ABSTRACT
Narratives can take on a life of their own, getting stuck in our heads, whether or not we want them. Accordingly, we have an ethical obligation to check the underlying premises of our narratives and their consequences for families and their cultural network. Drawing upon narrative inquiry informed by Indigenous and White settler scholars, this chapter examines how the FGDM Project reset narratives that had circulated through communities and depressed the capacity of family groups to act against family violence. These narratives were fueled by disparagement not only of the families but also of their entire culture. This chapter looks back at the quantitative analyses and qualitative interpretations of the conferencing results through the lens of updating, mending, and refreshing narratives to counter gendered and intergenerational violation and societal misrecognition of families. Conferencing can only take this reset so far; fundamentally, what is needed is a revival of peoples’ cultures, within contemporary conditions. This cultural revival is seen in Western NL, which includes the Port au Port Peninsula, with the establishment of an Indigenous band honoring their long-suppressed Mi'kmaw language and culture. One province over, Nova Scotia, offers another example of the Mi'kmaq taking charge of their families and communities, and a Mi'kmaw leader offers a thought-provoking presentation of how they transformed conferencing into a circle approach fitting their families and traditions.
