Indigenous Social Work Around the World ─ Towards Culturally Relevant Education and Practice

How can mainstream Western social work learn from and, in turn, help advance Indigenous practice?

For the first time, this volume brings together prominent international scholars involved in both Western and Indigenous social work to discuss some of the most significant global trends and issues relating to Indigenous and crosscultural social work. The contributors discuss and share ways in which Indigenization is shaping professional social work practice and education, and examine ways in which social work can better address diversity in international exchanges and crosscultural issues within and between countries.

Key theoretical, methodological, and service issues and challenges in the Indigenization of social work are reviewed, including the way in which adaptation can lead to more effective practices within indigenous communities and emerging economies, as well as provide greater insight into crosscultural understanding and practice. The book will assist social work academics and students to evaluate the mainstream assumptions of university and homogenization and to move towards seeing culture as an essential consideration, not only in all aspects of Indigenous and crosscultural practice, but in social work generally. The authors hope that the knowledge and cultural understanding generated by the book willhave a significant impact on social work practice, notably in international social work and in the recognition of Indigenous models of social work practice and that it will be of particular assistance to social work with immigrants and refugees. Their aim is to find ways to ensure that social work practice is relevant to local cultural contexts and sensitive to diverse Indigenous cultures. Thus this book makes an important contribution to the way in which social work deals with diversity.

Mel Gray is Professor of Social Work, Research Institute for Social Inclusion and Wellbeing (RISIW), The University of Newcastle. John Coates is Professor of Social Work at St. Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Michael Yellow Bird is Professor of Social Work at Humboldt State University, Arcata, California and is the Founder and previous Director of the Center for Indigenous Peoples' Critical and Intuitive Thinking at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA