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Before beginning the documentation process, reflect upon the following questions with other
community facilitators, catalysts, and leaders:
What is the purpose of the protocol? Who is it directed towards?
How will you decide which issues to discuss and in what order?
How will you facilitate these discussions in culturally appropriate and engaging ways? Every
person responds differently to learning and communication styles such as visual images,
listening, and movement. Facilitation methods should be diverse and participatory. See Part I:
Section III/A4.
How will you document these discussions and supporting evidence (such as the location of
resources or impacts of customary practices)?
How will you consolidate the documentation into a protocol? Who should be involved?
What format will the protocol take (for example, a written document, videos, photographs, and
maps)? What technical capacities are required? Which language(s) will be used?
Box 35: Guiding questions for reflection before beginning documentation
When facilitating community discussions about the sub-sections below, consider using the following
overarching questions as the foundation:
What resources, assets, systems, etc. do we currently have?
What did we have in the past that we would like to revive or revitalize?
What do we envision for our future?
What are the internal and external challenges, opportunities, and potential sources of support?
How are cultural sources of information (such as customary laws, traditions, values, and
knowledge) tracked, recorded, shared, and passed on within the community? How has this
changed over time?
How could the information be shared with or communicated to someone outside of the
community?
What specific aspects would you like to convey to outsiders through the community protocol?
How will you communicate the information? Examples may include maps, illustrations, written
documents, photographs, or videos.
Box 36: Overarching questions to use for discussion of the community's foundations
A.
MAPPING THE COMMUNITY’S IDENTITY
KEY READING
Part I: Section III
Part II: Section II (Introduction, Box 35-36)
KEY TOOLS
Community institutions sketch map
Identifying key actors
Understanding relationships between key
actors
Forum theatre
Image theatre
Audio interviews
Defining and communicating who or what is your community is one of the most important parts of the
protocol process. It forms the basis of the shared identity, vision, and purpose around which the rest of
the protocol will largely materialize. It clarifies who the protocol represents both to people within and
outside of the community. It may also become an interesting process in itself as people come together to
consider both traditional or customary and new ways of defining community within different cultural and
political contexts. Examples of commonalities around which a community could be defined include
ethnicity, language, ways of life and livelihoods, class or caste, spatial area within particular geographical