Building knowledge: how Indigenous ways of being and knowing can help to humanize the profession of Speech-Language Pathology.

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Chesworth, Janine

• Driving away from the early-learning
  site where I work as a Speech-
  Language Pathologist (SLP), a gleaming
  light catches my eye. Behind the preschool,
  a single building glows against
  the darkening sky; the new school in
  mid-construction. It’s as though the
  setting sun lingers intentionally,
  highlighting the school’s significance.
  Or perhaps the intent is to make it
  grow faster; time is running out.
  Languages are dying, and with them,
  unique ways of solving world
  problems. But on this remote Alberta
  reserve, hope grows; brick-by-brick,
  this strong community is working
  together to do more than build a
  school, within it they plan to revitalize
  their language, reclaim their culture,
  and re-define their children’s futures.
  On behalf of the many SLP’s who now
  find themselves on similar landscapes, I
  must work too, on how we can help
  instead of harm. Patiently, my teachers

  • children, families, colleagues - help me to think in new ways, to respect others and to create relationally ethical spaces. They re-mind me of the human aspects of my work. “Slow down,” they urge me, “watch, wait”. My eyes shift forward to the long road ahead, open now to a new way for SLP’s, bright with possibility. Hiy Hiy.

• Date created

  2020-01-01

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Research image

• Type of Item

  Image

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-v08j-cb83

• License

  Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International