I am not an Aboriginal, or indeed Indigenous. I am … [a] first nation's person. A sovereign person from this country.
Rosalie Kunoth-Monks (2014)Notions of professional social work knowledge, theory and practice rest uneasily within the context of the interests, aspirations and sovereignty of first nations peoples. It has long been so, and it remains a challenge in contemporary social work. This new edition of Social Work: From Theory to Practice provides us with an opportunity to explore the cultural components of social work theory, and to use these insights to support and encourage practice that is responsive to cultural needs.
It is often said that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and so it is within a holistic framework of social justice and self-determination that Aboriginal health and well-being must be approached. This is a perspective that encompasses the well-being of the collective, provides recognition of the Aboriginal world-view and validates the cultural memory of an ancient oral tradition filled with stories and connections to country. It is through reconciliatory and decolonised practices that these elements can be framed, and from which equitable and socially just outcomes for Aboriginal communities can be achieved.
Professor Taiaiake Alfred (2013), in his 2013 Narrm Oration, maintains that the fundamental objective of historical colonisation was possessing land, and that the result was the dispossession of land from Aboriginal people. Connecting and reconnecting with country must therefore be both the main objective in addressing contemporary colonisation and the impetus for achieving improvement in health, education, employment and other areas in which the effects of colonisation are so stark (Alfred 2013). Taking this as the position from which to discuss social work theories, practice frameworks and knowledge as they relate to Aboriginal people provides a foundation for self-reflection and construction, revision of social discourse and consideration of social work values.
Aboriginal by definition, world-view or understanding
All too often, institutions and those who work in them are bound by their administrative processes, which operate to label, catalogue, order and identify.