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To begin with I am in Vancouver for two days with Rebecca at a conference at which she is a speaker.
The conference is hosted by the Pacific Business Law Institute.
The specific title of the conference is “Impact Benefit Agreements” Advanced Negotiation Issues”.
Did I have a good time today?
Yes, I did.
One of the pages of my note book is full of acronyms: ILO, G2G, IBA, PBLI, DTC, ART and UNDRIP.
Now tonight I will go over them and see how many I can remember: ILO (Indigenous Legal Order), G2G (government to government), IBA (Impact Benefit Agreement), PBLI (Pacific Business and Law Institute), DTC (?), ART (Aboriginal Rights and Tribal Holder), UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) and MUO (afraid to whisper over to Rebecca and find out what this was when I heard it).
I think the high point of the conference for me was Sarah Morales with a presentation on how Impact Benefit Agreements have gender discrimination. When her presentation was over, Rebecca whispered to me, I just love Sarah.
I think everyone in the room felt the same way about Sarah.
During the question period the room came up with an amazing solution, or at least with the start to an amazing solution. They said that someone should build a template for an Article to be built into every contract that deals with the gender discrimination in contracts. If this were an generic article, it would go a long way to beginning the discussion as to how to render visible the gender discrimination which is there in contracts. Sarah pointed to evidenced in many international studies.
I should not try to say that there was a favourite talk.
I saw Rebecca madly taking notes during every presentation.
When Sunny LeBourdais finished talking about Indigenous-led Environmental Assessments, Rebecca leaned over to me and said, “Breathtaking and Sunny didn’t even get to the end of her power-point slides and to the cannibal story.”
Sunny is walking with crutches. She and her horse fell while out hunting and she broke her leg. She had to make a splint with sticks and some bandanas and then ride out for help. Some women are just super independent.
After the conference, Rebecca joined some of her friends for some socializing.
I did the 11 minute walk to the hotel alone, stopping in at Winners.
Shopping at Winners isn’t that much fun with a load of conference material in my backpack and thus on my shoulders. While I looked at a few scarves, I neither tried one on nor bought one.
I think one of the funniest off-the-cuff sayings came from one of the moderators. He had tried to introduce a session but made mistakes with both the name of the nation and with the name of the presenter. He turned to the audience and said, contrary to common belief, just because we are Indigenous, doesn't mean we will have the correct pronunciation with each other's names, languages or names of each other's nations.
He did a great job there, at poking fun at himself, rather than apologizing.
Someone had not been able to attend, so Merle Alexander had moved his presentation for tomorrow into that first slot for this morning's session. Then he had presented a talk another person had organized, but who at the last minute had not been abled to attend for the second session. Plus he is co-chairing the conference, and thus introducing many of the guests and keeping the conference on time. Strictly on time. The minute that second hand rolls around to the top of the clock, he begins to speak.
It might be possible to find all of that monotonous, but none of it was monotonous to me.
Arta
The conference is hosted by the Pacific Business Law Institute.
The specific title of the conference is “Impact Benefit Agreements” Advanced Negotiation Issues”.
Did I have a good time today?
Yes, I did.
One of the pages of my note book is full of acronyms: ILO, G2G, IBA, PBLI, DTC, ART and UNDRIP.
Now tonight I will go over them and see how many I can remember: ILO (Indigenous Legal Order), G2G (government to government), IBA (Impact Benefit Agreement), PBLI (Pacific Business and Law Institute), DTC (?), ART (Aboriginal Rights and Tribal Holder), UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) and MUO (afraid to whisper over to Rebecca and find out what this was when I heard it).
I think the high point of the conference for me was Sarah Morales with a presentation on how Impact Benefit Agreements have gender discrimination. When her presentation was over, Rebecca whispered to me, I just love Sarah.
I think everyone in the room felt the same way about Sarah.
During the question period the room came up with an amazing solution, or at least with the start to an amazing solution. They said that someone should build a template for an Article to be built into every contract that deals with the gender discrimination in contracts. If this were an generic article, it would go a long way to beginning the discussion as to how to render visible the gender discrimination which is there in contracts. Sarah pointed to evidenced in many international studies.
I should not try to say that there was a favourite talk.
I saw Rebecca madly taking notes during every presentation.
When Sunny LeBourdais finished talking about Indigenous-led Environmental Assessments, Rebecca leaned over to me and said, “Breathtaking and Sunny didn’t even get to the end of her power-point slides and to the cannibal story.”
Sunny is walking with crutches. She and her horse fell while out hunting and she broke her leg. She had to make a splint with sticks and some bandanas and then ride out for help. Some women are just super independent.
After the conference, Rebecca joined some of her friends for some socializing.
I did the 11 minute walk to the hotel alone, stopping in at Winners.
Shopping at Winners isn’t that much fun with a load of conference material in my backpack and thus on my shoulders. While I looked at a few scarves, I neither tried one on nor bought one.
I think one of the funniest off-the-cuff sayings came from one of the moderators. He had tried to introduce a session but made mistakes with both the name of the nation and with the name of the presenter. He turned to the audience and said, contrary to common belief, just because we are Indigenous, doesn't mean we will have the correct pronunciation with each other's names, languages or names of each other's nations.
He did a great job there, at poking fun at himself, rather than apologizing.
Someone had not been able to attend, so Merle Alexander had moved his presentation for tomorrow into that first slot for this morning's session. Then he had presented a talk another person had organized, but who at the last minute had not been abled to attend for the second session. Plus he is co-chairing the conference, and thus introducing many of the guests and keeping the conference on time. Strictly on time. The minute that second hand rolls around to the top of the clock, he begins to speak.
It might be possible to find all of that monotonous, but none of it was monotonous to me.
Arta
Ah, that was MOU (as in "Memorandum of Understanding"), and not an MUO.... but now i am going to spend some time thinking about what an MUO might be....
ReplyDeleteAnd it was a GREAT conference. Seriously, a case of Exceeds Expectations, and my expectations were reasonable. I learned tons!
ReplyDeleteI wish I could capture the projects of the women who were on the panel with you. Stewards of water and the earth, literally. Just a privilege to see their work put in conversation with your work.
ReplyDeleteI also love Sarah, even though I only have met her once. I have had the privilege of sharing some parenting information with her -- we're all trying to raise "strong, independent women" (to use a phrase from Cathy). I feel lucky to be in her circle.
ReplyDeleteI'm not up to speed on impact benefits agreements (haven't read about them for a few years) but another really damaging thing is when those agreements are kept confidential and not shared with the actual communities who are supposed to be benefiting from them. Is this still the case?
ReplyDeleteRebecca and I had a long discussion about who really benefits from confidentiality agreements. We came to a number of conclusions, one of which was articulated by the presenter. When agreements are made between an Indigenous group and a corporation, for example, then it is in the best interests of the next Indigenous group to get an offer at least equalling if not surpassing the agreement of the previous group. But if they don't know what the bottom lines are, sometimes they make an agreement that is not as good as others. So that confidentiality clause benefits the corporation in those cases, but it is a detriment to those trying to get the same benefit as other around them.
ReplyDeleteRe the whole conference? I had no idea I was going to learn as much as I did. Three cheers to note taking, even when I have no idea where it is leading me.