SK665
Relational Accountability: Transforming Social Work with Indigenous Peoples
0.5 Credit

Relational Accountability is a course that asks you to wholistically reflect on the values and practices you envision carrying as a social worker, and how they can inform a transformed relationship with Indigenous Peoples. Social work is culturally, politically, and economically intertwined with colonial systems that historically and presently dispossess Indigenous Peoples from their children, elders, culture and land relations. This positioning continues to frame social work theories and practices, and in light of the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action it is important to reflect on professional assumptions and values that may harm Indigenous peoples. While you will come into relation with Indigenous worldviews and values, this course neither engages Indigenous cultural practices (e.g., ceremonies) nor is focused on dominant narratives of social issues impacting Indigenous peoples in the wake of colonialism. Rather, you will be asked to reflect on your unique ancestral position in these relations and with the land, with an emphasis on your responsibility to be active in the relational transformation of ourselves and social work.