"Originating in New Zealand in the field of nursing education, cultural safety has become an influential perspective in developing better health care for Indigenous people" ("What is Indigenous cultural safety—and why should I care about it?," 2016). This approach is now being applied to other fields and professional practices including education. "Cultural safety involves actions that recognize, respect and nurture the unique cultural identity of a person and safely meet their needs, expectations and rights. It means working from the cultural perspective of the other person, not from your own perspective" ("Cultural awareness," 2018). The idea is for practitioners to be self-reflective and self-aware about their position of power and the impact of their role in relation to patients. The concept of safety is defined by those who receive the service, not those who provide it ("What is Indigenous cultural safety—and why should I care about it?," 2016). For a practitioner to be able to provide culturally sensitive services, they must learn about diverse perspectives and cultural practices, then make an effort to ask questions and accept that other ways of knowing and doing are as relevant as their own.

For people facing discrimination, bias, stereotyping based on their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or other marginalized group status, there can be serious socio-emotional consequences. Even the acts of more subtle microaggressions (whether intentional or unintentional) against a person have harmful, cumulative results. Mental health may be affected, academic scores may drop, production and quality of work may be reduced, and a person's overall sense of well-being and health may decline ("Cultural competence: An important skill set for the 21st century," 2016).

Effects of systemic cultural genocide, colonization and residential schools are still being felt by Indigenous, Métis and Inuit Peoples in Canada. Cultural safety began as an approach to address healthcare and support people who have been deeply hurt, and continue to suffer due to injustices caused by others. It seeks to support people in ways that are culturally respectful and maintains their dignity.

"Cultural humility is a practice of self-reflection on how one’s own background and expectations impact a situation, of openness to others’ determining the relevance of their own identities to any given situation, and of committing to redress the effects of power imbalances" ("Cultural humility," 2020) .

"Rather than concentrating solely on knowledge of another person’s cultural background, cultural humility proposes openness and humility when engaging with individuals from a cultural background different from our own" ("Cultivating cultural humility in education," 2020).

3 Principles of Cultural Humility

Lifelong learning & critical self-reflection — to practice cultural humility is to understand that culture is, first and foremost, an expression of self and that the process of learning about each individuals’ culture is a lifelong endeavour, because no two individuals are the same; each individual is a complicated, multi-dimensional human being who can rightfully proclaim “My identity is rooted in my history… and I get to say who I am.”

Recognizing and challenging power imbalances for respectful partnerships — while working to establish and maintain respect is essential in all healthy and productive relationships, the root of effective social work practice is in acknowledging and challenging the power imbalances inherent in our practitioner/client dynamics.

Institutional accountability — organizations need to model these principles as well (from micro, to mezzo and macro practice).

Excerpt taken from Cultural Humility, Part 1

Top Image: Quillwork (porcupine), Mi'kmaq, Nova Scotia, https://heritageday.novascotia.ca/content/mi%E2%80%99kmaq-library-resource-list