"Location and knowledge-building: Exploring the fit of western social work with traditional knowledge"

Abstract

In many regions of Canada, particularly the North, human services grounded in a Western social work model exist alongside Indigenous healing practices rooted in local traditional knowledge. For a long time, traditional knowledge was the only working knowledge base for survival in harsh northern climates. The relatively recent imposition of a Western scientific knowledge base has resulted in efforts to integrate or incorporate aspects of local traditional knowledge. Based on direct experience with this process within my own discipline of social work, I have attempted to explore issues of compatibility of the two knowledge systems with particular attention to the impact of place or spatial location.