INDIGENOUS COMPETENCY

Educational Policy:

Engage, honor, and respect indigenous culture towards decolonized professional practice

Fairness and justice for indigenous people and respect for traditional ways of knowing requires understanding processes that actively seek to decolonize dominant cultural hegemony.  Social workers are informed about institutional barriers and cultural intolerance; strive to eliminate all forms of injustice; and, acknowledge the inalienable rights of indigenous people to self-determine. Social Workers:

1. understand the impact of inhabitation and occupation of indigenous lands and the affects of historic cultural trauma on the lives and experience of indigenous people;
2. recognize the significance of place in developing and communicating culturally resonant practice;  
3. respect host traditions, protocols, ceremony, guesthood, and spirituality as central to decolonized professional practice;
4. demonstrate knowledge of their own culture and associated beliefs, values and practices.