Let’s think back to school.

The teacher stands at the front, perhaps behind a podium, and the students are passive receivers.

Were you someone who sat at the front of the class, writing down everything you could?

Perhaps you sat in the middle of the class and paid attention when something seemed important.

Maybe you sat at the back of the class and didn’t ever get much learning done (this was me).

Everything about this setting signals power dynamics. The teacher is the centre of attention, the students are not co-creating anything, and some lose interest in the lesson.

The students at the front are likely to get more attention from teachers, and anytime the lesson is stopped, everyone loses because the teacher is the only source of learning.

Choosing where to sit says a lot about the type of student one is, but when it comes to youth reconciliation, young Indigenous peoples (YIPs) are not students; they are co-creators.

We want YIPs to enter our spaces and for it to feel like a youth reconciliation engagement, not a classroom.

One of the best ways to signal this is to set up our seating in a circle and avoid rows at all costs. I’m here to tell you why.

This article will show why setup matters, how to do it well, and what I’ve learned personally in 13 years of youth work.

WHAT’S GOING ON FOR YIPS

Let’s start with our participants and their feelings before walking into our session. Here’s a list of things I prepare for YIPs to feel upon entering my sessions:

1. Nervous

2. Want to feel included

3. Will likely need a reason to talk

Let’s break this down.

Nervous - In my experience, YIPs are sometimes a bit nervous upon entering a new space because they want to feel accepted and understood, not tokenized.

• The focus of nervousness is usually around the adults in the room, whether they will be accepting and facilitate a collaborative session.

• Nervousness will limit participation, so it’s our role to set the tone of an inclusive environment that welcomes their input.

Want to feel included - Sometimes youth engagements feel more like a “talking at me” session than a collaborative workshop to find solutions, and it’s hard to tell until it starts.

• Feeling included is more than being welcomed at the door and ushered to the food.

• It’s about how easy the environment can change based on their input. For example, if a YIP shows up to engagement and asks to change the rowed seating into a circle, show them that this environment is inclusive by adjusting immediately.

Need a Reason to Talk - It’s exactly as it sounds. We need to “warm up” the room by giving prompts for them to share.

• An introductory exercise like “name, pronouns, and a fun fact” works just fine, or one of my reliable questions, “please tell us what kind of fruit you’re feeling like right now.” - The most common answers I get are orange and grape.

• If you want more of a game or playful introduction, search “youth group energizers” on Google. You can also check out websites like Session Lab for free resources.

• I feel youth engagements are best approached with light-hearted fun, so playing a game that gets people working as a team is usually a good way to set the tone for co-creation.

I want to be clear that not all YIPs feel this way, but we need to prepare for the most vulnerable YIPs to come through that door. Some may feel uncomfortable speaking entirely, even if we get the seating and intro exercise right.

Now that we understand our participants’ experience, let’s tie this back to arranging our seating in a circle, rather than rows.

WHY CIRCLES OVER ROWS?

For me, rows do not represent my teachings as an Indigenous person because almost every ceremony I’ve attended, no matter the scale, used a circle layout at some point.

Think of most powwows where the dancing grounds are a circle, the drum is a circle, the drummers are arranged in a circle, and we gather around sacred fires in a circle.

The first time I understood the significance of the circle was when I was about six years old, when my great-grandmother passed away. (A privilege of having young parents is that I met five of my great-grandparents, and one of them is still alive!)

Our family gathered in our yard around a tin can that contained a small fire. We were burning medicines and sharing our condolences with our late family member, sending warm messages to them in the spirit world.

After we placed our offering in the fire, my grandfather instructed participants to walk around the inner circle seven times. We did this for each participant.

My six-year-old brain didn’t understand why we needed to do these things at the time, but it all felt right in that moment. I learned that circles are a keystone of our culture, and that I felt better after that ceremony.

To compare it to Western culture, most of our gatherings have seating arranged in a row. Think schools, conferences, church, presentations, and training; it’s mostly rows.

In rows, we can’t see each other’s faces, and that’s important for Indigenous people. We want to see each other’s faces when we share.

Faces connect people; they give us more information than what words are being said, and let us witness people’s emotions.

When we consider “reconciliation” as reconciling a relationship, we must consider each other’s emotions to reach this goal, and circles help us do that.

Secondly, I feel rows create the opportunity for distractions, while circles keep people engaged.

I’ve facilitated many “row” sessions for YIPs, and I run into the same problems.

1. The folks at the front feel much more inclined to listen and not disrupt.

2. The middle folks are usually neutral and don’t want to disrupt, but they also don’t want to be at the front and centre of my vision.

3. The folks in the back are distracted, either on their phones, laughing, or in some cases, clearly making fun of me as the presenter.

It never feels good to know a group of people is uninterested in what we say. But this is the reality of youth work, and being authoritative about getting people’s attention will just make it worse.

From my perspective, YIPs are disruptive in engagements because they have not been given a task that encourages participation, so they are distracted and disruptive.

By making a circle, we can bring the youth in the back row to the “front” of the class and give them the task of co-creating the session to keep them focused.

So, in summary, circles:

• Reinforce equality - no hierarchy.

• No matter the reason for gathering, community coming together is the priority, and circles connect us.

• Circles are about mutual respect and set the tone for co-creation.

Rows:

• Reminiscent of colonial classrooms, churches, and corporate environments.

• Faces connect us, and we can’t see faces when they are facing away from us.

• Creates the opportunity for distraction by creating physical barriers between the individual and the facilitators.

That’s all, folks!

Honestly, this article has been sitting finished in my queue for a week now, and I’ve just let writing get away from me. But I’m back at it! 🙂 

Next week’s edition is about trauma-informed principles for hosting YIPs engagements.

I will break down how to design events with an awareness of lived experience.

The best way to support me is to tell someone about Frayed Feathers and send them this article! 🙂 

Best,
Bailey