Working with First Nation People Assignment Sample

Making a Difference

First nation’s people of Australia include the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities living in Australia for more than 50,000 years now (AASW, 2016). These indigenous communities have different cultures and ethnicity than the rest of the Australian communities. Due to the devastating events that have happened to them, the indigenous communities in Australia have developed mistrust and resentfulness against the Australian Government authorities and other non-Indigenous people residing in Australia (Waterworth et al., 2015). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities still face racism (Survival, n.d.) and the availability of affordable and quality food and healthcare resources to them is also inadequate (Reath & O’Mara, 2018). As a result of all these factors, the health of these communities suffers, rendering the overall poor quality of their lives. These circumstances call out for the need for making a difference in order to improve their physical, emotional, and mental well being. Moreover, the involvement of community welfare and social workers will provide significant benefits towards the amelioration of the challenges hindering the growth of Indigenous communities (AASW, 2016). This essay focuses on the role of social work and community welfare work in making such a difference in the lives of Australia’s first nation’s people.

The aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders have faced demolishing discriminatory behaviours in their past along with other traumatising events starting from the early 1800s (Australians Together, 2020). These incidences include both their historical and socio-economic sufferings and contribute to their degraded health status. Starting from their existence’s blatant denial during 1770-1992 by Terra Nullius, which was the British colonisation; taking over of their lands by the colonial powers without any prior arrangements since 1788 until today; resistance wars fought by them between 1788 and 1930s against the frontier powers seeking their homelands, lifestyles and families and more are among their sufferings. Furthermore, the most devastating experiences of Indigenous Australians include the massacres between the 1780s and 1920s, and the stolen generations between 1910 and 1970 (Australians Together, 2020).

Stolen generations refer to the confiscation of the children from the Indigenous Australian families done forcefully under the impact of government policies. The primary reason for this was the white people's superiority over black people (Australians Together, 2020). The prevalence of trauma and loss is still reported to exist in the Indigenous families who have suffered from these losses, and 26% of the children residing in these households are rated to have poor health (Nature, 2019). Agonising missions, reserves, and massacres took place against Indigenous communities by the colonisers in the past, the effects of which still influence their health and wellbeing. Consequently, the culture and families of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities were demolished (Australians Together, 2020).

All the above-mentioned events have lead to the marginalisation of the communities of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, aggravating the lacking communication between the non-Indigenous and Indigenous communities of Australia. This lack of communication between the two groups is the key cause for the alleviated positive influence of resources and policies launched by the Australian Government on the quality of life of Indigenous communities of Australia (Waterworth et al., 2015). Social workers as well as community-welfare workers can be involved in the approaches and strategies aimed at ameliorating the wellbeing of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders by negotiating a different learning culture.

Numerous social workers, non-indigenous and indigenous, working with indigenous communities and addressing socio-economic and health detriments have a key part in decreasing the continuous disparities encountered by many indigenous people in Australia (Harms et al., 2011). They further demonstrated that notwithstanding the fact that social workers intend to address the issue of disadvantage; the connection of social workers with indigenous people has frequently been rated as dangerous, based on mistrust, dreadfulness and outrage. This implies that there is a need for culturally compliant practices, to overcome the barriers to the formation of effective interaction and connections between indigenous communities and social workers (Harms et al., 2011). Moreover, the people from the indigenous communities have the viewpoint that the social workers require the possession of certain skills and knowledge, so as to effectively work with the first nation’s communities. These include the knowledge related to three aspects of indigenous community people’s lives; the knowledge about the history of these communities and its influence, the knowledge of their culture (including the significance of their families and community’s structures to them), and the effects of social work related interventions (Harms et al., 2011).

Harms et al. (2011) stated that the three major hindrance factors for educational preparation and practice of social workers include racism, neglecting to comprehend with the effects of colonization concerning how it impacts relationships today; and an absence of broad teaching asset staff and materials. These factors can be categorised into attitudinal and knowledge and skills related factors. Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders seeking help from the social workers expect the social workers to treat them as real people using real language, along with being open-minded, non-judgemental, yielding and refraining stereotypes (Harms et al., 2011). The knowledge needed by social and community welfare workers for carrying out effective practice can be imparted in multiple ways. Primarily, placement with indigenous communities as well as agencies can be perceived as one of the important learning methods that will enable social workers to understand the ways of working with indigenous communities. Being mentored by indigenous elders to know the importance of family connections can be another way of learning skills related to effective practice. Therefore, mere education and understanding from textbooks and classrooms will not be enough for preparing social workers for effective practice (Harms et al., 2011).

Furthermore, AASW (2016) stated that the social workers should ask for guidance related to the delivery and development of services for the people of Australia’s first nation’s communities from the participants and recognised elderly people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. AASW (2016) also elucidated that valuing, respecting and understanding the knowledge of Indigenous people by the social workers is very important in order to develop meaningful relationships, based upon trust with them.

Working with the people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities as a social worker will be an honour for me and catering for them would be extremely self-rewarding and satisfying for me. Evidently, multiple factors and issues will have to be considered while interacting with the people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, however, my knowledge and skills will assist me effectively. My research and understanding of these communities have enlightened me about many skills, most important of which include the acknowledgment of the complexities of the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Further, the acknowledgment and understanding of the cultural and ethical differences between Indigenous people and other communities are also important. Considering the pertaining mistrust and resentfulness in indigenous people, the development of trust is the paramount important thing that has to be considered. Trust can be build by using effective therapeutic communication while interacting with the Indigenous people of Australia. Therapeutic communication can be defined as the client-centered in-person interaction process between a healthcare worker and a client, focussing on the advancement of both emotional and physical health of the client (Martin & Chanda, 2016). Martin and Chanda (2016) explained therapeutic communication as wellbeing centered and stress-alleviating interaction process between an attendant and his client having the essential purpose of setting up the trust required to make a significant trade between the attendant and patient.

Furthermore, providing a culturally safe and competent environment to the indigenous people is necessary to overcome the cultural differences. A culturally safe environment is helpful for individuals who have a desire of reflecting on their ethics and values. Such an environment presents no denial, assault, or challenge to the person’s identity regarding who he is and what are his needs and concerns with shared meaning and knowledge, respect, and experience of listening and learning together effectively and with dignity (Thorpe, 2018). Cultural competence refers to the ability to effectively and ethically take part in intercultural domains, both professional and personal. This expects the person to know about his own cultural centrality alongside the world's perspectives and suggestions to settle on sensible and conscious decisions, including the capacity to team up and envision across social limits (Thorpe, 2018). Therefore, as a social worker, I will follow all the aforementioned steps in order to develop an effective and meaningful interaction with Australian Indigenous people.

This essay demonstrated the contribution of social and community welfare workers in ameliorating the disadvantages that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have. Based on the devastating historical events they had, and the existing cultural differences Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have developed a feeling of resentfulness against the Australian authorities and the non-Indigenous communities in Australia. In order to develop a meaningful interaction with the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, the social workers need to learn to respect and acknowledge their history and culture, refraining from the common stereotypes without being judgemental while interacting with them. This understanding needs the provision of skills to social workers by either placing them in indigenous agencies or by getting them mentored by indigenous elders. Furthermore, social workers need to provide a culturally safe and competent atmosphere to their Indigenous clients while interacting with them. 

References for Working with First Nation People

AASW. (2016). Preparing for culturally responsive and inclusive social work practice in Australia: Working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Retrieved from https://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/7006

Australians Together. (2020). What about history? Retrieved from https://australianstogether.org.au/discover/australian-history/get-over-it/

Harms, L., Middleton, J., Whyte, J., Anderson, I., Clarke, A., Sloan, J., Hagel, M., and Smith, M. (2011). Social Work with Aboriginal Clients: Perspectives on Educational Preparation and Practice. Australian Social Work, 64(2), 156-168. DOI 10.1080/0312407X.2011.577184

Martin, C. T., & Chanda, N. (2016). Mental Health Clinical Simulation: Therapeutic Communication. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 12(6), 209-214. DOI 10.1016/j.ecns.2016.02.007 

Nature. (2019). Trauma of Australia’s Indigenous ‘Stolen Generations’ is still affecting children today. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01948-3

Reath, J. S., & O’Mara, P. (2018). Closing the gap in cardiovascular risk for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. The Medical Journal of Australia, 209(1), 17-18. DOI 10.5694/mja18.00345

Survival. (n.d.). Aboriginal people. Retrieved from https://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/aboriginals

Thorpe, K. (2018). Ethics, Indigenous cultural safety and the archives. Archifacts, 2, 33-47. Retrieved from https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/handle/10453/138992

Waterworth, P., Pescud, M., Braham, R., Dimmoc, J. & Rosenberg, M. (2015). Factors Influencing the Health Behaviour of Indigenous Australians: Perspectives from Support People. PLoS ONE, 10(11), e0142323. https://doi.org/.10.1371/journal.pone.0142323

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