Indigenous perspectives for strengthening social responses to global environmental changes: A response to the social work grand challenge on environmental change

ABSTRACT

The “Grand Challenges for Social Work,” is a call to action for innovative responses to society’s most pressing social problems. In this article, we respond to the “Grand Challenge” of Creating Social Responses to a Changing Environment from our perspective as Indigenous scholars. Over the last several decades, diminishing natural resources, pollution, over-consumption, and the exploitation of the natural environment have led to climate change events that disproportionately affect Indigenous peoples. We present how environmental changes impact Indigenous peoples and suggest culturally relevant responses for working with Indigenous communities. We propose a decolonizing cyclical, iterative process grounded in Indigenous Ways of Knowing.     

Kites in the highlands: articulating Bunong Indigeneity in Cambodia,Vietnam, and abroad

Bunong people from both sides of the Cambodia–Vietnam border are increasingly self-identifying as Indigenous peoples and claiming collective human rights as Indigenous peoples at international platforms, such as the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. As of now the Bunong from Vietnam articulate Indigeneity from a diasporic distance, having fled the country as political refugees. The aim of this article is to compare and contrast the networks of Bunong Indigeneity that now seek cross-border and transnational connections, and examine the blockages and openings that appear as a result. The border between Vietnam and Cambodia separates Bunong communities and families spatially, politically, and culturally. Cambodia recognizes Indigenous peoples, while Vietnam does not. Through primary research with Bunong activists, combined with secondary sources, this article adopts a comparative cross-border approach to the Bunong articulation of Indigeneity, and asks where this movement may be headed.     

The morning after Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission report: decolonisation through hybridity,ambivalence and alliance

Abstract

In Canada, 2015 will be remembered for the publication of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report which related to all Canadians the impacts of the Indian residential school system. The Commission invokes the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and uses the term reconciliation as a national strategy for moving forward. This paper employs an autoethnographic methodology and proposes that reconciliation might benefit by finding ways of confronting the Other within; I describe my reflections on a trip to the 2015 conference Learning at Intercultural Intersections at Thompson Rivers University. My social and cultural experiences as a Korean Canadian academic and administrator are challenged in order to consciously shift my own colonising mindset. Reconciliation in Canada will require significant personal, professional, institutional and sociocultural inquiry. What does it mean to discover the Other within? How do we walk with Indigenous peoples? How do educators come to be called ally by Indigenous peoples?     

Schools as “Really Dangerous Places” for Indigenous Children and Youth: Schools,Child Welfare,and Contemporary Challenges to Reconciliation

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) final report called attention to the damage induced by government policies and practices and outlined a pathway toward reconciliation in which education and child welfare system reforms play a central role. Drawing from 61 interviews with teachers and parents of Indigenous children in Alberta, this paper addresses the question: what do intersections between schooling and child welfare systems contribute to prospects for meaningful reconciliation between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous people in Canada? Findings suggest that, despite formal commitments to acknowledge and address colonial legacies of residential schooling, obligations to fulfill state child welfare and educational objectives continue to situate schools, for many Indigenous families, as “dangerous places.”     

The Gambling Behavior of Indigenous Australians

The gambling activities of minority groups such as Indigenous peoples are usually culturally complex and poorly understood. To redress the scarcity of information and contribute to a better understanding of gambling by Indigenous people, this paper presents quantitative evidence gathered at three Australian Indigenous festivals, online and in several Indigenous communities. With support from Indigenous communities, the study collected and analyzed surveys from 1,259 self-selected Indigenous adults. Approximately 33 % of respondents gambled on card games while 80 % gambled on commercial gambling forms in the previous year. Gambling participation and involvement are high, particularly on electronic gaming machines (EGMs), the favorite and most regular form of gambling. Men are significantly more likely to participate in gambling and to gamble more frequently on EGMs, horse/dog races, sports betting and instant scratch tickets. This elevated participation and frequency of gambling on continuous forms would appear to heighten gambling risks for Indigenous men. This is particularly the case for younger Indigenous men, who are more likely than their older counterparts to gamble on EGMs, table games and poker. While distinct differences between the gambling behaviors of our Indigenous sample and non-Indigenous Australians are apparent, Australian Indigenous behavior appears similar to that of some Indigenous and First Nations populations in other countries. Although this study represents the largest survey of Indigenous Australian gambling ever conducted in New South Wales and Queensland, further research is needed to extend our knowledge of Indigenous gambling and to limit the risks from gambling for Indigenous peoples.     

Discrimination Experienced by Immigrants,Racialized Individuals,and Indigenous Peoples in Small- and Mid-Sized Communities in Southwestern Ontario

We investigate discrimination experiences of (1) immigrants and racialized individuals, (2) Indigenous peoples, and (3) comparison White non-immigrants in nine regions of Southwestern Ontario containing small- and mid-sized communities. For each region, representative samples of the three groups were recruited to complete online surveys. In most regions, over 80 percent of Indigenous peoples reported experiencing discrimination in the past 3 years, and in more than half of the regions, over 60 percent of immigrants and racialized individuals did so. Indigenous peoples, immigrants and racialized individuals were most likely to experience discrimination in employment settings and in a variety of public settings, and were most likely to attribute this discrimination to racial and ethnocultural factors, and for Indigenous peoples also their Indigenous identity. Immigrants and racialized individuals who had experienced discrimination generally reported a lower sense of belonging and welcome in their communities. This association was weaker for Indigenous peoples. The findings provide new insight into discrimination experienced by Indigenous peoples, immigrants and racialized individuals in small and mid-sized Canadian communities, and are critical to creating and implementing effective anti-racism and anti-discrimination strategies.     

Indigenous persons with disability in remote Australia: research methodology and Indigenous community control

Abstract

Decolonisation aims to deconstruct the hegemonic traditional Western academic practices and values that oppress Indigenous peoples. Decolonising research methodologies is a relatively new practice in disability research in colonised nations. This paper details the Indigenous community-controlled research methodology that underpinned a disability research project with the Anangu and Yarnangu of Central Australia, ‘Walykumunu Nyinaratjaku: To Live a Good Life’. The project aimed to identify and explore how to support Indigenous people with a disability in the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Lands to live a good life. The research was structured on a decolonising methodology to situate the control and governance of the research with the Indigenous peoples. Our experience could assist other disability researchers working with Indigenous peoples in remote communities.     

Does Reconciliation and Racial Justice Necessitate a Struggle against White Supremacy?

Several literatures including those focusing on settler colonialism, critical antiracism as well as ethnic studies and sociology more broadly often position racial injustice and genocide as a struggle against whiteness and white supremacy. Here I use my own positionality to illustrate what might be unseen in the current thinking about the meaning of what whiteness entails. Then I propose the preliminary workings of a nonbinary approach to thinking about racial justice and reconciliation that still centers the specific experiences of oppression but that does not also entail blaming a particular group as oppressor. While I focus on Canada and responsibility for Indigenous genocide and, to some extent, anti‐Black racism, my hope is that the theoretical logic will also be of utility for thinking about moving forward on issues of racial justice and genocide in other contexts.     

Upholding social justice: Obligation or optional extra in social work? Critical reflections on a classroom-based inquiry

Internationally, the pursuit of social justice is core to social work and social work education. In Australia, since British colonization, Indigenous peoples have suffered significant human rights violations, oppression, and racial discrimination. Some key literature suggests that cultivating empathy can facilitate action to challenge human rights violations and reduce racism. Previous research with social work students at a regional Australian university had revealed least empathy for vignettes featuring cultural differences. A classroom-based inquiry in 2014 exploring barriers for students to take an activist stance for social justice extended that previous research. Here, those findings are further pondered in relation to advancing social work education for socially just practice.     

Ainu right to education and Ainu practice of ‘education’: current situation and imminent issues in light of Indigenous education rights and theory

Several years have passed since the adoption by the United Nations of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Yet, what changes have happened in the lives of Indigenous peoples for whom the Declaration was written? This paper employs a framework of Indigenous educational theory to focus on the case of the Ainu of Japan and examines what kind of changes could be happening vis‐à‐vis Ainu education but are not. I explain the current stalled state of deliberations regarding implementation of the UNDRIP, outline the current resource base for an Ainu‐run education system, and argue that it is the duty of the Japanese government to provide the infrastructure and expertise necessary to implement such an educational initiative, as well as to aid the Ainu in overcoming ‘internalized oppression’ which currently hampers many Ainu from embracing their Ainu identity and thereby vocally advocating their rights to an Indigenously driven Ainu education. I briefly touch upon the relevance of the Ainu situation to other Asian Indigenous peoples and contend that the Ainu case provides one useful watermark for comparison with other Indigenous peoples’ scenarios.     

The experience and meaning of same‐sex sexuality among heterosexually identified men and women: An analytic review

The components of sexual orientation, including but not limited to sexual desires, attractions, behaviors, and identities, are generally assumed to align in predictable ways. However, ample research from sociology and other social and behavioral science disciplines shows that for many people, these components do not align as expected. In this article, we focus on individuals who identify as heterosexual and experience same‐sex sexual desires, attractions, and/or behaviors. First, we briefly review the available quantitative data on the prevalence of such experiences and use data from one high‐quality national survey—the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG)—to show that self‐identified heterosexuals account for as much as one‐half of the same‐sex sexuality that is reported. Then, we turn to recent qualitative literature and draw attention to the contexts within which heterosexually identified men and women experience same‐sex sexuality, how they make sense of these experiences, and the interpretive strategies they use to reconcile their same‐sex sexuality with their heterosexual identities and their gendered presentations of self. Finally, we conclude by discussing the significance of this research and pointing to several paths forward for sociologists and other researchers.     

Knowledge and education for peoples’ sovereignty

ABSTRACT

Living examples of peoples’ sovereignty can illustrate the path toward positive people-centred alternatives to control by the capitalist State, wealthy private land-owners and corporations. Efforts to undermine Indigenous and other peoples’ sovereignty have been deliberate and continue to take place in industrialized and ‘developing’ countries. Yet peoples’ sovereignty has the capacity to unite and educate people in important ways. Many examples of education to promote peoples’ sovereignty are emerging, building on the knowledge that communities have generated over time. This is a very different educational model than the one most commonly recognized and implemented in industrialized societies. People working in higher education everywhere have the responsibility to educate our students about the history of colonization and destruction of peoples’ sovereignty, so that they understand the real history of their countries, to build alliances with other educators globally, and to form bonds of solidarity with peoples’ movements.     

Law,love and being in relation

ABSTRACT

This article takes up Agozino's call for love. Yet this call is not a straightforward one. In response, I press for an appreciation of love which avoids collapsing love into 'protection', engaging instead with the Aboriginal World View described by Kombumerri and Wakka Wakka woman and scholar, Mary Graham, as a form of conduct, reflection and a practice in listening. Through two quite distinct stories offered by young people in their encounters with Australia's criminal justice system, I explore the ethics of listening and respectful relations in social and institutional settings. While the first story reveals the denial of colonial violence accompanying protectionist policies for the ‘care' of Indigenous communities, the second story shows how such patterns of denial underpin western ‘justice' systems, including for settler peoples. Responding to Agozino’s call requires that we examine the ethical act of listening and reflect on the repercussions of the failure to listen.     

Disability and climate change: A critical realist model of climate justice

Existing literature on climate change as an issue of environmental justice documents the heightened vulnerability of people with disabilities to the effects of climate change. Additionally, there are numerous studies showing that access to information is a prerequisite for perceiving risk and taking action. Building on this work, our review seeks to understand how physical disability relates to perceptions of climate-related risk and adaptations to climate-related events. We introduce a critical realist model of climate justice to understand the relationships between the environmental features that disable, risk perception and information seeking, and adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change. In understanding the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of people with disabilities to climate change, this review synthesizes research on one of the U.S.’s largest minority communities with the goals of better understanding how vulnerable populations cope with climate change and integrating them into climate action and policy.     

Indigenous Knowledge in the Social Work Academy

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.     

“I want to create change; I want to create impact”: Personal-activism narratives of Indigenous Australian women working in public relations

The role of activism is important in the field of Indigenous Australian public relations as a strategy for creating change and giving back to Indigenous people and communities. However, there is a dearth of information on how, when, and why Indigenous women employed in public relations engage in activist practices. This paper aims to help fill this gap by exploring the activist practices used by Indigenous women working in public relations in their personal lives. By considering personal activism from the perspectives of Indigenous women in public relations, we can further conceptualize activism within the profession. Through the critical lens of Indigenous women’s standpoint theory, and utilizing an Indigenous yarning method, five Indigenous women discuss their definitions of activism and the various ways in which they engage in activism within their personal lives. This paper builds upon the ideas of activism within public relations and demonstrates the power of public relations in terms of influencing social change for Indigenous people and others.     

Did Growing Rural Poverty and a Disruptive Climate Spur an Expansion in Rural Sociology? A Comparative Historical Analysis

Rural sociology first gained wide recognition during the 1930s when the intersection of economic depression and environmental crisis underlined the suffering of rural peoples. The historical conjuncture of growing rural poverty and environmental crisis has reappeared in the twenty‐first century. What does this recurring combination of circumstances portend for rural sociology? Does it imply a revival of the policy‐oriented sociological analyses of the 1930s? A comparative historical analysis of rural sociology during the New Deal, the post−World War II period, and the contemporary era suggests a qualified answer to this question. The contemporary era resembles the 1930s in providing compelling rationales for engaged scholarship, but the cross‐class coalitions between government social scientists and the rural poor that characterized the 1930s have not materialized in the twenty‐first century. Despite this difference, some common themes, such as a growing emphasis on interdisciplinary research, a primary concern with rural poverty, and an increased interest in the distinguishing features of resilient communities, have characterized scholarship during both periods. These similarities suggest that the practice of applied and engaged scholarship, so prevalent in the rural sociology of the 1930s, has found new traction in dealing with the social and ecological problems of twenty‐first‐century rural communities.     

Healing Victims and Offenders and Reducing Crime: A Critical Assessment of Restorative Justice Practice and Theory

The current article explores the growing restorative justice movement. It examines promising research indicating that face‐to‐face dialogue with crime victims and offenders may work to restore and heal participants, and reduce recidivism. In addition, the article assesses the current state of restorative justice theory, suggesting new avenues for future theory and research. I show how current thinking about restorative justice can benefit from a micro‐sociological reframing, focusing on the production of collective emotion and micro‐dynamics of interaction.     

Indigenous and gendered persons and peoples in business ethics education: Intersections of Indigenous wisdoms and de Beauvoirian existentialism

The purpose of this paper is to explore how business ethics textbooks include Indigenous and gendered persons and peoples and whether they acknowledge Indigenous philosophies and theories. We explore 363 cases from eighteen (18) business ethics textbooks. A form and theme based content analysis was employed to help us better understand the inclusion, obfuscation and omission of Indigenous and gendered persons. A purpose of business ethics education is to disrupt injustice and oppressive practices in business. We find that business ethics education can provide more inclusive and respectful cases as it relates to Indigenous and gendered characters. There are cases that marginalize, obfuscate and omit Indigenous peoples, females, and gender diverse persons. This study contributes to diversity scholarship by identifying ways in which Indigenous and gendered persons and peoples can be included in management and business ethics education.     

Understanding Gender and Power Dynamics Within the Family: A Qualitative Study of Nepali Women's Experience

Among the Maori of New Zealand, Aboriginals of Australia, and other Indigenous peoples, family dynamics strongly influence the ways that issues emerge in counseling. This study explores aspects of gender and power within the context of birth practices in rural Nepal. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 15 postpartum women, as well as family members, to collect narratives of birthing experiences that highlight issues of oppression, marginalisation, and power struggles. Implications for multicultural and social justice awareness in family therapy are discussed, especially with regard to the subtle, disguised ways that power operates behind the scenes, often sabotaging efforts by health and mental health professionals to bemost helpful.