Widening the Frame: Towards an Indigenous Violence and Trauma-Informed Practice

This two-day practice course will present historic and current understandings of Indigenous violence and trauma-informed practice and the interventions and approaches to practice that flow from this. Indigenous trauma-informed practice will include knowledge of healing approaches found within Indigenous writing, storytelling, and with knowledge keepers in the community, including Elders and those in healing roles. Through centering a diversity of Indigenous approaches to wellness, mental health and "trauma", this course will consider the knowledge of Elders and Indigenous healers and health care workers alongside the work of Indigenous critical theorists, mental health practitioners, and allied critical "trauma" scholars. Participants will begin to develop a trauma practice framework that is anti-colonial, intersectional and holistic and that considers how experiences of trauma and of healing are shaped by the interlocking impacts of lndigeneity, age, gender, sexuality, and (dis) ability, among others.