Invitations to dignity and well-being: cultural safety through Indigenous pedagogy, witnessing and giving back!

Abstract

In this article, three Métis authors, engaged in human service, share their conceptualization of cultural safety in educational settings. Their examples pertain more specifically to learning moments where Indigenous pedagogy is used to convey aspects of the colonial history and various forms of violence towards Indigenous peoples in Canada. In cases where there is a diverse or multicultural learning group, housed within a dominant Euro-Canadian culture, cultural safety can be designed to create a learning environment that promotes increased trust, sharing and exploration of “risky subjects”. This article is structured around a presentation of a pedagogy developed by Jeannine Carriere and Cathy Richardson in an Indigenous cultural sensitization training for child and youth mental health practitioners in British Columbia. Their approach encircles first-person testimony shared by Vicky Boldo, provides a structure for witnessing such testimony and then invites feedback from Vicky in relation to cultural safety for those who educate from Indigenous perspectives. The authors address the issue of backlash and White guilt that are often evoked when truths about violent histories are brought to the fore.

Vicky Boldo/kisêwâtisiwinyôtin:iskwew (Gentle Wind Woman): From Individual to Intergenerational Healing

“…Alike to this, kisêwâtisiwinyôtin:iskwew's experiences of pain and the ways in which she responded to these painful situations, even from a young age knowing that she could find safety in Mother Earth, shows how you can be informed by understanding your experience. It is also asserted that individuals experiencing pain understand themselves and their surroundings best (Richardson et al 2017). This circles back to the aforementioned needed inquiry into the resilience of adoptees (Sinclair 2007).…”

“…Many researchers have studied the unjust history of the government-instituted forced removal of Indigenous children from their homes facilitated by social workers (Sinclair 2007;Richardson et al 2017;Boldo 2016;Trocmé et al 2004;Farris-Manning and Zandstra 2003;Fournier and Crey 1997). Although Indigenous children represented about 4% of the total Canadian population at the time of the "Sixties Scoop", 30-40% of all children in the child welfare system were Indigenous (Fournier andCrey 1997 cited in Boldo 2016;Richardson et al 2017). The allure of adoption was striking for Canadians who were interested in helping "in need" children, creating a dynamic of settler saviourism to accomplish the Canadian government's assimilation agenda (Sinclair 2007).…”

“…kisêwâtisiwinyôtin:iskwew is amongst the "Sixties Scoop" adoptees who faced violence and prejudice at the hands of social services. She notes that when she was 26, she put in a request to the office of Freedom of Information in Victoria for copies of her adoption files (Richardson et al 2017;Boldo 2016). One note from the caseworker on 23 June 1967 indicated that "Vicky is a very attractive child, although still somewhat Indian looking" (Richardson et al 2017, p. 192;Boldo 2016, p. 20).…”

“…Shifting the connotation of resiliency also opens the door for understanding that victim's responses are not just a product of personal resiliency, but rather resistance to the colonial structures aided by empowering networks, resulting in possibilities for social repair (Reynolds 2013;Richardson 2020). Reaffirming integral powers of healing and "inner radar" serves as the starting point for not only developing tools for healing, but also building spaces in which responses to violence are prioritized and honoured (Richardson et al 2017).…”

Preservice Teachers and the Kairos Blanket Exercise: A Narrative Inquiry

“…Rather he reflected on "safer" pedagogical concerns for future students. Richardson et al (2017) helped us understand when they wrote:…”