The Aboriginal Approach To Social Work

My experiences have shown me that I should deny part of who I am and I want to fight against this. I believe that in order to practice social work and to adhere to the code of ethics of social work, I need to be genuine and authentic. I believe that incorporating an Aboriginal approach to social work into my holistic, anti-oppressive practice is one way of accomplishing this.
Carol Locust (1988) states that “as Native people, we cannot separate our spiritual teaching from our learning, nor can we separate our beliefs about who, and what we are from our values and behaviours” (p. 328). I believe that this is also the case for myself. I completed my Honors Specialization in Bio-archaeological Anthropology but also completed everything necessary to have an Honors Specialization in Cultural Anthropology but you are only able to claim one specialization. One of the reasons that I chose the first is prestige. My experience at the University of Western Ontario is Social Science seems to desperately want to legitimize itself as a ‘real’ science. The underlying theme with this is that knowledge gained through the scientific method is more

I believe in a holistic approach to social work and this is something that the Aboriginal approach to social work represents. Hart writes that the Aboriginal approach “recognizes and incorporates the need to understand the process and effects of colonialization on all facets and levels” (p. 50). I think that it is imperative that all non-aboriginal social workers are able to use self-reflection to understand who they are but also understand and empathize with the horrific pain that has been caused by our ancestors and under the framework of religion, capitalism, patriarchy and colonialism. It is also necessary that we examine current agencies, protocols, policies and procedures, legislation and practices that do not subscribe to an anti-oppressive theory and that we lobby for the necessary