Responding to Displacement: Lessons for Neighborhood Development in Indigenous Contexts

Abstract

ABSTRACT Community social workers have responsibilities to engage Indigenous stakeholders in community-driven participatory planning in neighborhoods. Indigenous populations were often the original inhabitants with a strong connection to place, but become invisible in contemporary planning efforts for heritage museums and cultural centers in their ancestral territory. Social workers have the foundational knowledge to lead inclusive, sustainable planning with critical perspectives, knowledge of systems of oppression, awareness of Indigenous and settler colonial worldviews, and collaborative engagement practices that center grassroots Indigenous leaders. Cultural center models emphasize Indigenous populations having the power to construct and manage their own economic development and identity efforts.