What is cultural competency?
Let’s begin with establishing an understanding of what cultural competency means.
The Sylix Okanagan Nation Alliance states that: “We are all bearers of culture. The process of developing cultural competency involves reflecting on our own attitudes, beliefs, and values and how these can influence how we understand the cultural norms of others, like the Syilx. Aboriginal people have a unique socio-political history, one that has been marked by injustice and violence between newcomers and First Nations. Therefore, one must remain mindful of the power relations between certain groups, such as their economic and political positioning in society.”
Cultivating cultural awareness
The first step toward cultural competency is cultivating cultural awareness. This refers simply to understanding one’s own cultural origins and influences, and recognizing how this may differ from other cultural understandings and experiences. In a settler colonial nation like Canada though, one must also attend to the history of forced assimilation of Indigenous peoples into Euro-Western cultures.
Knowledge of the differences between groups in this case is not enough – we must also work toward restoring the power imbalances that continue to affect Indigenous peoples lives in Canada today. If you are a non-indigenous Canadian, non-citizen newcomer, or visiting international student, these reflections might carry an additional impact of shock, or feelings of discomfort when reflecting on one’s own identity and relation to Indigenous peoples through the nation of Canada.
Information Box Group
Questions for Reflection
Consider the following questions as you reflect on your own cultural awareness:
- Know yourself: Who are you, and who, and where do you come from?
- Know what you don’t know: What is your current knowledge of Indigenous cultures or history?
- Know your culture: In what ways do Canadian (Euro-Western) worldviews differ from Indigenous worldviews? What effects do Euro-Western cultures have on Indigenous ways of life?
- Know your power: What ways do you have power as an individual; and as an educator in a Post-Secondary Institution?
Information Box Group
Extend Your Learning
Learn more about what the colonial history of Canada and its ongoing impact on people who are First Nations, Métis, and Inuit means for you in Skoden: Teaching, Talking, and Sharing About and for Reconciliation.
In each Skoden chapter reflective questions and activities are provided that correspond to the four quadrants of the Medicine Wheel. The Medicine Wheel as a concept advocates that to live life in balance you need to consider four aspects of yourself — your emotions, your body, your intellect, and your spiritual self.