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The Indigenous Turn: Epistemic Justice, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and Social and Emotional Well-Being

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Handbook of Critical Whiteness

Abstract

Colonial research practices across centuries have appropriated, exploited, and effectively ignored Indigenous knowledges across time. Part of Indigenous struggles for justice is to validate their own knowledges and knowledge holders. The protection of Indigenous knowledge is widely acknowledged by a number of human rights conventions and declarations. Article 31 of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), for example, emphasizes the right to maintain, control, protect, and develop Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS). Central to the Indigenous self-determination movement is the reclamation and rebuilding of Indigenous knowledge systems and Indigenous ways of living, doing, and being, including languages, governance, spirituality, and healing systems, as well as the strengthening of core eco-centric, holistic, and place-conscious Indigenous relational principles for living well, which are expressed relationally as respect, reciprocity, and harmony. This chapter situates Australian Indigenous psychology within the context of the global Indigenous psychology movement. One key aspect of the research and practice of Indigenous psychology is the revitalizing of Indigenous knowledge systems. Here the Indigenous psychological paradigm social and emotional well-being (SEWB) is explored as an expression of an Indigenous knowledge system.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indigenous Studies, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia

    Pat Dudgeon

  2. Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia

    Abigail Bray

Authors
  1. Pat Dudgeon
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  2. Abigail Bray
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pat Dudgeon .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sydney School of Education and Social Work, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Jioji Ravulo

  2. School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Katarzyna Olcoń

  3. Translational Health Research Institute, Diabetes Obesity and Metabolism Translational Research Unit, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia

    Tinashe Dune

  4. School of Health Sciences, Translational Health Research Institute, Diabetes Obesity and Metabolism Translational Research Unit, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia

    Alex Workman

  5. College of Health Sciences, VinUniversity, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Pranee Liamputtong

Section Editor information

  1. School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia

    Katarzyna Olcoń

  2. School of Health Sciences, Translational Health Research Institute, Diabetes Obesity and Metabolism Translational Research Unit, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia

    Tinashe Dune

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Dudgeon, P., Bray, A. (2023). The Indigenous Turn: Epistemic Justice, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and Social and Emotional Well-Being. In: Ravulo, J., Olcoń, K., Dune, T., Workman, A., Liamputtong, P. (eds) Handbook of Critical Whiteness. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1612-0_31-1

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