ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the challenges faced by non-Indigenous social workers who seek to respectfully engage Indigenous peoples and their communities as allies from a critical social work perspective. Domination, in terms of its multidimensionality, is used by those embracing colonization to deceive Indigenous peoples and justify the acts associated with conquest and colonization. Domination to P. Freire inflicts a culture of silence on oppressed Indigenous peoples that conveys to them a level of negativity that adversely affects their self-image. The non-Indigenous way of knowing is conceptualized as achieving permanence, often typified as best practice or evidence-based research which reflects the absolutism of neocolonialism’s ultimate truth. The approach evolved from community consultations and used injury valuation as a way to engage government-funded research centers of excellence and industry to support injury prevention founded on Indigenous peoples as experts in injury prevention due to their experiences.
