Jon Kleiman, Health and Nutrition Teacher
Kanatapi is a weekly exercise we do with our students, and it the most magical part of Akilah. We arrange ourselves, the 25 students and 6 staff, in a big circle of chairs and for an hour, trying to grow as individuals and as a community. Kanatapi begins with “sharing”. During sharing, people are encouraged to use “I feel” statements to share thoughts and reflections with the rest of the group. After sharing, our Program Director leads us through an exercise – some sort of a prompt that everyone in the circle must respond to. Last week’s prompt was “What is one of your inner strengths.” Today’s prompt asked us to complete the following sentences, “I used to be ____. I am ____. I want to be____.” We close the Kanatapi meeting with business, which provides us an opportunity to make administrative announcements.
I am not a teary person except when I sit in Kanatapi. The sharing that takes place, the vulnerability people show, the growth individuals make and the growth that the community experiences move me deeply. There are many varieties of comments that move me, but as an educator, there is nothing more moving than hearing students acknowledge the growth that they recognize taking place in themselves.
I don’t feel comfortable sharing specific comments that have been made in Kantapai, because Kanatapi feels so private and so intimate. But I will share a theme that continues to emerge. At every Kanatapi we’ve had, someone has mentioned how the Akilah community, the staff and students together, feels like one giant family. And then I cry.
I am grateful to our Program Director, Monique Schmidt, for having the courage and insight to bring Kanatapi to Akilah.
I am very impressed with Kanatapi, and I would love to know how and where it came to be and what the word means. I can easily see its value for almost any group, and even between individuals. What a fabulous blog. Thank you.
Kanatapi is a word in the Blackfoot Indian language for the gathering of members of a close community (band or tribe) to speak honestly to each other, and express thoughts and opinions, about the community issues that affect all members.
The process of kanatapi as used at Akilah was borrowed from VISIONS Service Adventures, a national and international summer experience for teenagers whose purpose is to offer opportunities to live and work in the heart of host communities. Participants undertake ambitious service work in culture immersion settings. The service is the vehicle for building bridges of friendship and understanding to the culture. Monique Schmidt, Akilah’s Program Director, was a leader for several VISIONS summer programs. When she asked if we (VISIONS) might allow her to use this format for her work at Akilah, we readily replied affirmatively.
Originally, 23 years ago when VISIONS was established, we used the word Circle for this reflective piece that all of our program sites use and for which we train our program director and staff to facilitate with their young participants. Over the years the process has acquired different names in different cultural communities. Comunidad in the Dominican Republic, harambe in the British Virgin Islands, ayllu in Peru, Ecuador and Nicaragua, bilan in Guadeloupe, semble in Dominica and so on. In all of our programs we gather together in a circle three or four evenings each week for about 1 1/2 hours. Over the course of the month a series of activities or exercises are introduced to participants that serve as springboards for reflection and discussion. In this way, our participants learn tools for listening to others respectfully, speaking from the bedrock of their own feelings, and thereby accepting differences in group members.
VISIONS acquired this process from its ‘sister’ program, Longacre Leadership AKA Longacre Farm. A former high school guidance counselor conceived of and created the process for that program. For over 30 years with Longacre and 22 with VISIONS this process has proved valuable, if not key to establishing unity and community in our programs.
Joanne Pinaire, Director
http://www.VisionsServiceAdventures.com