collective flourishing? How many of our organisations are stuck in such cultures?

To transform systems we need to commit to the ongoing work of healing the resistance and pain within us, our organisations and ecosystems. This work is a felt, embodied experience. It requires a slower pace than many of us might like. As we clear and transmute our inner resistance and pain, we experience greater peace, joy, presence, and can bring this to our organisations, communities and society. This inner work is the work. Our actions are an extension of who we are and cannot be seen as separate.

Postactivism advocate Bayo Akomolafe reminds us, “these are urgent times, slow down”. Slowing down the pace of activity, also helps us access another place that we can lead from. Many of our Indigenous and wisdom traditions point to a place of presence, stillness, wisdom, a life force that exists within us. A place where we are vital, whole, connected to each other, the land, our ancestors. A place from which we can sense the future that wishes to emerge and be a vessel to allow it to come through. A very different approach to mentally setting predefined goals and targets and muscling our way forward.

A lot of our Western education models develop our intellect though do not necessarily nurture and support us to access this place. I have found it requires ongoing practice and patience. If we look to our different cultures and traditions, we have no shortage of practices that can support us in these efforts, from meditation and mindfulness practices, yoga and movement, chanting, music, being in nature, karakia and prayer. As we embody and lead from a place of wholeness, harmony and balance, our actions, policies, products and projects will reflect this too.

At our retreat in Utah, we invited two Indigenous Elders that we work with through the Fire Circle project to help us experience these deeper levels of our Iceberg. Grandmother LánéSaán Moonwalker (Yoeme, Apache lineage) and Aunty Anita Sanchez, Ph.D. Diversity-Equity-Inclusion-Culture (Nahua and Amazonian lineage). Our time was filled with songs, chants, ceremonies that would help us connect to that vital place of wisdom and help us move forward with the awareness that everything is sacred. These experiences helped our group move beyond thinking about sustainability in a linear way to experiencing what it means to live in reciprocity and right relationship with Mother Earth. Grandmother led us through beautiful process on healing intergenerational trauma, highlighting how this is often unseen weight, holding us back from utilising our fullest potential. Aunty Anita led us through a beautiful meditative process where we could become the elements, fire, wind, light, water. It gave the group an experience of realising and experiencing we are nature, not separate from her, and feeling the potentiality in us when we work from this place.

As me move forward to address the “polycrisis” of complex environmental and social challenges before us, it is more important than ever that we slow down, reconnect to our bodies, give space for the deep healing that this time is calling for in each of us, and live and lead from a place of interbeing, interconnectedness with Mother Earth and all life.

It reminds of what Elder Djapirri from the Yolŋu people of North East Arnhem Land, Australia says “when your mind, body and spirit is quiet, you can hear the Earth speak”

As I look at the myriad of courses, retreats, workshops and trainings around addressing environmental issues and systems change, I feel more than ever, we need to move beyond our modern Western approaches of education - prioritising information and following the “banking system” of education as Paulo Freire calls it and develop the capacities in our leaders to not only process and act strategically on the information we have about the crisis ahead of us, but to furthermore develop the more subtle capacities of:

• Accessing our own inner wisdom and supporting our teams and organisations to access and act from their own inner peace, wisdom and stillness
• Being a vessel that can sense what wants to emerge and bring it to life - as Otto Scharmar calls it ‘leading from the emerging future’.
• Being healers that can attend to and heal our own pain and resistance as well as that in our teams, organisations and wider ecosystems as it arises
• Leading from an ecocentric rather than egocentric or anthropocentric space where we experience ourselves as part of Nature, working with, rather than for here. Bringing the voice of Mother Earth into our work. 

If we can grow these foundations, the strategic actions will flow with much greater ease!