Indigenous Knowledge in the Social Work Academy

Abstract

This paper provides a model for including Indigenous knowledge in the social work academy. This model does not hinge on being sensitive to Aboriginal world views and open to including them in the academy, but on being sensitive to the ways Eurocentric world views dominate the academy and open to disrupting this dominance. Disruption is necessary because despite a commitment to diversity and inclusion, social work education continues to be taught from a Eurocentric perspective in a manner that perpetuates the colonization of Indigenous peoples. The authors triangulate their interrogation of Eurocentrism from the vantage of their own social locations: Jacquie is a female Indigenous professor from the Haisla Nation of the upper part of Turtle Island (known as Canada to non‐Indigenous people) and Gary is a White male Canadian professor originally from London, England. Adopting a critical anti‐racist approach and drawing on Whiteness theory, Indigenous storytelling and the Medicine Wheel, the authors present a pedagogical framework that enables Indigenous knowledge to be included in the academy in ways that ensure that it is not colonized in the process.