Mataura residents explored their dreams on a November Saturday last year (2008) at a powerful one-day community workshop. Led by international community development facilitator, Rev. Bliss Browne, the meeting drew wide participation and demonstrated a unity of vision and depth of local resources that surprised and encouraged many.

Seventy residents and agency staff explored their vision of what was important, what areas needed to be worked on, how to find allies and begin acting on those needs. Mrs Browne described her background as banker, priest, mother, and civic activist and referred to her experience with Imagine Chicago, a project that had turned around a city of 7.5m people where many young people had opted out.

Asking questions was a vital first step to finding solutions, she said, such as what would make a dream possible and what would undermine it?

“We discovered they were not things that you might expect, like money. Money is never a driver,” she said.

Cynicism held the ultimate power. “The most radical thing you can do is renounce cynicism,” she advised. "We learned that the way we speak to each other actually creates the world we live in. We get what we speak.”

"Mary-Jane Rivers and Bliss Browne Involving children was the most effective way to change these habits of thoughts and to create a positive environment, and Mrs. Browne demonstrated this in action through involving the children of the Mataura school choir in all facets of the day’s activities. “It takes a child to inspire a village,” she told the group. “The one thing you can rely on to be constructive is to get young people involved and having the opportunity to offer their ideas.”

She led the young people through the process of turning their questions into invitations, rather than exhortations of what others should or must do to bring about change.

Communities were driven by the power of the volunteer. Telling them what they ought to do provokes resistance. It is much more successful to engage them in a way that unlocks their willingness to participate.

Bliss gets groups to express their visions in colourful dream trees, then to listen to each other for the patterns emerging.

Underpinning many suggestions was the wish for community unity and respect for diversity. There was also a strong desire to work together on projects to provide sporting and cultural opportunities for youth, activities for the elderly, as well as engagement with environmental issues, business development, and hopes for the new community centre to become a point of focus. Participants expressed surprise there was such similarity, and felt inspired and positive about the future.

Bliss Browne with Jasper Bruce, Mariana Tuhakaraina, Livia Qasevakatini, Celine Johnston and Nikita Haywood

Written by Rachel Eyre, Andrae Gold and Rosemarie Smith
Photographs by Rosemarie Smith

Pictured:

Top Right: Mary-Jane Rivers and Bliss Browne

Bottom Right: Bliss Browne with Jasper Bruce, Mariana Tuhakaraina, Livia Qasevakatini, Celine Johnston and Nikita Haywood