Indigenous Movements in International Social Work

Kurzfassung/Abstract

Indigenous approaches are an element of “social work of the South”. Local and indigenous support systems and traditions have long been disregarded or suppressed in the course of colonisation and professional imperialism (Midgley 2010). Social work has contributed significantly to the loss of cultural roots and thus to the destruction of an identity-forming framework that is indispensable for personality development. In recent years, “forgotten knowledge”, also “tacit” or “implicit knowledge” (Polyani 1985), has experienced a renaissance due to the louder and more self-confident voices from the Global South (liberation movements, movements for the rights of indigenous peoples), which also includes the demand to include indigenous approaches as equal in the canon of social work approaches. These approaches gave and still give impulses for the further development and decolonisation of social work. Indigenous approaches play an important role in the context of ecosocial work or green social work.
For a better understanding of the historical and current situations of indigenous peoples, it is essential to consider their rights. However, their implementation too often fails due to state ignorance or profit interests. The demands of indigenous peoples are exemplified by two social movements in Mexico and Guatemala. The Buen Vivir (Good Life) movement is strongly linked to the philosophy of indigenous peoples, a movement focusing on a harmonious relationship between the individual, society and the environment, contrary to a Western capitalist view. Rigoberta Menchú Tum, a Quiché Maya from Guatemala, is portrayed as an important representative and initiator of indigenous movements.