INSW 200: Indigenous Social Work and Mainstream Social Work

Indigenous Social Work
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Indigenous Social Work and Mainstream Social Work
The need to help indigenous people improve their standards of living requires a holistic approach centered on their culture and welfare. Indigenous social workers, therefore, need to be equipped with knowledge and skills required to work with Aboriginal people. Thus, indigenous social work is the work carried out by trained personnel to alleviate the standards of living of indigenous people. Indigenous social work is different from mainstream social work, and each has a unique approach to realize its goals. This article attempts to specifically focus on how social work working with the Aboriginal people is different from mainstream social work.
The cultural practices undertaken by indigenous social workers are largely founded on creating a relationship that restores harmony to the Aboriginal people. Indigenous social workers have to blend in Aboriginal communities to learn their ways of life before embarking on their missions CITATION Sta09 \l 1033 (Stacey-Moore & Thompson-Cooper, 2009). Each community and reception of indigenous social workers are different and thus social workers have to be flexible and accommodative of the culture to stand a chance of them allowing him/her living with them and starting the project they intended to do. Perceiving their culture as primitive from an occident perspective and forcefully attempting to civilize them creates friction and resistance from the indigenous people and lowers the chances of success for indigenous social workers. To find common ground with indigenous communities requires that a social worker recognizes their culture and work with their belief system to win their trust before attempting to implement changes.
Indigenous social workers are bound by ethical standards embodied in social work practice to stand against social injustices, inequity and structural oppression CITATION Joh16 \l 1033 (Coates & Hetherington, 2016). Indigenous social workers must also uphold respect and protect human life of Aboriginal people without perceiving their way of life as primitive from Eurocentric worldview. Indigenous social workers have to stand against racial and tribal discrimination done by governments through the establishment of legal and physical institutions established from a Eurocentric perspective to annihilate the culture of Aboriginal people. Eurocentrism perceives indigenous people as uncivilized and has taken steps to bring down regressive traditional cultures that impede their community development. Practice standards of indigenous social workers address the fundamental objective of pushing for social change and social justice for the indigenous people, and thus they must be equipped with necessary skills to protect them CITATION Mic16 \l 1033 (Hart, Burton, & Hart, 2016).
Indigenous social workers have to live with the communities they ought to serve and understand their way of life CITATION Sta09 \l 1033 (Stacey-Moore & Thompson-Cooper, 2009). They must also be well acquainted with their culture and devise the best approach to implant and infuse their ideas in their culture. After an indigenous social worker is fully acquainted with the traditional pedagogy of the community, he/she can gradually start his/her mission to create change in the best interest of the community. Unfortunately, many Aboriginal people have developed a mistrust of social workers and the government institutions meant to protect. This is because they have been exploited and oppressed in the past by the same institutions purporting to protect and improve their standards of living. Patience is, therefore, the key to ensuring the community builds their trust in the indigenous social worker to be open to his/her ideas for them.
Indigenous social work differs from mainstream social work in various ways. Mainstream social works is a broad concept encompassing indigenous social work within it. Social work typically operates works with all aspects of human life that require help to improve their social, economic or cultural lives. Thus, indigenous social is a specific element within social work that focuses on helping the Aboriginal population to fight social injustices targeting them. The diversity of social work is almost limitless, and professionals in it have numerous career prospects to serve in, non-profit organizations, mental health centers, schools, advocacy agencies, community organizations, and government offices, etc. However, indigenous social work is primarily focused on working with Aboriginal people to improve their standards of living and secure the future of their children and culture. Indigenous social workers work with relatively less literate population than other social workers CITATION Fra13 \l 1033 (Widdowson & Howard, 2013).
Aboriginal people have still regressive cultures held steadfast to themselves and perceive formal education as a threat to their culture CITATION Lyn14 \l 1033 (Davis & Lahache, 2014). That is the reason the indigenous people despite receiving educational help and formulation of formal institutions to educate them; they still rank very low in literacy. Therefore, indigenous social workers have to work with regressive culture coupled with low literate levels among the population to pursue their goals. On the other hand, other social workers work with relatively informed and literate population to push for a collective agenda. Indigenous social workers are often unwelcome to most communities due to over-protection of their culture and historical trauma that the people have encountered. Indigenous people have little documented information regarding their culture and thus requires social workers to live with them to fully understand it CITATION Sig10 \l 1033 (Hafsteinsson & Bredin, 2010). Social workers, on the other hand, have sufficient information and theoretical frameworks culminated after years of study of social issues, and thus they can learn and develop schemes that would help them achieve their goals without necessarily having to live with the community at first.
Indigenous Social Work Education
It is undeniable that a people-centered education system is required to help in alleviating their economic development and rooting out the regressive elements of their culture that threatens holistic community development. Thus, the indigenous social work education was developed to address the specific education needs of indigenous people. The structure and curriculum organization of the ISWE (Indigenous Social Work Education) is focused on specific communities to improve their standards of living and increase access to formal education CITATION Pro02 \l 1033 (Dixon & Scheurell, 2002). Hitherto, most Aboriginal population perceive formal education as a threat to their way of life, and thus their illiteracy levels are still high. To enable the indigenous communities, go beyond the historical trauma brought by an ineffective education system that threatened their culture, innovative and user-centered education system has to be developed CITATION Kar12 \l 1033 (Lyons, Hokenstad, Pawar, Huegler, & Hall, 2012). Indigenous social workers have to be well acquainted with the structure of the education. It should be designed aiming to disarm the communities with their long-held belief that formal education would bring down their culture they have inherited through many generations.
The current system of formal education of training social workers is ineffective in equipping students to be fully prepared to meet the challenges of indigenous people and address their issues precisely and accurately. To produce competent indigenous social workers, the education system ought to expand the concept and allow room for inclusivity. Well trained indigenous social workers approach their work seeking to produce all rounded Aboriginal people physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally. Isolation of skills imparted to ISWE students is key to enable them to apply their knowledge and skill in the real world and produce expected positive results. Over the years, the Aboriginal people have suffered in the hands of government and social workers by indirectly enforcing a different culture to them which has broken down their trust for social workers and the government as agents of change in their community.