The woman-positive activity

During 1992, Karen worked with six women. Five of them met on Monday and Wednesday nights at the Centre and Karen worked with the sixth at her workplace. She was interested in exploring the effects of the program at various levels: for herself as facilitator, for the women who participate as learners, for the other staff, and for the community. She also wanted to spend time looking at and thinking about what outside events affected the women's program. What effect did community events, such as an awareness campaign on Satanism, have on the program? What effect did learners' increased connection with the community through program projects, such as sponsoring a teen dance, have on themselves and other community members?

Karen planned to provide an opportunity for Centre staff to learn more about and discuss this research. She worked with the women in the program to help them think about and express their experience as women in their community. She documented, reflected, and wrote about how she was changed by the women's program and by doing the CCLOW research. She wanted to document how other staff were affected by the research.

This is what happened

For seven months Karen recorded her experience with the research in a journal. She tried to pay particular attention to the effects of the research on herself, the staff at the learning centre, and the learners. Karen edited her journals to produce a public version. She also wrote a short fictionalized story based on some of the more controversial and personally difficult parts of her experience in the research.

The most significant effect of the research was on Karen herself. The support of the coordinating researcher and the other women in the project, together with her reflective writing, created a fertile environment for deeper understanding, personal growth, and change. She decided to put political action on hold for a while as she sorted through personal questions of identity and vulnerability. She has come to believe she cannot advocate other women empowering themselves while denying elements of fear, silence, and domination in her own life.

The effects of the research on the learning centre staff are documented in bits and pieces - mostly through the personal interaction between staff and Karen, and only through Karen's eyes. This was the most surprising outcome of the research in Arviat. It was also the hardest part because Karen found it risky to focus attention on women and say, "maybe women are oppressed and perhaps things should change." It seemed especially difficult in a community that holds fast to tradition and uses it to measure most things.