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17 - Human Rights and Psychology from Indigenous Perspectives

from Part III - Contemporary Issues in Psychology and Human Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2020

By
Arthur W. Blume ,
Gayle Skawen:nio Morse  and
Catherine Love
Edited by
Neal S. Rubin  and
Roseanne L. Flores
Neal S. Rubin
Affiliation:
Adler University
Roseanne L. Flores
Affiliation:
Hunter College, City University of New York
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Summary

Indigenous people globally have experienced significant violations of human rights as a result of colonialism. Conquest and subsequent oppression of rights contributed to significant trauma extending across generations. These violations of human rights have contributed to psychological challenges over time, but unfortunately psychology as a profession has largely not responded in culturally appropriate ways to those challenges, in some instances even compounding the traumas. A significant portion of the mismatch of mainstream psychology to Indigenous people involves basic assumptions in worldviews that contribute to large differences in perspectives on what constitutes psychological health and how psychology should provide care given those differences. Despite the challenges, Indigenous people have sought psychological refuge in cultural practices that have contributed to resilience in the face of multiple human rights violations. Those cultural strengths may be used to transform psychology in ways that improve its ability to professionally serve Indigenous people in culturally relevant ways. Finally, human rights from Indigenous perspectives are reviewed and discussed, culminating in a more creation-centered conceptualization of rights as humane, rather than an anthropocentric conception of rights as merely human.

Keywords

Indigenoushuman rightspsychologyCanadaNew ZealandUnited Statescolonialismtrauma
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Psychology and Human Rights , pp. 258 - 272
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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