‘Decolonialism’ and the Counselling Profession: The Aotearoa/New Zealand Experience

Abstract

This paper makes a case for the coining and exploration of a term 'decolonialism'. Although there is likely to be greater familiarity with the use of the term 'decolonization' for the work indigenous people might undertake on themselves to transcend the shackles of colonization, this paper suggests that colonizers also need to work at ridding themselves of vestigial mechanisms of control. The paper suggests the term 'decolonialism' to represent this challenge. However, the issues go deeper than the examination of a counsellor's personal beliefs, awareness and worldview, but also extend to the systems that underscore and guide the counselling profession. Whilst such issues are of relevance to various contexts around the world, this paper focuses on a case study of the reformation of the New Zealand Association of Counsellors-Te Roopu Kaiwhiriwhiri O Aotearoa as an example of the counselling profession striving to decolonialize its structure and its practices.

Cultural safety: towards postcolonial counselling practice?

“…The term 'cultural safety' is not found within the New Zealand counselling literature, although it is spoken of in professional counselling settings. Within counselling it is more familiar to call on Treaty of Waitangi discourse (Crocket, 2009;Durie, 1999Durie, , 2007Lang, 2004Lang, , 2005New Zealand Association of Counsellors, 2002;Te Wiata & Crocket, 2011;Webb, 2000). Nonetheless, despite the dominance of Treaty of Waitangi discourse and the absence of cultural safety in the counselling literature, a discourse of cultural safety plays out in counselling in Aotearoa New Zealand.…”

Fractured connections: migration and holistic models of counselling

“…Our entitlement or lack of it is not the principal focus of this paper yet it raises important differences between Western European and indigenous discourses. Although entitlement may be all too easily and frequently claimed by colonialists, we signal here our actual lack of entitlement at the outset and the difficulties this might raise when naming places and races, and gaining a sense of belonging in liminal spaces (Lang, 2005). …”

Fostering awareness of self in the education of social work students by means of critical reflectivity

“…One of the main points of departure of critical theory is that social problems are created more by the structure of society and the cultural assumptions generated by dominant groups that oppress subordinate groups. As a theoretical framework for social work, it has been enriched by an analysis of the complex processes of colonialism, decolonisation and de-colonialism (Long, 2005;Campbell & Baikie, 2012), while at grassroots level it helps "social workers to avoid assuming that the way things are, is the way they have to be" (Payne, 2014:319). The emergence of critical social work theories and anti-oppression approaches over the past few years has brought about an expanded conceptualisation of the 'self' of the social worker.…”