Decolonizing social work in Australia : prospect or illusion

Abstract

In this chapter, I take a critical social work perspective that embraces a range of emancipatory positions linking people’s experiences with the dominant ideologies of society. My analysis draws on structural social work, anti-racist approaches and a broad postmodern perspective that emphasizes difference and points to the part played by language and discourses in constructing social reality (Pease et al. 2003). Although taking some leads from the post-colonial literature, I do so with reservation as this literature has limited application to colonized people of the fourth world (see and wrongly implies that the colonial project has ceased. The interconnected range of theoretical underpinnings enables me to grapple with the issues, to decentre my own position and to examine Western dominance that remains unquestioned and unrecognized by the majority population of Australia. In so doing, I acknowledge that I have been fortunate in having my own world views challenged through immersion in Indigenous communities and organizations and through my work on collaborative endeavours. Employment in an academic setting provides some privilege in being able to exercise voice without organizational constraint. The pressing quest is to find a pathway through which the majority of social workers can contribute to the decolonizing project, engage with the political dimensions and discard some of the theoretical and practice frameworks that are irrelevant and harmful to Indigenous People.