Peace making circles kay pranis biography

A time-tested paradigm for healing relationships and keeping them healthy, Peacemaking Circles explores how communities can respond to crimes in ways that address the needs and interests of all those affected - victims, offenders, their families and friends, and the community. Based on indigenous teachings combined with current research in conflict resolution, the Circle process described here builds an intentionally safe space where we can bring our best selves to some of our most difficult conversations.

Though the book relates the process to criminal justice, the explanantion of Circle philosophy and practice can be readily applied to hurts and conflicts in other areas of life. Above all, the book offers a grounded vision for how we can be together "in a good way," especially when it seems hardest to do. Barry Stuart—former Chief Judge of the Territorial Court of Yukon now retireda faculty member of numerous Canadian law schools, and an internationally respected leader in multiparty conflict resolution—has pioneered the use of peacemaking Circles for public processes in North America over the last twenty years.

Peace making circles kay pranis biography: A time-tested paradigm for

His professional interests have always centered on decision-making processes, dispute and conflict resolution, and the design and development of consensus-building processes. He has worked as a lawyer, mediator, consensus facilitator, policy analyst to government, chief land claims negotiator, professor, and speaker. In the s, he played a leading role in shaping environmental law in Canada.

Mark Wedge brings a lifelong knowledge of aboriginal culture he is of Tagish, Tlingit, and European ancestry and broad experiences in both using and training others in using peacemaking Circles for complex issues. For 15 years, he has carried the Circle process to workplace and public forums, including not only sentencing for individual crimes but also for dealing with the outstanding issues in Canada between victims of Mission School abuse and the Anglican Church, as well as in settling land claim disputes between First Nations and the Canadian government.

He currently teaches in peaces making circles kay pranis biography throughout North America, specifically through the Justice Institute of British Columbia. Kay Pranis is a national leader in restorative justice, specializing in peacemaking Circles. She has written and presented papers on peacemaking Circles and restorative justice in the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, and Japan.

Howard Zehr Author of Changing Lenses and The Little Book of Restorative Justice Interest in peace making circles kay pranis biography approaches has grown rapidly in the past decade; peacemaking circles are being used to do justice, to resolve conflicts, to deal with trauma, to build community, even to extend democracy. Yet written material about the philosophy and practice of circles has been fragmentary and scarce.

This is the circle book for which restorative justice and other practitioners have been waiting. Accessible and practical, yet solidly grounded in principle, Peacemaking Circles explains how and why circles work in terms that we all can understand and put into practice. Christina Baldwin Renowned author, Calling the Way and The Circle Wayand co-founder of Peer Spirit This is an incredible addition to the literature and understanding of circle process as a tool for deep personal shift and social change.

Beyond its gift to the restorative justice movement, Peacemaking Circles has widespread applicability in any sector of society where conflict resolution and accountability are called for. Vine Deloria, Jr. The mission is to provide connection, advocacy, education and inspired action as a public service to individuals and communities seeking to proactively improve relationships and structures within their spheres and our world.

Listen on Pandora. Listen on Spotify. Listen on Apple Podcasts. X Facebook Email Linkedin. I think that's why this work turned out to be even more challenging than people thought at the beginning. The shift it represents is much deeper than many of us originally understood. Molly : Would you share what you have seen in your processes with people across the country and how they might be having epiphanies of shifting from this paradigm of isolation and retribution to one of interconnection and resolution?

Kay : I led a training recently, where there was high consciousness in the room around racial equity. An African American man, who has gone through a lot of diversity work, was clearly immersed in that work and very knowledgeable about approaches. As we went through the three day training, it was just amazing to watch how something that had been troubling him in the diversity work shifted and things fell into place in a way that's going to be transformative for him.

For example, we were talking about the importance of stories. That storytelling is a source of wisdom in circle process. It's not about advice, nor about our usual intellectual rigor. Not that you can't bring that, you can, but ultimately the knowledge in the circle comes primarily as a story from our own lived experience. We were describing how storytelling is an important component of the circle process.

This gentleman mentioned above raised the question that he was really concerned about storytelling. And I realized that he was kind of challenging the idea of storytelling—that in his experience in diversity work, the storytelling is sometimes used as a bludgeon. The story is used to beat up, in this case, white people. The question becomes how you tell that story, how you hold yourself up in relation to the person you are offering that story to or pushing that story on.

So I said, "Oh yes! But they are going to be told in a value-based container, in a way that's not about shame and blame yet it is about a deep understanding and sitting with the truth before we try to figure out how we go forward. And so there were pieces like that, where he had been doing diversity work and feeling like we were not getting where we want to be, although deeply well intended and people working very hard at it.

It was a thrill for me to watch the material that I have been working with become pieces that helped him put together some things that weren't quite fitting for him. He wasn't really satisfied with the way a lot of the diversity work was happening and that he had found the missing piece! And I watched all of that click. Interestingly enough, we had somebody in the training who was saying, "I could see why it's really good for people to share their feelings and to talk about these things, but it wouldn't be a good way to make decisions right?

It's just that we have this idea that it is the only way the decisions could be made is linear. But that in fact is not the reality. When you sit in this space, it increases the capacity to make decisions. So I am watching people take ideas that are surfacing in the space and begin to fit them into their own work and lives and break out of something that felt like a straight jacket to them.

That's really what I saw with this guy, it gave him a way to break out of his straight jacket, in terms of certain aspects of his work that didn't feel good. Molly : What you just described reminds me of a process with indigenous people and wisdom, and that's the process of holding the story and the nonlinear decision making. That sets into part of our theme: creating safe spaces and what it means and of course learning and growing into not knowing.

Would you share your own understanding and meaning of not knowing and how this might support a safe space and what it means? Kay : The importance of not knowing has really intensified in the last couple of years. In order for collective wisdom to emerge you need to enter not knowing the answer. Because, as soon as anyone of us thinks we know the answer, we will try to drive the process in the direction of the answer even with the best of intentions, absolutely the best of the intentions.

If we have the answer we think this is what needs to happen, this will be good. We exist in a culture where our status and our sense of worth, our deep sense of worthiness to be are tied to knowing. We have been told since we were young that to know is good. And that to know more is better. To know is to be valued, to be worthy, to be paid well, and to have power.

We have so much identity in this culture; it is tied to knowing, having answers. Yet these processes, especially circles, ask us to not know. That's so, so deeply counter-cultural. The wonderful thing is that, if we can get there, it's a huge relief—it is like freedom. We have to release so much social conditioning to begin to open up. The words that help me think about not knowing are curiosity and wonder.

I often use a quote, and I am not certain who wrote it but that person describes wonder as not knowing, experienced as pleasure. I think these ideas of curiosity and wonder are what we are aiming for. But I think it is important to understand, because those are positive frames and to understand that we are asking for that at a level that's way beyond what has been culturally acceptable in the past.

That opens the space for that which cannot be predicted to emerge out of the collective. I have no idea how this happens.

Peace making circles kay pranis biography: Kay Pranis is a national leader

I do not understand at all how this happens, but I have seen it happen so much that I have a lot of confidence in human collective wisdom, where the space is safe enough for people to be readily speaking their deeper truth. So that depends upon this, that to be able to access collective wisdom depends very heavily on being able to create safe space.

Safe enough for people to not know and not feel stupid, right? There are very specific things that are part of the circle process that contribute to creating that kind of safe space. As it gets safer, and as a facilitator you are safer too, and you can release control and let the group take responsibility for itself and allow it to work through some really uncomfortable things.

And that is very deliberate. Beginning with an opening ceremony is a very important part of safe space. That particular alignment helps them to fly farther and faster and circle is the equivalent geometry for human beings.

Peace making circles kay pranis biography: Kay Pranis teaches and writes about

I think for a number of reasons. One is the sense of connection and common focus. Another is the equality as there is just no head to a circle. Equality is really implicit in the process. The other thing that is very powerful that I became aware of is the accountability in a circle that you don't have in other ways of people arranging themselves.

There is also a tremendous sense of support because circle geometrically is the strongest form in terms of forces on the perimeter. So that helps to create the safety as well. Before we talk about any difficult issue we spend time talking about what are the values we want bring to circle? Basically it's a way of helping people remember who they want to be in their best self before they want do any work together.

That's enormous in helping to begin to increase the safety in a group of people. And again before getting into any difficult issues that we may want to discuss, we spend time in sharing stories from our lives that help us to see ourselves in one another. That also helps with empathy. Even though we might think that the peace making circles kay pranis biography we are in conflict with has nothing in common with us, if we share stories about being an adolescent and feeling like we didn't fit in, that will completely change my sense of that other person.

The number of elements in the process that are continually trying to deepen the sense of safety, so that people can just be who they are, and the circle has a lot of faith in people at their authentic self-level. If we can be authentic with one another, we can always figure out how to move forward constructively. We cannot necessarily undo harm that happened, but we can move toward healing and toward being more constructive with one another.

We can be authentic in a space that's grounded in these values of whom we want to be when we are at our best. Molly: Would you describe your meaning of deep listening? Kay : Deep listening is one of the major characteristics that circle process supports. The talking pieces are a really big part of that. It is being able to regulate the dialogue.

The piece goes in order around the circle and only the person holding the talking piece speaks. That is the basic characteristic of this process that I use. I feel that it engenders a deeper listening without people thinking or talking about it. This pretty much happens organically. Once the group gets accustomed to the idea that they won't be interrupted and they realize that they are not going to be speaking right away and so they don't need to be thinking about what they are going to say is big.

The things that distract us from deep listening are our concern about what are we going to say as soon as that person stops speaking, right? That could be something we urgently want to put out there or it could be just something as small as thinking, "Oh dear, I am expected to respond. What am I going say when that person stops talking?

Then they are much more able to put their energy into the listening. I also find that the physicality of the talking piece is important. People tend to look at the person who is holding the talking piece, sometimes looking at it in their hands, and that creates, I think, sort of energetic alignment that impacts the way we listen. And she gives me the great gift of her support and encouragement of my work.

To me it is an enormous act of kindness and forgiveness. Since her initial "accidental" exposure to indigenous people's use of peacemaking circles, the circle has become the center of all of Kay's work: "The circle became a way for me to see how humans can live more successfully with each other and the natural world, balancing group and individual needs and gifts," Kay says.

She has also been involved in developing the use of peacemaking circles in schools, social services, churches, families, museums, universities, municipal planning and workplaces. She has a particular interest in the use of circles to support social justice efforts addressing racial, economic, class and gender inequities. That interest includes the use of peacemaking circles to understand and respond to historical harms to groups of people.

The peacemaking circle process has been a source of energy, inspiration and continuous learning for Kay for the past 20 years.