Cultural centre points: emerging indigenous social work ontology

Abstract

Through intensive participation in NCFST traditional helping approaches the researcher gained many insights into community practice. The practicum explored issues of personal/professional integration, agency partnership, the development of a community consciousness, and the confluence of western and traditional approaches. By using PanIndian cultural approaches as the central focus within a community framework, social workers were able to map assets, engage the community in a culturally appropriate manner, effectively develop and implement a broad range of services, and increase community participation. Many themes emerged in the Scarborough experience. Most notably, a framework of community practice which incorporates Pan-Indian traditions in a transpersonal, transcultural, transgenerational, and transhistorical manner broadly impacting Cultural centre points 111 dimensions of personal and community health. The researcher was able to gain personal insight into Aboriginal culture, worldview, and Indigenous spirituality and the role these orientations play in assisting a community to achieve health. These themes are suggestive of an emergent cross-cultural model of community practice relevant to other Indigenous or cultural environments.