1st Edition

Pacific Social Work Navigating Practice, Policy and Research

Edited By Jioji Ravulo, Tracie Mafile'o, Donald Bruce Yeates Copyright 2019
    258 Pages 7 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    258 Pages 7 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    As a region, the Pacific is changing rapidly. This edited collection, the first of its kind, centres Pacific-Indigenous ways of knowing, doing and being in Pacific social work. In so doing, the authors decolonise the dominant western rhetoric that is evident in contemporary social work practice in the region and rejuvenate practice models with evolving Pacific perspectives. Pacific Social Work:

    • Incorporates Pacific epistemologies and ontologies in social and community work practice, social policy and research

    • Profiles contemporary Pacific needs – including health, education, environmental, justice and welfare

    • Demonstrates the application of Pacific-Indigenous knowledges in practice in diverse Pacific contexts

    • Examines Pacific-Indigenous research approaches to promote inform practice and positive outcomes

    • Reviews Pacific models of social and community work and their application

    • Fosters Pacific perspectives for social work and community work education and training in the Pacific region.

    Pacific Social Work demonstrates the role of social work within societies where social and cultural differences are evident, and practitioners, community groups, researchers, educators, and governments are encouraged to consider the integration between local indigenous and international knowledge and practice. Providing rigorously researched case studies, questions and exercises, this book will be a key learning resource for social work and human and community services students, practitioners, social services managers and policy makers in Australia, New Zealand and various Pacific Island states across the Pacific including Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.

    PART I: Pacific Social Work

    1 Introduction to Pacific social work: Places, peoples,perspectives and practices

    Jioji Ravulo, Tracie Mafile’o and Donald Bruce Yeates

     

    2 Contemporary Pacific values and beliefs

    Aliitasi Su’a-Tavila

     

    3 Pacific-Indigenous social work theories and models

    Tracie Mafile’o, Jean Mitaera and Karlo Mila

     

    PART II: Fields of practice

    4 Seeing abilities: Disability in the Pacific

    Donald Bruce Yeates

     

    5 Understanding mental health and wellbeing from a Pacific perspective

    Jioji Ravulo, Monique Faleafa and Tanya Koro

     

    6 Environmental justice and social work in climate change in the Pacific Islands

    Dora Kuir-Ayius and David Marena

     

    7 Pacific-Indigenous community-village resilience in disasters

    Siautu Alefaio-Tugia, Emeline Afeaki-Mafile’o and Petra Satele

     

    8 Delivering youth justice for Pacific young people and their families

    Jioji Ravulo, Jack Scanlan and Vivian Koster

     

    9 Applying culturally appropriate approaches when working with Pacific adult offenders

    Jioji Ravulo and Julia Ioane

     

    10 Community development: Connecting research, policy and practice in Pacific communities

    Dunstan Lawihin, Wheturangi Walsh-Tapiata and Kesaia Vasutoga

     

    11 Understanding the Vā for social work engagement with Pacific women and children

    Selina Ledoux-Taua’aletoa

     

    12 An introduction to sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing for Pacific social work

    Michelle Redman-MacLaren and Analosa Veukiso-Ulugia

     

    13 Getting on the K.A.D.: The impacts of kava, alcohol and other drug consumption across Pacific communities

    Moses Ma’alo Faleolo and Jioji Ravulo

     

    14 Our Pacific elders as keepers and transmitters of culture

    Halaevalu F. Ofahengaue Vakalahi and Ofa K.L. Hafoka-Kanuch

     

    15 Understanding sexual and gender diversity in the Pacific Islands

    Geir Henning Presterudstuen

     

    16 Family and domestic violence

    Yvonne Crichton-Hill and Rebecca Olul

     

    17 Global migration and resettlement: A case study on the Fijian experience

    Litea Meo-Sewabu

     

    PART III: Social policy

    18 Navigating social policy processes in the Pacific

    Leituala Kuiniselani Toelupe Tago-Elisara and Donald Bruce Yeates

     

    PART IV: Research

    19 Towards a Pacific-Indigenous research paradigm for Pacific social work

    Tracie Mafile’o, Peter Mataira and Kate Saxton

     

    PART V: Future directions

    20 Where to from here?: Integration of indigenous knowledges and practice in contemporary settings

    Jioji Ravulo and Wheturangi Walsh-Tapiata

     

    Index

    Biography

    Jioji Ravulo is an Associate Professor in Social Work at the University of Wollongong, Australia. His father is iTaukei Fijian and mother is Anglo-Australian. He is passionate about diversity and its differences, and how this can be meaningfully included in the work being undertaken in Pacific social work across Oceania and alongside the Pacific diaspora globally.

    Tracie Malfile’o is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Work, Massey University New Zealand. She is a second generation Pacific New Zealander, her late father Mohetau Sosaia Mafile’o hailed from Te’ekiu in Tonga and also had genealogy linking to Nukulaelae, Tuvalu. Her career has involved two decades in academic roles across New Zealand and Papua New Guinea focusing on Pacific culture-based scholarship, social development and social work.

    Donald Bruce Yeates has held senior academic and administrative positions at the University of Papua New Guinea and The University of the South Pacific. He has lived in the Pacific for the last 44 years and is a Fijian/Canadian dual citizen. He is passionate about social and community work practice and its realisation of social and ecological justice in the Pacific and beyond.