Employing the perspectives involved study. A casual transference of ideas from one perspective to the practice never cut it. It took effort to get deep enough into a subject to discover that at its source lay a valuable connection to every other subject and therefore to my practice. I sensed intuitively that scribing was like mapmaking, but to create value from the connection required practice in making maps as a geologist, an activity apart from scribing.
No doubt the reader can list the perspectives that have served them in their career and note the synergy between them. But what new perspectives should you or I learn that will lead to greater insights and abilities? What subjects should we study? What activities should we pursue? Should we simply allow them to emerge from life without intention at all? And how do we fold these back recursively into our respective practices?
BRYAN COFFMAN is a Director in the Experience Center at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC, where he currently practices as an architect of multi-day co-creation experiences. Prior to joining PwC he was a partner at Sente Corporation and InnovationLabs where he practiced as an illustrator, real-time scribe, and facilitator. Before that he was a knowledge worker with MG Taylor, an application developer, a geological engineer, a video producer, and a combat engineer. Variety may be the spice of life, but in Bryan’s case it’s been more of a main course. He has practiced yoga and meditation for many years. He shares boundless curiosity in common with cats and a tendency to be distracted by squirrels in common with dogs. He currently lives in Orlando, Florida with his wonderful wife, Lida, who is the inspiration for everything good that that he does.
Cultivating Cultural Safety
The visual practitioner’s role in motivating positive action
Sam Bradd
I’m a graphic facilitator, and I want to plant a seed for other non-Indigenous practitioners who work with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities. The seed is Cultural Safety. Cultural Safety means that I work in a particular kind of way—with Cultural Humility—when I work with Indigenous people and others who are different from me.
Many visual practitioners work cross-culturally, and it’s never been more timely to grow our collective skills together around an issue that is complex, challenging, and also deeply rewarding. Visual Practitioners use our considerable visual and facilitation skills to create—and see!—a more profound level of behavioral, interpersonal, and structural change. For these reasons, I believe Cultural Safety is an emerging core competency for visual practitioners.
Let me tell you a story. Participants’ hearts are tender after a workshop on Cultural Safety from an Indigenous-specific perspective. I’ve just finished graphic recording this workshop and a white, middle-aged nurse approaches me and my drawings at the front of the room. After workshops that explore the inequities that First Nations people experience from mainstream society, I feel like I’m a magnet for people to spill their guts. She says,
“One night, late in the emergency room, I was the nurse on duty. An Aboriginal man was slurring his words. I figured he was drunk. But it turned out he was a stroke survivor. I chalked it up to a mistake and brushed it off. And now I feel ashamed. Where did I learn that?”
The nurse is looking directly at me, with urgency. So we talk. I point to a small part of my larger image and say, “We’re all on this learning journey. We make mistakes but we have to try.” I feel her discomfort, but shame and guilt only take us so far. I invite her to take three steps to the left with me. Now we stand before a giant interactive wall where participants are writing their “Commitments to Cultural Safety” in their health work. Offering my markers, I say, “Do you have a small action you can take today?”
She says, “no, I don’t.” It might be three steps, but some people feel resistance in going from reflection to action. So we read some of the other statements together.
And finally she says, “I do have something. The next time my colleague says something about ‘those people,’ I’m going to speak up.” And she grabbed a purple Sharpie and wrote her commitment in big letters on the wall. And then she underlined it. I felt something shift in that moment.
Like with many moments of transformation, it’s not the what that changes us. It’s the how. Getting her to take those three steps towards her own commitment wall took a very long 10 minutes. It also takes two lifetimes—because transformation starts with me, too.
Sam Bradd • Cultivating Cultural Safety
Planting a seed for cultural safety and humility
Recently, I graphically recorded four health events in seven days. Three Indigenous health events referenced the impacts of Residential School and separation from culture as a current social determinant of health. The fourth event, about province-wide seniors’ health, made no mention of Indigenous patients at all. Afterwards, I wanted to put all the people in one room to show the gaps in who and what we’re talking about.
Using graphic facilitation is an opportunity to learn about First Nations cultures, different ways of facilitating meetings, and the richness that visuals can bring to group conversations. I listen for stories of resilience, success, and ways to connect to culture: illustration can model holistic ways of knowing in powerful ways, better than a linear list. Graphic facilitation can create an environment that encourages dialog and helps people explore difficult issues that a more “traditional” meeting may not be able to probe. Indigenous community members, leaders, and clients have commented that graphic facilitation approaches connect to the rich oral and artistic traditions of First Nations cultures, and that this art-based approach is an effective way of supporting traditional ways of meeting and talking together.
Guiding the work: A national agenda for reconciliation
It’s an important time to consider my context. I’m writing from Canada, as a non-Indigenous, specifically White, graphic facilitator located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish Territories (Vancouver, British Columbia). In 2015, Canada closed the Truth and Reconciliation Canada Commission (TRC) and provided 94 recommendations, many related to health and education. This was a national process to address the impact and legacies of the Indian Residential School era. This opportunity for national soul-searching enables us to see what else is connected – the inherent right of Indigenous self-government, honoring treaties, restoring education, child welfare and wellness systems, dismantling unjust funding models – and take action.
The journey of cultural safety and cultural humility starts with
self reflection
Graphic facilitators can use our whole selves in service of cultural safety. There are moments where we can’t rely on drawing tokenistic concepts of “multiculturalism” or “diversity.” Instead, we can draw from a deeper, more informed place. As a start, we can enlist our heads, hearts, and hands to support this work. I’ll use this structure of heads, hearts, and hands to outline a non-comprehensive set of tools that have helped me.
The head: Understanding context
Understand history. Keep learning. Celebrate strong, diverse, and vibrant Indigenous cultures.
In order to support a group in building cultural safety, I have to see myself as part of—and not separate from—the journey of cultural safety as well.
My work starts before I arrive in the room. Even though I know race is socially constructed (that there is no scientific basis for racial differences), I know that race and Indigenous-specific racism shapes people’s lives. Cultural humility helps me question the textbooks that taught me the winners and losers of history, and helps me understand Canada’s colonial history and how my family has benefited from laws and Indigenous-specific racism. By this re-learning, I uncover what shapes my worldview.
Suggested tool: Historical research
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission report is an excellent place to start reading (or listen
ing—you can find people reading the TRC report on YouTube videos). Indigenous-specific racism is not about “unintentional harm.” Visual practitioners don’t intend to draw the wrong thing. In the same way, health care workers don’t intend to create inequalities in health outcomes for Indigenous and other racialized people, yet Indigenous people die sooner. Further, discrimination is clearly a part of our systems, with a legacy of inequalities ranging from the Indian Act to clean water. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission report connects these systems. Cultural safety asks us to examine our own cultural identities; it doesn’t ask us for the impossible task of understanding everyone else’s cultures. I know I will never understand every indigenous culture, so working with a sense of humility, I bring to the work an open mind. This makes me aware of how much I don’t know. However, there is a wealth of knowledge to be learned: there are over 600 First Nations in Canada with unique histories and experiences. Remember to research what is to be celebrated, along with learning past injustices: these are strong, vibrant, and diverse cultures despite the intentional efforts of colonialism and racism.
Cultural safety asks us to examine our own cultural identities; it doesn’t ask us for the impossible task of understanding everyone else’s cultures.
Sam Bradd • Cultivating Cultural Safety
The heart: The role of emotion and empathy in this work
Be aware of what triggers me emotionally. Build my own resilience. Define my role in the room. Show stories of success, not just trauma. Be humble.
Graphic recording intense stories and histories requires empathy. My colleague Kelvy Bird wrote to me that “the work we do is not emotional, but generates emotion in us and others, and involves accessing empathy through it all.” Developing empathetic listening and relational skills as part of cultural safety is more important than a new set of icons.
It’s important that I am not swept up in strong emotions that pull me out of the meeting and into my own inner world. The first time I heard an elder tell me about their traumatic experience in Indian Residential School while I was working, I froze. I knew the histories—but how could I make art that did this justice? I needed to come back to center quickly, because my role was to make images, and capture her story, not mine. The key is building my own resilience.
An approach that keeps cultural safety to the forefront is to introduce myself in a culturally respectful manner where I describe where I am from and acknowledge whose territory we are meeting on and thank my hosts. This builds relationships based in the processes of cultural humility, and believe the graphic facilitator holds an ascribed position of authority in the room, similar to any instructor or facilitator. Working live, I can explain that I can make adjustments to the posters as needed, and confirm with keynote presenters one-on-one about the way I’ve captured their words. Contractually, I ensure that First Nations organizations retain ownership/copyright of the images, using the principles of OCAP™: Ownership, Control, Access and Possession.
The work we do is not emotional, but generates emotion in us and others, and involves accessing empathy through it all.
Engaging with participants while self-reflecting about visual processes is a praxis: it can lead to more questions, which lead to new, better approaches to the work. Participants may experience legitimate doubts about raising “concerns” with the graphics—they might feel their feedback would “ruin the pretty picture,” they may know race or culture is visualized incorrectly but are unsure how to “fix it,” especially around a sensitive issue such as race. Therefore, the responsibility is up to me to actively check with participants about their experiences: I can create the safety for people to approach me. While doing studio work and developing imagery, I often ask my clients if we can directly engage community feedback via elders, an advisory group, or an informal network, and I am open to feedback during all stages of creating illustrations.
Suggested tools: Build capacity for respect, and find ways to stay grounded
When I work from a place of empathy, it gives me joy. There are as many ways to build empathy as there are people. We can build empathy toward others by being honest about our own culture, and strive for open-mindedness through cultural humility to learn, honor, and respect other cultures. We can demonstrate empathy in our actions: giving people our full listening focus, or being attuned to body language. We can nurture our spiritual selves so we arrive to our work balanced, and have the capacity to build even more empathy. When we are thrown off balance or triggered, we need tools to become re-centered and return to the present moment. Breathing, moving my body, self-soothing with a drink of water, anchoring my feet by pushing them into the floor, or engaging in self-talk help me while I’m working. When I’m engaged in community-led processes it helps me move from reflection to action, and gives me joy- listening and taking direction from leaders in the room about what’s needed.
Sam Bradd • Cultivating Cultural Safety
The hand: Drawing visuals to support cultural safety
Although it will always be faster to draw simpler icons, what is gained in speed may be lost in distinction when ideas are distilled to universal concepts. Illustration can model holistic ways of knowing. Drawings can show us a strengths-based approach.
It’s important today to reflect on how our work is representative of the people with whom we’re collaborating. Because graphic recording and graphic facilitation are fast work, there is no easy answer. The important part is that as a practitioner, I am aware of the choices I make. Most practitioners use familiar ways of drawing people—often as “everyman” stick people (star people, bean people, and other shapes). This “Everyman” idea is meant to be a stand-in for a universal symbol—and in North America, we consider all other differences to be compared against Whiteness as the default.
A question I’ve come to consider is how can a stick figure (if it doesn’t have a race or ethnicity) represent, or support, cultural safety?
Although it will always be faster to draw simpler icons, what is gained in speed may be lost in distinction when ideas are distilled to universal concepts. I find myself asking in a graphic recording or facilitation session, what is more important: cultivating cultural safety or how I draw this stick figure? This may mean in some cases, I decide it is appropriate to use stick figures, because there are other drawings or text that create imagery or processes that support cultural safety. Sometimes on the same poster I will have a number of “everyman” stick figures balanced with other types of images. Overall, I challenge myself to go beyond different skin tones in what I draw, avoid reinforcing stereotypes, and utilize all resources to ensure respectful representations.
Sometimes I draw culturally relevant images, and I also avoid being inappropriately reductionist. For example, while working with specific First Nations on the west coast of British Columbia about their traditional herring practices, I was able to refer to each Nation’s unique fishing traditions. But while graphic recording at a national First Nations data conference, I was careful to not choose one symbol (not a tipi, nor a medicine wheel, etc.) to represent the diversity present. Using one symbol would be applying a pan-Indigenous graphic and would potentially be received as disrespect. It’s an important moment of choice that needs to be made quickly while working. The strength or limitations of my decision is based on my own knowledge.
It’s important today to reflect on how our work is representative of the people with whom we’re collaborating.
Suggested tool: Be an anthropologist about yourself
Take personal notes during a session, similar to how teachers-in-training keep journals or how anthropologists keep field notes. This is a reflection-in-action project. It was challenging to take time out to make notes, but later on, while I reviewed them, I was amazed at details that I had already forgotten. For example, one of my blind spots is feeling I need to capture new-to-me informat
ion as fast as possible. Being confident that I can wait, and use that time differently, is one of my reflection-in-action learnings. I’ve noticed times where I drew a list, but a diagram or model would have brought more meaning.
Suggested tool: Graphic facilitation portfolio review
For my graduate work, I designed a research study about my own practice that is easy for other practitioners to duplicate. I selected five illustrations from my portfolio over a period of 10 years and analyzed my design and content choices about how I drew issues of race, gender, or other markers of difference (or how I avoided it). Educators will recognize this as a self-study, or action research. Next, I kept a journal to better understand my biases and my worldview. I shared this journal with a trusted reader or group to deepen the learning. Then I wrote up the research findings and adjusted my work based on my learnings.
Sam Bradd • Cultivating Cultural Safety
Core competencies in cultural safety for practitioners
Graphic facilitation has the potential to enhance knowledge and build on the self-awareness necessary to advance meaningful change. As professionals, we can help the groups we work with by developing our core competencies, just as we work on other aspects of our practice. Here are suggested core competencies to support building cultural safety in our work:
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