The Continuous Improvement Cultural Responsiveness Tools (CICRT) : creating more culturally responsive social workers
- Authors: Bennett, Bindi , Morse, Claire
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Social Work Vol. 76, no. 3 (2023), p. 315-329
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- Description: Social workers play a pivotal role in addressing equity and diversity within Australia using both culturally responsiveness skills and knowledge. This article describes a research project that resulted in the development of the Continuous Improvement Cultural Responsive Tools that can be used by social workers in their practice. This was a large project conducted over three years, which involved engagement and consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community social workers. The community engagement and consultation process included the provision of cultural governance and participation in interviews. The tools developed are linked to seven key domains (Ngurras) that aim to increase the skills, knowledge, and overall confidence of social work practitioners in their culturally responsive practice. This article discusses the tools that provide a clear structure to guide social workers' critical engagement in becoming more culturally responsive social workers and individuals when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. IMPLICATIONS Social work practices need to address the social injustices faced by Aboriginal Peoples by becoming more culturall responsive. The tools were developed to support social workers in their practice to self-assess their transformation in becoming culturally responsive social workers. Continuous improvement in collaborative and culturally responsive social work will improve services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
An intercultural critical reflection model
- Authors: Redfern, Helen , Bennett, Bindi
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of social work practice Vol. 36, no. 2 (2022), p. 135-147
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- Description: Critical reflection is an important tool used by social workers to develop culturally responsive education, practice, and supervision. Current frameworks provide clearly defined processes for learners and professionals to create culturally safe learning and practice. However, in the models currently used in Australian social work, there is no representation of Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing. In this paper, we introduce a new model which integrates, for the first time, both Western and Aboriginal Peoples' epistemologies in critical reflection. This model is intended to be used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous learners and professionals who are dedicated to creating culturally safe spaces that acknowledge and integrate Aboriginal Peoples' culture and wisdom. The aim of the model is to support social workers to reflect deeply, then integrate and act on their learning in a culturally responsive way that may create transformative practice.
Australian social work: Proposed guidelines for articles by aboriginal and torres strait islander authors and about aboriginal and torres strait islander issues
- Authors: Bennett, Bindi
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian social work Vol. 75, no. 3 (2022), p. 273-279
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- Description: Australian Social Work (ASW) is an international peer-reviewed journal reflecting current thinking and trends in social work. Authors intending to submit to the Journal should prepare their manuscripts with both a social work audience and an international audience in mind. It is strongly recommended that authors familiarise themselves with articles previously published in the Journal. In this article recommendations are made and Guidelines suggested for the future direction for ASW and other journals in the explicit, respectful acknowledgement of the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait knowledges to published work. Terminology: In these Guidelines, Indigenous refers to all First Nations peoples of the World. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander refers to the unceded sovereign First Peoples of Australia.
Creating spatial, relational and cultural safety in online social work education during COVID-19
- Authors: Bennett, Bindi , Ross, Dyann , Gates, Trevor
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Social work education Vol. 41, no. 8 (2022), p. 1660-1668
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- Description: Spatial, relational and cultural safety are critical elements of trauma-informed social work practice, gaining momentum in social work education. Culturally responsive and trauma-informed pedagogical approaches meet the definition of safety. The aim is to create a democratic, collaborative, and reflexive space whereby students and educators can feel simultaneously supported in the diversity of their respective lived experiences and learning. The challenges in fostering these learning and teaching spaces are reflected upon at one Australian university which responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by quickly transitioning to online learning without prior planning and consultation. The reflection describes the challenges and opportunities in delivering online content and the use of spatial, relational and cultural safety to navigate these challenges. The authors demonstrate the Aboriginal practice of social Yarning for use in online classrooms. Yarning helps educators and students attend to safety as an integral dimension of social work education.
The Importance of the koala in Aboriginal society in nineteenth-century Queensland (Australia) : a reconsideration of the archival record
- Authors: Cahir, David (Fred) , Schlagloth, Rolf , Clark, Ian
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Anthrozoos Vol. 35, no. 1 (2022), p. 75-89
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- Description: The principal purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding of the utilitarian and symbolic significance of koalas for Aboriginal communities in Queensland, Australia as recorded by colonists during the early period of colonization and the early twentieth century. It does this primarily through a close examination of the nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century archival records and contemporary publications that relate to Queensland Aboriginal peoples’ associations with koalas. This paper is the third in a series investigating the historic and cultural importance of the koala according to the location in Australia. It likewise employs the historical method approach, which relies on identifying historical sources, evaluating their relative authority, and combining their testimony appropriately in order to construct an accurate and reliable picture of past events and environments. Through a critique of the published historical sources, the distribution of and the etymology of “koala” are briefly discussed before an examination is made of the animal’s spiritual importance, associated cultural traditions, and simultaneous utilitarian role. Mirroring previous studies published by the authors on Victoria and New South Wales, we confirm that the predominately non-Aboriginal historical records reveal that koalas were hunted for food and their skin in some Queensland regions. It shall be seen that the ethno-historical records are inconclusive about the koala’s distribution in Queensland, whether they were hunted across all of the state at the point of colonization and whether they were considered an integral food source in some regions. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that the extent to which they were used varied across regions and between language groups and was subject to certain rules, and that their spiritual significance can be traced directly to epic creation stories. The implications of this paper are consistent with the earlier New South Wales and Victorian studies: regional variations exist in Queensland in relation to the (pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial) historic relationship between Aboriginal communities and koalas and that close consultation with Aboriginal communities needs to be taken into consideration when planning conservation measures relating to koalas. © 2021 International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ).
Making #blacklivesmatter in universities: a viewpoint on social policy education
- Authors: Bennett, Bindi , Ravulo, Jioji , Ife, Jim , Gates, Trevor
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International journal of sociology and social policy Vol. 41, no. 11/12 (2021), p. 1257-1263
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- Description: Purpose The purpose of this viewpoint article is to consider the #BlackLivesMatter movement within the Aboriginal Australian struggle for equality, sovereignty and human rights. Indigenous sovereignty has been threatened throughout Australia's history of colonization. We provide a viewpoint and recommendations for social policy education and practice.Design/methodology/approach. We provide commentary and interpretation based upon the lived experience of Black, Indigenous and Other People of Color (BIPOC) co-authors, co-authors who are Allies, extant literature and practice wisdom as social policy educators. FindingsUniversities are sources of knowledge production, transmission and consumption within society. We provide critical recommendations for what social policy education within universities can address human rights and the #BlackLivesMatter movement.Originality/valueCulturally responsive inclusion for BIPOC has only just begun in Australia and globally within the context of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. This paper adds critical conversation and recommendations for what social policy programs might do better to achieve universities' teaching and learning missions.
Kurrburra the Boonwurrung 'wirrirrap' and bard (1797-1849)-a man of high degree
- Authors: Clark, Ian , Schlagloth, Rolf , Cahir, David (Fred) , McGinnis, Gabrielle
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Biography and History Vol. , no. 4 (2020), p. 73-91
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- Description: Kurrburra (aka Mr Ruffy) (1797-1849), Aboriginal wirrirrap (doctor, healer, bard), sage counsellor of his people, consultant with koalas, and heroic slayer of a feared orangutan-like cryptid that lived in the ranges north of Western Port, is believed to have been born in 1797, and was a member of the Yawen djirra clan, the eastern-most group of the Boonwurrung People whose Country stretched from Wirribi-yaluk (Werribee River) to Wammun (Wilsons Promontory) in Victoria. His moiety was Bunjil and in the early 1840s he had 2 wives: Kurundum (1819-?) and Bowyeup (1823-?), and 2 children, whose names are not known. Kurrburra's traditional Aboriginal name is the Boonwurrung word for the iconic marsupial Phascolarctos cinereus, more commonly known as the koala.
Parish plans as a source of evidence of Aboriginal land use in the Mallee back country
- Authors: Burch, John , Clark, Ian , Cahir, David (Fred)
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Provenance (North Melbourne, Vic.) Vol. , no. 18 (2020), p. 9-21
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- Description: The nature of Aboriginal people's use, indeed occupation, of the Victorian Mallee 'back country' warrants detailed investigation. Probably arising out of the paucity of observations of Aboriginal people on the land before it was pastorally occupied, an historical analysis from the 1870s suggesting Aboriginal people were not occupiers but mere 'seasonal visitors' to the 'back country' was unquestionably accepted for the next century. Growing understanding of the fundamentally sophisticated ways in which Aboriginal people managed their land has led to some recent historical works with a revised understanding of land use in the 'back country', but there is no agreement to move away from the orthodox historical paradigm. Parish plans from the Mallee, part of PROV's 'Parish and township plans' collection, were investigated to determine whether they contain evidence of former Aboriginal land use that could inform this question. It was found that these plans can potentially reveal the presence of pre-colonial Aboriginal water management, pathways, quarries, land management, cemeteries and placenames. Thus, parish plans were shown to be a potentially valuable resource that might have the capacity to support a reinvestigation of Aboriginal land use in the 'back country'. Approaches for a more detailed investigation of the value of these plans are suggested.
What to bring when you are told not to bring a thing: The need for protocols in acknowledging indigenous knowledges and participants in Australian research
- Authors: Bennett, Bindi
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of sociology Vol. 56, no. 2 (2020), p. 167-183
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- Description: This article provides a content analysis of articles published in Australian 'Social Work, the British Journal of Social Work, the International Journal of Social Welfare' and 'International Social Work' from 2007 to 2017 regarding the practice of acknowledging Indigenous participants and knowledges in articles that contain Indigenous content. This article argues that acknowledgement is an important way of recognising and showing respect for Indigenous people, as active agents in the research process. Indigenous cultural ideas, values and principles are now contributing to and informing a significant amount of research. Ways are suggested by which authors and journals can develop good practice when acknowledging Indigenous peoples respectfully within their research. This research found a need for the development of specific journal editorial policies and guidelines for authors who wish to publish content pertaining to Indigenous peoples that adequately reflects their contribution while protecting and acknowledging Indigenous knowledge, ideas and ownership of information.
"My Country all gone the white men have stolen it" : The invasion of Wadawurrung Country 1800-1870
- Authors: Cahir, David (Fred)
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: "The Wadawurrung are the Aboriginal people whose Country includes the cities now known as Ballarat and Geelong. Fred Cahir examines the contact history in the period 1800-1870 of the Wadawurrung and the ngamadjidj (generally translated as white stranger belonging to the sea). Divided into chronological and thematic section, the book chronicles three waves of invasion: the early invasion period incorporating trespassers predominately from the sea, the sheepherders or squatters who followed in their wake and usurped the Wadawurrung of all their Country for sheep runs, and the third wave of invaders - the gold seekers. This historical study is transformative as it presents a compelling argument of how the Wadawurrung were active agents of change and sought cultural enrichment in the midst of the frontier war on their Country." --back cover.
Teaching cultural humility for social workers serving LGBTQI Aboriginal communities in Australia
- Authors: Bennett, Bindi , Gates, Trevor
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Social work education Vol. 38, no. 5 (2019), p. 604-617
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- Description: It is well documented that colonization and subsequent repressive policies have wrought devastating changes in the lives of Aboriginal people in Australia. Social workers are an essential group for improving social justice and self-determination for Australian Aboriginal people. The Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) acknowledges that Aboriginal people make a unique contribution to the life of the nation and mandates that social work educational programs provide culturally responsive content that acknowledges the value and contributions of Aboriginal people. Social work educators need to embed this content without reinforcing stereotypes or being tokenistic. This is a challenge when teaching about intersecting identities, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) Aboriginal people. We outline the terms used in this space and propose that cultural humility is an acceptable framework to consider. We introduce key conceptual terms used in LGBTQI Aboriginal communities. Finally, we provide recommendations for engaging with LGBTQI Aboriginal peoples.
The potential of equine-assisted psychotherapy for treating trauma in australian aboriginal peoples
- Authors: Bennett, Bindi , Woodman, Elise
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The British journal of social work Vol. 49, no. 4 (2019), p. 1041-1058
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- Description: Abstract Colonisation and subsequent policies targeting Aboriginal peoples in Australia have had devastating consequences, including trauma, disadvantage and marginalisation. These effects have passed from generation to generation and continue to manifest in poor health and well-being outcomes, particularly mental health disorders. Innovative and culturally relevant techniques are needed to remedy inequality and address intergenerational trauma. Equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP)—an experiential therapy involving horses—is a new and increasingly evidence-based treatment approach, which offers potential for working with Aboriginal peoples. This article reviews the literature on outcomes of EAP to consider its potential as a culturally responsive therapy to treat trauma and increase well-being for Aboriginal people in Australia.
Uncovering Hidden Histories: Evaluating Preservice Teachers' (PST) Understanding of Local Indigenous Perspectives in History Via Digital Storytelling at Australia's Sovereign Hill
- Authors: Weuffen, Sara , Cahir, David (Fred) , Barnes, Alice , Powell, Bryon
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Diaspora, indigenous and minority education Vol. 13, no. 3 (2019), p. 165-181
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- Description: Non-Indigenous-led organizations and education programs have long been criticized for sanitized teachings of Aboriginal perspectives in history, while scholarship touts the transformative benefits offered up via decolonial and immersive pedagogical approaches. In this case study, we explore the impact of a cross-cultural venture, titled Hidden Histories: The Wadawurrung People, between a living history museum, the local Aboriginal community, and a regional university on teacher preparedness to incorporate Aboriginal perspectives in history curricula. Through a cultural interface lens, we examine the ontological and epistemological developments of 112 preservice teachers postinteraction with an intercultural digital-kinaesthetic education tool. Our findings suggest that PSTs enjoy engaging with the tool, yet while on site, they prefer to immerse themselves in the museum environment. Our findings indicate also, however, that the tool is an accessible cross-cultural predatory tool that encourages a lifelong commitment to integrating Aboriginal perspectives in history curricula.
Aboriginal biocultural knowledge in South-eastern Australia : Perspectives of early colonists
- Authors: Cahir, David (Fred) , Clark, Ian , Clarke, Philip
- Date: 2018
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- Description: Indigenous Australians have long understood sustainable hunting and harvesting, seasonal changes in flora and fauna, predator-prey relationships and imbalances, and seasonal fire management. Yet the extent of their knowledge and expertise has been largely unknown and under-appreciated by non-Aboriginal colonists, especially in the south-east of Australia where Aboriginal culture was severely fractured. Aboriginal Biocultural Knowledge in South-eastern Australia is the first book to examine historical records from early colonists who interacted with south-eastern Australian Aboriginal communities and documented their understanding of the environment, natural resources such as water and plant and animal foods, medicine and other aspects of their material world. This book provides a compelling case for the importance of understanding Indigenous knowledge, to inform discussions around climate change, biodiversity, resource management, health and education. It will be a valuable reference for natural resource management agencies, academics in Indigenous studies and anyone interested in Aboriginal culture and knowledge.
Clothing
- Authors: Cahir, David (Fred)
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Aboriginal biocultural knowledge in South-Eastern Australia Chapter 10 p. 173-188
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- Description: Anthropological and ethnographical studies of the use of clothing among Aboriginal people of south-eastern Australia indicate that garments for thermal protection were often not worn in the warmer months of the year. The increased use of Aboriginal clothing in the colder months of the year point to it being a behavioural adaptation to exposure to cold (Gilligan 2008). Colonial writers often remarked on Aboriginal people’s nudity or being scantily clad, which was really a Eurocentric social construct rather than an actual state of nakedness as Aboriginal people were known to make significant behavioural adaptations to cold weather in order to keep warm, including feathers, ochres and animal fat (Stephens 2014; Massola 1971; Smyth 1878). Dawson (1881) described some of the methods that Aboriginal people used to protect themselves from the cold that did not require ‘clothing’. "From abstract"
Cultural responsiveness in action: Co-constructing social work curriculum resources with aboriginal communities
- Authors: Bennett, Bindi , Redfern, Helen , Zubrzycki, Joanna
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The British journal of social work Vol. 48, no. 3 (2018), p. 808-825
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- Description: Abstract Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing have recently become core social work curriculum in Australian social work degrees and are regarded as central to decolonising Australian social work education and producing culturally responsive social work practitioners. Effectively teaching these knowledges, values and skills requires multiple strategies including the development of new curriculum resources which demonstrate the integration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing in practice. This article presents the theory and practice of co-constructing two filmed case studies with Aboriginal stakeholders which address a range of student learning needs. These powerful case studies are informed by Aboriginal knowledges and demonstrate the skills and values that the community state they want and need from social workers. Engaging in a community-led process provides social work educators with opportunities to build relationships with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, thus modelling cultural responsiveness in action.
Fire in Aboriginal south-eastern Australia
- Authors: Cahir, David (Fred) , McMaster, Sarah
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Aboriginal biocultural knowledge in South-Eastern Australia Chapter 7 p. 115-132
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- Description: In south-eastern Australia, climatic, topographic and vegetative characteristics have combined to produce a landscape in which fires occur with some regularity (Cruz et al . 2012). The historic record suggests that the frequency of fire in this area was a common source of interest (and concern) for European explorers and colonists first encountering the area. In most instances, the Europeans attributed fires to Aboriginal people, and theorised the potential motivations and function of burning practices. This chapter will introduce archival material that illuminates these colonial perspectives on Aboriginal fire use in southeastern Australia, and will discuss the ethnographic observations that were made of ‘customary’ uses of fire. This will include the association that fire was seen to have with religious, mortuary, hunting and communication practices. This chapter will begin by discussing the impacts that explorers and colonists had on the customary fire practices of Aboriginal people, recognising that while the historical record contains invaluable material about Aboriginal burning practices, its descriptions of Aboriginal burning practices must be assessed carefully. As Indigenous and European cultures encountered one another on the colonial frontier, it is also interesting to consider how fire, a simultaneously essential and dangerous force, featured in the historical relationships between Aboriginal people and the newly arrived Europeans. To explore this question, this chapter will discuss the way that Aboriginal knowledge of fire was transferred cross-culturally, and question how this may have influenced the lives of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. By drawing from the historical records, it will examine the effects that fire, including both its purposeful use and its accidental occurrence, had on frontier relationships.
Healing
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Aboriginal biocultural knowledge in South-Eastern Australia Chapter 12 p. 209-228
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- Description: Plants feature prominently in Aboriginal remedies chiefly used to relieve symptoms such as fever, congestion, headache, skin sores, tired or swollen aching limbs and digestive problems. Treatment can involve drinks, washes, massages and aromatherapies. The drinks are made by heating water with plant additives, and in Aboriginal English are commonly referred to as ‘tea’. Since European colonisation, washes are prepared by boiling plants, with the cooled liquid applied externally to the body. Some plants are heated, then rubbed or massaged into swollen parts of the patient’s body. The aroma of plants is generally transferred to the patient through contact with steam and smoke (Clarke 2008b, pp. 12– 13).
The disputatious protector - William le Souëf : A history
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: This book is the first detailed biography of William Le Souef and, amongst other things, explores his relationships with Aboriginal people and with his superiors - Robinson and La Trobe - when he was employed as assistant protector. It does this using the qualitative research methodologies of interpretive biography and thick description. It makes use of contemporary publications, protectorate records, personal diaries, familty records, and newspaper articles.
The importance of the Koala in Aboriginal society in nineteenth-century Victoria (Australia) : A reconsideration of the archival record
- Authors: Schlagloth, Rolf , Cahir, David (Fred) , Clark, Ian
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Anthrozoos Vol. 31, no. 4 (2018), p. 433-441
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- Description: The principal aim of this study was to provide a close examination of nineteenth-century archival records that relate to Victorian Aboriginal people’s associations with koalas, in order to gain a greater understanding of the utilitarian and symbolic significance of koalas for Aboriginal communities, as recorded by colonists during the early period of colonization. The etymology of “koala” is discussed, before an examination is made of the animal’s spiritual importance, associated cultural traditions, and simultaneous utilitarian role. At the time of European colonization in 1788, koalas were probably found in coastal and lowland forests and woodlands across southern, central and north-eastern Victoria.