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.