Psychological knowledge with scientific ambitions has primarily emerged in the Western World. Systems of scientific knowledge built in the Western hemisphere erased Indigenous knowledge through the colonization and imperialistic exploitation of lands and peoples. Evidences of the devastating pervasive impacts of these Western colonial systems are epistemicide and genocide of many Indigenous cultures. However, Indigenous cultures are still thriving, resisting, surviving, and contesting colonial impositions in knowledge and action. Indigenous movements have sprouted everywhere. One of them is Indigenous psychologies that are proposing emic versus etic research, decolonial ontologies, epistemologies, axiologies, and methodologies to co-construct knowledge and praxes “otherwise.” These movements are furnishing the making of Indigenous community psychologies that address the plurality of perspectives and voices representing psychological phenomena in diverse geopolitical settings. We begin a new era of decoloniality by stopping the erasure of contributions from the Global South that are not anthropocentric and whose common theme is the sacredness of nature, the cultivation of spirituality, and accountability to maintain harmonious relationships with humans and other-than-humans. Indigenous community psychologies were applied in affective conviviality with inter-generational communities in diverse regions of Mexico. Solidary collaborations with Indigenous communities promote sumac kawsay(wellbeing) and the pluriversal co-construction of the Zapatista’s world in which many worlds are possible.
In this presentation we will learn about some examples of Indigenous Psychologies from the Global South (the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands). We will review their constructs, principles, values, theories and praxes and determine common threats and differences. We will learn the main assumptions of community psychologies in the Global South and some examples of applications in praxes to propose Indigenous community psychologies that co-construct pathways towards decoloniality for epistemic, ecological, and cultural justice.
Learning Objectives:
- Comprehend that there are diverse psychologies informed by their own cultural contexts, cosmovisions, ontologies, epistemologies, and axiologies
- Learn about tools and approaches developed in the fields of Indigenous and community psychology
- Discern the interplay of inter-subjectivity, cultural phenomena, and decoloniality
- Be exposed to applications of Indigenous community psychologies in Mexico
The evaluation/CE request form for this program can be found
HERE.
