The Relationship Between International Social Work and Indigenousness: A Scoping Review

This study examined how indigenous perspectives are represented and discussed in the mainstream literature within the field of international social work. A scoping review was conducted to map both well-established and under-researched discourses in the literature. The findings revealed that the majority of the papers shed light on indigenous knowledges and practices in non-Western countries or regions and particularly within the Global South context, while countering imperialistic and colonialist discourses. Additionally, several papers addressed the need to move beyond the dichotomy between universalisation and indigenisation and the Western versus non-Western binary. The study findings also indicate research gaps that have remained unfilled in the mainstream literature.