Conference Papers
Session WS3 Youth Leadership
Convenor: Jonathon Potskin; Kentyn Obah; Lluwannee George and Elder Lydia George
Leadership is one skill that needs to be discussed with youth. Youth are the leaders of tomorrow and we need to start training youth about what leadership is. I will be looking at leadership through the scope of the Traditional teachings of the Cree people using the Medicine Wheel as my methodology. The Medicine Wheel is a traditional teaching tool that can be transferred to many settings within Indigenous communities. There are four sides of the wheel representing many things. In this workshop we will be looking at the social settings of the wheel that are Spiritual, Mental, Physical and the emotional states of the individual that will assist in becoming a leader. http://www.dancingtoeaglespiritsociety.org/medwheel.php This workshop will be from an international Indigenous perspective but will still fit into the scope of Indigenous Australia. Most teachings that I have from this method have come from living, working, and volunteering in the Indigenous communities in Canada and Australia.
Goals of the Workshop
- Participants will leave the workshop with a sense of youth identity and the need for leadership programming
- How to get involved and become a youth leader
- How to support youth leadership within a community and/or organization
- How to work with elders and youth when looking at community development
- enhancing a youth voice within a local context
Convenor bios:
Lluwannee George is a youth with a prominent future, Lluwannee and her mother, Elder Lydia George, will discuss leadership from a Torres Strait Islander approach. They will also talk about their experience of leadership through volunteerism and how their volunteerism has led them to travel the globe representing a Torres Strait Islander perspectives as well as those values that come from an Australian Indigenous voice.