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THE LACEWEB - FUTURE POSSIBILITIES
Posted 1997.
Last updated Feb 2007.
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Introduction
The material in the Laceweb Pages on the Internet may be
suggestive of the rich implications of the Laceweb movement. Laceweb
Internet viewers have a 'privileged point of penetration' in being
privy to a mass of 'inside' information about the Laceweb. While much
of the literature and other references as well as events, festivals and
gatherings quoted in these Laceweb pages are in the public domain,
never before has the inter-relatedness and connectedness of this
material been revealed so that some of the patterns and processes
become visible, along with their links to practical action. This
partial big picture would be news to almost anyone in the Laceweb as
well. Even so, the Laceweb on the Internet is only a tiny glimpse. Most
of what happens in the Laceweb will never appear on the Internet. The Laceweb is in many respects atypical as a social movement
when compared with other movements. There is no process of 'becoming a
member'. People may be part of it without knowing. You never really
'know' whether you are in the Laceweb and yet you may well be certain
that you are. Other's may not be sure about you at all. Information
about the Laceweb may be withheld. Up to the posting of these pages,
very few
would have a sense of the full richness of possibilities of the
Laceweb. Few know the richness of the Laceweb's past (for example, some
of this richness shows up in the content of the Laceweb Timeline in Communal Ways for Healing the World.
The time-frames of thinking of some within the Laceweb are 300
to 500 years. For some the major challenge is surviving till tomorrow.
Some Laceweb people contemplate Global Reform. Others are concerned
with surviving the day.
The Laceweb differs from Utopian movements that typically hold
up a preplanned unified abstract ideal. The Laceweb is very 'short' on
'grand theory'. The Laceweb way is - 'use local wisdoms and knowings -
act and check outcomes - repeat what works - go for what's missing in
our local wellbeing'. Each 'local' may be different. The meta-outcome in each 'local' may be a tentative, or even a
sustained move to a world were our particular local wellbeing needs are
fully met - a utopia. So there may be many possible utopias in the
making - not preplanned, not as 'pious hopes' and 'grand illusions' -
rather, as experienced wellbeing grounded in practical action. An example of this focus on possible local action is the Laceweb document Self-Help Action Supporting Survivors Of Torture And Trauma in Se Asia, Oceania and Australasia .
A more micro example of possible local action is the energy evolving around a safe haven in Cairns Northern Australia - refer Evolving a SE Asia Pacific Self Help Trauma Support Intercultural Network - A Small Micro-Proposal.
This 'action' frame applies at the micro-level as well. For
example, during the Bondi Junction Dispersed Therapeutic Community
'sharing' days, anyone enabling a group session had 90 seconds to have
people 'doing', and learning by doing. 'Show ponies' who wanted to show
off their grand theories got a wind-up at 60 seconds, and told to give
up at ninety seconds if they were still talking. 'Watch how others do
it and have another go next time!'
Most Laceweb people only know a minute part of the Laceweb.
Some have a sense that it may be extensive but have no knowledge of who
or where people are and it may be difficult or impossible to find out.
The Laceweb Internet pages do not help. People may accept that
information may be on a 'need to know' and that there may be good
reason for this and that this is okay. There is no central or even
decentralised organisation that any one can 'join' or 'represent'. It
is more that one person, or a small subgroup of locals enter into
aspects of the Laceweb milieu - a milieu fundamentally different in
many respects to the local one. Initially, others within the local
community may have no knowledge of this Laceweb milieu. It just seems
that, for example, 'a few women in our community have stopped children
sniffing petrol and that's a good thing'. In contrast to this micro action, the processes suggested in
some Laceweb Projects and Plans hold forth the possibilities that whole
villages and groups of villages may become involved in joint healing
action
The Laceweb, while being the stuff of deep subjectivity, has
been, and continues to be, subject to rigorous empirical research. Some
of the key enablers are currently engaged in Laceweb related research
at the Masters and Ph.D. level. For example, one Laceweb enabler is a Ph.D. researcher
exploring the history of the Laceweb Movement and its psycho-social
processes and future possibilities - refer Wounded Healer - Wounded Group.
A Bougainville Laceweb person is another Ph.D. Student . That
research topic is 'Self Help' 'Healing Action' models within Indigenous
Communities.
The Laceweb Self Help Model is a central part of that research.
Many books and research papers have been published on the Laceweb -
refer the Bibliography in Communal ways for Healing the World.
The Laceweb may be little known in part because people within it
have found 'progress' could best be made in remote places with little
or no fanfare. While the Laceweb had its origins in part in Keyline
(water
harvesting), it is understood that virtually no one using Keyline
concepts around the World would know of the Laceweb. The Laceweb is now moving into its fifth generation people. P.
A. Yeomans was a catalyst. Dr. Neville Yeomans, P. A.'s son, has been
at the forefront of the second generation. Many others are the third
generation. And now, two younger cohorts are active. Four generations
are there to tap into. This next
phase of the movement may present different and more challenging
pressures.
Indigenous people as 'hindrance to development' and
'embarrassment to governments' are increasingly on the agenda in
Australia and around the world. Global governance bodies and some
governments are starting to legislate that transnationals have to
comply abroad with the same environmental stands as their home
countries. Already Ok Tedi Mining (BHP) and CRA (through Freeport Mine)
in Irian Jiya have been the subject of massive claims in their home
countries by local land owners. CRA has had the crime of genocide
brought against them. A mine on the Solomon Islands is currently facing
this same process. CRA have still to face the implications of their
Panguna mine on Bougainville. Landowners were preparing a massive case
against them at the outset of the Bougainville war for, we understand,
filling a major river valley, half a kilometre wide and thirty five
kilometres long, with toxic sediment more than thirty metres thick. Extensive Laceweb links have been happening supporting the evolving Laceweb healing networks on Bougainville.
Amelia Renouf has written of 'therapeutic' or 'relational'
mediating as been the uneasy 'sixth step' in mediating (Renouf A.
1992). An extensive set of processes and micro-experiences relating to
mediation therapy and counselling therapy has been evolving within the
Laceweb. A overview of some of these micro-experiences is contained in
the following Pages:
The Laceweb movement may be well placed to be a source of mediation
therapy within cross culture conflict contexts as well as supporting
contexts balancing indigenous and small minorities relating with
governments and transnationals.
The existence of a small, strange and interesting social
movement out of the remote parts of Northern Australia foster nurturing
of community self help healing ways, Intercultural Normative Model
Areas (INMAs) and humane local governance processes is known to various
Governments, to many UN bodies, to some in the the World Council of
Churches, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) and
other global bodies. Certain ones within the Laceweb are now of the
opinion that it may be high tide in the ebb and flow of things that
aspects of the Laceweb Movement be holistically recorded - hence this
internet material is one such attempt.
Laceweb Home Page
Informal Networks and New Social Movements
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