Indigenous perspectives for strengthening social responses to global environmental changes: A response to the social work grand challenge on environmental change

Shanondora Billiot, Ramona Beltrán, Danica Brown, Felicia M. Mitchell, Angela Fernandez

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

The “Grand Challenges for Social Work,” is a call to action for innovative responses to society’s most pressing social problems. In this article, we respond to the “Grand Challenge” of Creating Social Responses to a Changing Environment from our perspective as Indigenous scholars. Over the last several decades, diminishing natural resources, pollution, over-consumption, and the exploitation of the natural environment have led to climate change events that disproportionately affect Indigenous peoples. We present how environmental changes impact Indigenous peoples and suggest culturally relevant responses for working with Indigenous communities. We propose a decolonizing cyclical, iterative process grounded in Indigenous Ways of Knowing.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)296-316
Number of pages21
JournalJournal of Community Practice
Volume27
Issue number3-4
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2 2019

Keywords

  • Indigenous social work
  • Traditional ecological knowledge
  • environmental justice
  • social work grand challenges

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Development
  • Sociology and Political Science
  • Public Administration

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