This month, not so much practice tips, as an experience-based endorsement from The Circle Way grant recipients, the co-directors of the Innovative Young Indigenous Leaders Symposium, for using components from The Circle Way to design and successfully create the safe and respectful container for their symposium.

1. We use Circle Way agreements to inform the way we conduct ourselves with each other in our day to day work, to develop, practice and ensure mindful team interactions and circular, shared leadership.

2. We loved designing our event framed by the introduction, modelling and applying The Circle Way agreements.  We began our proceedings, we reminded everyone during event changeovers, and we closed with agreements. 

3. We discovered that this constant, repetitive use of agreements within circle, built trust among our working team and the symposium participants over a short period of time.

4. Check in, check in, check in - we love checking in and debriefing with each other, even in the most casual of settings and meetings.

5. Check out, check out, check out – we love ending our gathering, and our meetings this way so that everyone is invited to reflect and share their parting impressions and words.

Nicole Neidhardt is a co-director of the Innovative Young Indigenous Leaders Symposium. She is Diné (Navajo), originally from New Mexico. Nicole is a full-time artist and is a Master of Fine Arts student.  

Gina Mowatt is a co-director of the Innovative Young Indigenous Leaders Symposium. She is a member of the Gitxsan nation. Gina a PhD student in Child and Youth care and creates Indian Residential School survivor-centered curriculum for her nation.

Morgan Mowatt was the symposium’s 2017 and 2019 participant coordinator and is now a newly appointed co-director of the Innovative Young Indigenous Leaders Symposium. A member of the Gitxsan nation, Morgan is a PhD student in Political Science and Indigenous Nationhood.