THE CRAFT OF NETWEAVING by Michael Fleck   Netweaving is one of the essential crafts of the Polynesian peoples, the first great navigators of our ocean planet. Navigating by the stars and the elements, they wove sea routes among a constellation of far-flung islands.   Inspired by the interconnected patterns of Nature, they weave, like most indiginous peoples, nets for fishing, and ingenious baskets, mats, clothing and dwellings. And their cosmology and life passages are woven into the rhythms of song, dance, oratory and intricate carving.

The net is a human response to the phenomena of change and movement. It has three functions: to capture and contain; to sift and sort; to connect and strengthen.   The human activity of networking becomes the craft of NetWeaving when the full spectrum of human potentials is stretched across the loom of the horizon.   Michael Fleck, through the agency of Sun Energy COmmunications, founded NetWeaving Aotearoa in 1985. This is an independent agency for bringing together people, resources and visionary thinking in the context of environments that are both inspirational and transformational. NetWeaving Aotearoa is based in Auckland, New Zealand (Aotearoa). It consistently links centers and peoples in New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii and western North America.   The design is by netweavingnz@hotmail.com

 

Fostering Community

How do you motivate a community to assume responsibility?

 

Community-based initiatives for economic development, education, conservation and many other purposes are proliferating.  In order to fully develop the potential of community participation Cultural Exchange Service provides a program for training community coordinators, whom we are calling animators.  These, in turn, can be deeply involved with guiding each of  their own communities to greater self-sufficiency and sustainability. This self-sufficiency is applied to the economic, environmental and social/spiritual aspects of individual and community lives.

 

This process can be applied with any organization interested in enhancing community participation initiatives and increased involvement of community members.

 

We are convinced that outsiders cannot successfully enter a community and pretend to establish programs or activities.  We are convinced that members of each community must assume responsibility for their own actions.  And, to accomplish this, we are also convinced that selected members of certain communities can be provided with training about community participation mechanisms and processes that will encourage the communities to strengthen their power to act collaboratively.

 

We have developed a process that is minimally culture bound and that has, in various forms, yielded success over the past twenty years.  In its present form it is a mechanism that provides for an efficient and fairly rapid building of trust among any group of participants and leads to a documented plan for action that can be monitored.  As the community perceives a need for technical assistance it can be provided with that assistance by those best qualified to do so.

 

The program creates community-building mechanisms that become self-sustaining.

 

The workshop is based on tested meeting, conference, and group dynamic processes.  Some of these methods have been synthesized into a format that can be learned fairly quickly.  Follow-ups may be indicated to assist the trainee-coordinators in adjustments to the process.  In that case, our role may be as observers to the actual community workshops.

 

Our motto is "propose" not "impose".