Cultural Resilience in North American Indian First Nations

Abstract

Protective factors, needed for personal resilience, are known to vary from culture to culture. As such, social workers are faced with having to increase their knowledge and competence when working cross-culturally. In a bid to advance this understanding, this paper takes a culturally sensitive look at resilience in North American Indian First Nations. Founded on an interview with a colleague, this inquiry considers the interplay of self-concept, family, and culture in the development of protective factors in resilience. Implications for practice employing an understanding of cultural resilience are discussed. A combination of genetics and experience affects how we cope with matters ranging from mischance to catastrophe (Flach, 1997; Fraser, 1997; Kirby & Fraser, 1997; Wolin & Wolin, 1993). However, it is difficult to deconstruct this biopsychosocial entanglement into a triaged series of component steps. As such, the wrangling over the protective factor pecking-order remains somewhat moot (Butler, 1997). What is certain is that the focus of coping and change, from a social work perspective, lies in our ability to comprehend the psychosocial factors affecting resilience (Angell, Dennis & Dumain, 1997). We do know that individuals develop protective factors as a means of remedying or abating the effects of life-events that place them at risk (Rutter, 1987). Protective and risk factors are not merely opposite ends of a continuum, but rather are sequential links in the developmental chain of resiliency (Smith, Lizotte, Thronberry & Krohn, 1995). However, as Kirby and Fraser (1997) and Coie et al. (1993) note, what is considered to be a protective factor in one culture could invariably be determined a risk factor in another. This in and of itself is not problematic until such time as a member of a particular culture attempts or is forced to bridge his or her culture with that of another. What is certain is that the family, the main conduit of culture, is a keystone protective factor determinate of resilience (Smith, Lizotte, Thornberry & Krohn, 1995). This supporting pillar of resilience is founded on the individual's formative years attachment to his or her parent or parents who in turn provide protection through value-based guidance and by modeling culturally ascribed behaviors related to adaptive functioning. It is important to keep in mind that a single protective factor safeguard, such as the family, cannot necessarily provide an individual with all the insulation he or she will need to avoid the ravages of risk, but it is pivotal (Rutter, 1987). A supportive family, therefore, is seen as enhancing self-esteem, improving self-reliance and personal efficacy, and supporting the individual in his or her bid for independence and control over his or her environment (Benard, 1991). The family acts as a canal that transports culture across time and space. As such, family and culture become inseparably tied together. As Linquanti (1992) and Benard (1994) suggest, strengthening protective factors, like family and culture, are as consequential in the development of wellbeing as is the abatement of risk factors. With this in mind, it is understandable that a strong connection by the individual to his or her family and culture are essential to the development of personal resilience. In turn, this connection serves as a catalyzing base for the individual to gain support and acceptance from likeminded others (Werner, 1984, Werner & Smith, 1992). In this paper, personal resilience is considered from the perspective of culture as conveyed to the individual by way of the family. In particular, the investigation looks at how a North American Indian First Nation social worker utilizes the protective factor of culture, and its agent the family, to make ethical decisions and deal in general with the dominant society.