A Raising the Village interview with Raffi.
Child Honouring is a movement, one that views honouring children as the best way to create sustainable, peacemaking societies. This message is brought forward by long time child champion Raffi Cavoukian. Raffi’s many accomplishments and accolades include an United Nations’ Earth Achievement Award, two honorary degrees, and the Order of Canada and British Columbia. Let’s not forget his highly awarded career as a musician with an independent record label that has sold over 15 million cds, books & dvds worldwide earning him Juno and Gemini awards as well as Grammy nominations. In addition, Raffi tirelessly advocates for children and our ecosystems, work which has connected him with such humanitarians as the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, David Suzuki and Jane Goodall (to name but a few). Raising the Village was honoured to spend some time with Raffi and learn first hand more about the concept of Child Honouring.
As a musician, how did you make the decision to no longer perform for children directly but instead to channel your music, your voice, your purpose and passion towards educators, decision makers and parents/families?
It was a gradual process of realizing two things: first, I’d accomplished everything in children’s music I’d ever imagined and more and second, that advancing Child Honouring as a universal ethic worldwide would require all my energies. So I have devoted my time to developing the vision and communicating it in word, image, and new songs like “It Takes A Village” and “Turn This World Around”.
Where does the philosophy of Child Honouring come from? Is there any correlation to your own childhood (i.e. how were you honoured as child? Where and how did you find your voice)?
My childhood, like those of others, provided the soil which grew the possibilities of my adult life. As a child, though I was certainly loved, I wasn’t respected for who I felt I was; my early years experience was a great struggle that required considerable emotional growth work later on.
Child Honouring, the vision, woke me from a sound sleep on a Sunday morning in 1997, and it came as a holistic vision that I knew was to be the work of the rest of my life. I quickly sensed an integrated framework for simultaneously restoring human communities and the ecosystems which give and support our lives.
What personally brings you a “sense of community”?
Ties with family, friends and colleagues. Family, of course. And friends, the “chosen family” of understanding and support, and colleagues who share a resonant vision and care enough to challenge us to be all we can be.
Involvement in various community events a great way to feel connected. And children & youth, in all of this, are my constant joy. I’m happy to live on Salt Spring Island, a vibrant community rich in child-honouring practices.
How can people who are working together in communities with a focus on the early years relate to the work taking place at the Centre for Child Honouring?
Individuals & organizations with whom we partner regionally, provincially and beyond embrace the Covenant for Honouring Children and its Principles, share them within their circles and post links to Childhonouring.org on their websites. The Covenant expresses the heart of the Child Honouring philosophy, and the Principles taken together offer a comprehensive children-first way of living and creating sustainable, peace-making cultures.
As a connect-the-dots vision, Child Honouring is increasingly regarded as a metaframework that enhances the work of dedicated advocates of children, community, and ecology. Its strong emphasis on “the primacy of early years” affirms all those who work in ECE, ECD and other early years services. Its children-first way to sustainability affirms early childhood as the gateway to humane being, respectful relations, and ecological wisdom.
What bold steps must be taken for our societies to make children a priority? Any simple steps?
At this pivotal time in human history when the future of our children is at stake on our imperilled planet, we need a “whole systems shift” to a new societal design—a compassion revolution!—with a systems goal of respecting and supporting the personhood of every newborn and their supportive circles of relations. We need, as societies, to express love for children in every sector, to design with the child in mind. Children don’t need our charity, they need the respectful love that individuals and families can feel sanctified by supportive legislation.
Two examples: first, 25 countries now have laws that prohibit all physical punishment of children, including at home & school. We need ALL countries to have this ban, and we need leaders of the world’s major faith traditions to call for exactly that. Secondly, we need a ban on direct advertising & marking to children as exists in Quebec, Sweden, and other Scandinavian countries. A national children’s commissioner, as exists in a number of nations, is a helpful position to further these goals. (Imagine the link between pervasive advertising in early years and the consumption habits of grown-ups, and how this relates to the drive to reduce/reuse/recycle drive to minimize the impact of global warming!)
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is legally binding in countries (like Canada) that have ratified it. Yet few citizens are familiar with it. The CRC declares that children have a right to Provision, Protection, and Participation in society, and further, that children have a right to know they have rights! We need to have this understood in schools and at home in every nation. This is a key component of the mission of the Centre for Child Honouring—to advance this vision as a universal ethic, a code of conduct for all to embrace and live by.
Small steps? There are all kinds of small steps: reducing, reusing, recycling; practicing positive discipline with your children; using only 100% post-consumer recycled chlorine-free paper; urging and supporting child-friendly policies in our elected officials, and much much more as outlined in the anthology, Child Honouring: How to Turn This World Around.
Your song entitled “It takes a Village” was inspired by Dr. Fraser Mustard’s request for a song to help policy makers understand the foundational early years...if you were to take one phrase or one message from this song and share it directly with policy makers what would it be? Why?
From verse 2: “In the early years of life, what does a newborn need to be whole, to thrive in every way?/ In these crucial early years, when the brain is growing, and the love for a lifetime takes hold...”
These words from the song’s 2nd verse express the understanding that early experience shapes a lifetime of behaviour; that’s why the whole of the village (society) must express love for the child, not just some of its component parts, such as family, teacher, doctor, grocer, etc.
What are your short-term goals for the Centre for Child Honouring and what legacy do you hope it will leave?
- We need funding sufficient for staffing the facility and running key programs, such as the Children & Nonviolence Initiative for Faith Leaders, the Covenant translation & distribution program, and our ongoing Speakers Series.
- Also, we’ll develop training tools and processes to train people to give Child Honouring presentations in schools, community centres, etc.
- We’ll soon start a campaign to attract large numbers of Covenant “supporters”, people who’ll add their names to a list of endorsers.
- “Beluga Grads” will be a key constituency among our supporters.
- We’ll work with children & youth to hear their views of Child Honouring themes and to be nourished and inspired by their hearts & minds.
The Centre will be a key voice in the paradigm shift to conscious living, living with the Child in mind. Child Honouring can inspire and accelerate the shift from a bottom line culture where money rules to humane cultures of respectful relations that grow whole-brain Earth stewards worldwide.
We want to be a key partner in advancing a restorative and child-friendly world—as they say at the UN, “a world fit for children”.
For more information on how you can play an active role in Honouring Children or how the Centres work might fit with your community, program or organization – go to the website www.childhonouring.org . Look for current information on the vibrant speaker series, children's art exhibit, and children and nonviolence initiative.
