Social Work Theory: Australia

An Assessment of an Application of Western Social Work Theory the Indigenous People of Australia

Today, there is a considerable debate in the Asia-Pacific region concerning the importance of indigenous models of social work. This debate focuses on whether social work needs to discover a unique model for every context which is significantly different from other contexts; for example, socialist instead of capitalist, predominantly rural instead of urban, poorly developed as against medium or well developed, and Buddhist as opposed to Muslim or Christian? In the alternative, does social work actually possess a universal core of theory, values, skills, and intervention methods that can be adapted to, or otherwise modified within, each particular national or local context? (Midgley 1981). To this end, this paper examines the viability of applying Western social work theory to the indigenous people of Australia, followed by a summary of the research...
[ View Full Essay]