Description
Seeking Mino-Pimatisiwin: An Aboriginal Approach to Healing by Fisher River Cree social worker, Michael Hart, presents his perspective on Aboriginal helping that can lead to "the good life" or mino-pimatisiwin. As a Ph. D candidate in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba, Hart states that this book is based on his personal experiences and his understanding of an Aboriginal approach to helping. He acknowledges that there is no single Aboriginal approach to healing but First Nations should add to this discussion and promote further development of Aboriginal helping. The author stresses that each social worker should take into account their personal experiences and Hart begins the book with an explanation of his life and how Elders have played a role in his development. The next chapter looks at Eurocentricism, Colonization and Resistance from his personal understanding of how these have worked against First Nations. Chapter 3 outlines the Aboriginal Approach Foundations by examining the main concept of the Medicine Wheel, key values, and helping relationships. Chapter 4 describes how sharing circles play a major role and how the conductor of the circle can influence the physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental aspects of participants. Drawing on personal social work experience Hart describes how this Aboriginal approach works in practice. He describes individual case studies, family focus helping groups, and how these circles can work in family violence situations as well as building youth self-esteem. The book contains a bibliography of sources that include works by other Aboriginal helping professionals. Unfortunately the book does not contain an index. Despite this minor flaw, Seeking Mino-Pimatisiwin is an important contribution to the field of social work because it utilizes the First Nation's perspective of a practicing social worker. The author has avoided using jargon and this makes the contribution more significant because the text will reach the wider community as well as the professional.