Just want to be Black: Practice thoughts on Aboriginal Ways

Abstract

Over recent decades there has been a long overdue movement within social work and other areas of health and human services towards the acknowledgment and recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges. In celebrating this, we acknowledge that social work has historically been predominantly a white western centric profession in Australia. Social workers implemented policies of assimilation such as those which led to the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and communities which we now know as The Stolen Generations, and continue to be part of large, structurally racist institutions.

This article examines, through yarning, practice experiences that honour Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing in the social work context from an Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal perspective. Yarning is the practice of reciprocal sharing, deep listening and retelling, allowing new understandings to emerge.  We found genuine cultural safety is evidenced in often overlooked ways in which Aboriginal People centre and place themselves in relation to place and connection.  We argue that the intrinsic ‘whiteness’ of the service system continues to place Aboriginal Peoples as the ‘Other’ disallowing this. While token efforts to create ‘culturally safe spaces’ may emerge, genuine celebration and honouring of Aboriginal people’s cultural identity in all its diversity must come for social work to truly embrace Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing.