Brascoupé and Waters examine cultural safety, not only as a concept, but as a tool that should be implemented amongst health practitioners that work with Aboriginal communities. They argue that ‘cultural safety’ is a continuum, pivotal within healing processes, since it acknowledges the agency of indigenous peoples and empowers them through symmetrical power relations, in which their epistemologies, knowledges and practices are recognized as equitably valuable and important. The authors ground this analysis on the decolonization paradigm and support their argument through an extensive literature review, case studies and investigative reports.
Brascoupé and Waters start by defining ‘cultural safety and its implication within health practices
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Methodologically, the research done by the authors encompasses distinct case analysis of indigenous communities around the globe, such as New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Canada (Tsow Tun Le Lum Society, Hollow Water First Nation Case Study , Mapping the Healing Journey) on . Brascoupé and Waters support their argument of cultural safety as a continuum, by quoting authors like Castellano, Good, Crisp and Simbeme. The paper defends that cultural awareness and cultural competence, should be taken beyond discourses in order to reach cultural safety, which is not only a paradigm, but an exercise of empathy, that is constantly reinventing itself through community-based innovative solutions and best practices ad hoc to each …show more content…
This, allows the authors to critique multiculturalism; which they perceive as another colonial attempt to whip out indigenous narratives. Brascoupé and Waters argue that the idea of a nation built in immigration (mainly by white/Caucasians) undermines indigenous history. Under this line, they also analyze how color-blind and race-blind policies perpetuate systemic violence by denying the rampant discrimination and marginalization that non-white communities (broadly) and indigenous communities (specifically) are subjected to. The authors defend that decolonization is based on self-determination, which inherently would empower indigenous communities and would bolster the healing process by helping them overcome the legacy of