Michael Yellow Bird
Biographic Data
| ID | 121640 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael Yellow Bird |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael Yellow |
| FAMILY NAME | Bird |
| SIGNATURE | BIRD M Y |
| AFFILIATIONS | Norfolk State University |
| ORCID | 0009-0008-2811-2430 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 46 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The Evolution of an Indigenous Mindfulness Program
Objectives: This study describes the collaborative design and implementation of the Indigenous MIND (IM) program, a culturally adapted mindfulness intervention developed in partnership with Indigenous communities in the USA. The aim was to explore the program's acceptability and cultural resonance and to document the processes by which IM evolved in each of our partner communities and explore how the program may be exported to other Indigenous co…
The Decolonization Equation
Decolonization is a complex, much-contested, multifaceted, ongoing change process and area of scholarship. This article proposes a quantitative model and heuristic device for scholars, students, policymakers, and Indigenous communities engaged in decolonization in various ways. The Decolonization Equation model offers a way to analyze and understand decolonization through six key factors that feature prominently in the decolonization literature; …
Lessons Learned from the CSWE Task Force to Advance Anti-Racism in the Social Work Education Policy and Accreditation Standards
On May 25, 2020, Mr. George Floyd, a Black man, was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a White police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In response to this disgusting display of police brutality, thousands of people all over the world began protesting Mr. Floyd's killing. The Capital of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia, became one of many flashpoints for the public's rage against white supremacy and systemic racism as thousands of people flooded the …
Grounding modern social work
This chapter explores how being, knowing, and acting have been historically and theoretically situated in Western social science to advance the canon of settler colonialism. Premodern European societies had deep roots in the complex and multicultural ancient world, but the emergence of modern colonial European societies brought new ways of understanding subjectivity, knowledge, and practice. The context of how ideas and practices of social work h…
Quiet and contemplation
This chapter examines the role of quiet and contemplation in healing. The complexity of noise is explored through environmental health and cultural perspectives. The notion of mindfulness is introduced and examined in its contemporary context from diverse viewpoints. Ancient and Indigenous cultures around the world have contemplative traditions that have served to heal people through connection to the past. There are deep traditions throughout th…
Creative expression
This chapter examines the role of creative expression in healing. Creative expression is an ancient affective language of humans, animals, and many other forms of life. Creative expression is the process of engaging with innovative, unconscious, and fresh thoughts and emotions, experimenting with sound and reconnecting with the ancient while thinking and exploring feelings through tactile methods of fabricating or making. The chapter examines two…
Movement
This chapter examines the role of movement in healing. Our bodies are made to move and express themselves physically and emotionally in a variety of diverse ways. We experience, interpret, and feel the world through our physical bodies. Yet we live in societies that are constructed for normatively able-bodied people, societies which often actively create barriers to those with different abilities. Movement is not just a matter of getting from one…
Epilogue
The epilogue concludes the book by calling for new ways of envisioning a decolonized social work future, particularly in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the work of Black Quantum Futurism, the authors argue that the future of healing and social justice must be grounded in lessons of the past through memory work but also requires new imaginaries and ways of dreaming an alternative future.
Water
This chapter examines the role of water in healing. Starting with a story about water and Indigeneity, the chapter unpacks how humans’ relationship with water has become out of balance. Decolonizing our relationship with water begins with reimagining social work theory, which continues to be constructed along anthropocentric settler colonial binaries, to be more inclusive of sacred landscapes and elements. The belief in settler dominion over natu…
Discussion guide
This guide provides a brief list of discussion topics and tasks intended to broaden the conversation about decolonizing social work.
Postcolonial trauma and memory work
This chapter examines the impact of postcolonial trauma and the role of memory as the basis of decolonizing social work. The confluence of the nation-state, modern systems of knowledge, and the extractive economy homogenized strategies and techniques of domination over diverse peoples across the globe. Settler colonialism is not only an ideological structure but also has a material power base in extractive capitalism. Historical trauma has been d…
Mother Earth
This chapter examines the role of Mother Earth in healing. Social work now has to be practiced under the existential threat of extinction, a menace driven by human activities. The world is fragmented and wounded because of the impact of vast inequalities and disparities in vulnerabilities. Environmental disaster is the end result of extractive capitalism and settler colonial ideologies. Settler colonialism is based on a binary understanding of th…
Fellow creatures
This chapter examines the role of fellow creatures in healing. Settler colonial ideologies brought a deeply rooted binary between human and nature that expressed itself in relation to animals through domination, settlement, and commodification. Based on Cartesian dualism, which divided all sentient beings between those seen as able to think and analyze and those that simply exist, settler colonialism created a hierarchy of being that ranked fello…
Confronting professional imperialism and moving towards integrative healing
This chapter introduces the concepts of professionalism imperialism, Indigenous ways of healing, decolonizing, and integrative healing in social work. Decolonization is a major academic framework in Native American/American Indian and Indigenous Peoples studies. It refers to understanding, undoing, and overcoming the myriad negative and disabling effects of colonialism. Colonial systems have shaped social work’s professional identity, practices, …
Molecular Decolonization
Indigenous peoples are resilient peoples with deep traditional knowledge and scientific thought spanning millennia. Global discourse on climate change however has identified Indigenous populations as being a highly vulnerable group due to the habitation in regions undergoing rapid change, and the disproportionate burden of morbidity and mortality already faced by this population. Therefore, the need for Indigenous self-determination and the forma…
Decolonizing Pathways towards Integrative Healing in Social Work
Taking a new and innovative angle on social work, this book seeks to remedy the lack of holistic perspectives currently used in Western social work practice by exploring Indigenous and other culturally diverse understandings and experiences of healing. This book examines six core areas of healing through a holistic lens that is grounded in a decolonizing perspective. Situating integrative healing within social work education and theory, the book …
What Is the Highest Form of Patriotism? I Say Acknowledging Our Addiction to Patriotism
Since the United States's illegal invasion and occupation of the sovereign nation of Iraq on 20 March 2003, I have published papers that critically interrogate the participation of the “sovereign” US Indigenous nations in this unjust, illegal, imperialistic war. Due to my writings, on 24 June 2007, I was invited to make a presentation at a peace vigil and rally focusing on “What Is the Highest Form of Patriotism?” The speech that I gave is provid…
What We Want to Be Called
Homeless and Indigenous in Minneapolis
Indigenous peoples are overrepresented in the homeless population. This paper examines the extent to which homelessness and some of its possible antecedents and consequences differ for indigenous peoples and majority whites residing in the city of Minneapolis. We conclude that being homeless and indigenous in Minneapolis is a significantly different experience for this group than it is for majority whites. The cultural context of indigenous homel…
What We Want to Be Called
Decolonizing Pathways towards Integrative Healing in Social Work
Taking a new and innovative angle on social work, this book seeks to remedy the lack of holistic perspectives currently used in Western social work practice by exploring Indigenous and other culturally diverse understandings and experiences of healing. This book examines six core areas of healing through a holistic lens that is grounded in a decolonizing perspective. Situating integrative healing within social work education and theory, the book …
Homeless and Indigenous in Minneapolis
Indigenous peoples are overrepresented in the homeless population. This paper examines the extent to which homelessness and some of its possible antecedents and consequences differ for indigenous peoples and majority whites residing in the city of Minneapolis. We conclude that being homeless and indigenous in Minneapolis is a significantly different experience for this group than it is for majority whites. The cultural context of indigenous homel…
What We Want to Be Called
Homeless and Indigenous in Minneapolis
Indigenous peoples are overrepresented in the homeless population. This paper examines the extent to which homelessness and some of its possible antecedents and consequences differ for indigenous peoples and majority whites residing in the city of Minneapolis. We conclude that being homeless and indigenous in Minneapolis is a significantly different experience for this group than it is for majority whites. The cultural context of indigenous homel…
What Is the Highest Form of Patriotism? I Say Acknowledging Our Addiction to Patriotism
Since the United States's illegal invasion and occupation of the sovereign nation of Iraq on 20 March 2003, I have published papers that critically interrogate the participation of the “sovereign” US Indigenous nations in this unjust, illegal, imperialistic war. Due to my writings, on 24 June 2007, I was invited to make a presentation at a peace vigil and rally focusing on “What Is the Highest Form of Patriotism?” The speech that I gave is provid…
Grounding modern social work
This chapter explores how being, knowing, and acting have been historically and theoretically situated in Western social science to advance the canon of settler colonialism. Premodern European societies had deep roots in the complex and multicultural ancient world, but the emergence of modern colonial European societies brought new ways of understanding subjectivity, knowledge, and practice. The context of how ideas and practices of social work h…
Quiet and contemplation
This chapter examines the role of quiet and contemplation in healing. The complexity of noise is explored through environmental health and cultural perspectives. The notion of mindfulness is introduced and examined in its contemporary context from diverse viewpoints. Ancient and Indigenous cultures around the world have contemplative traditions that have served to heal people through connection to the past. There are deep traditions throughout th…
Creative expression
This chapter examines the role of creative expression in healing. Creative expression is an ancient affective language of humans, animals, and many other forms of life. Creative expression is the process of engaging with innovative, unconscious, and fresh thoughts and emotions, experimenting with sound and reconnecting with the ancient while thinking and exploring feelings through tactile methods of fabricating or making. The chapter examines two…
Movement
This chapter examines the role of movement in healing. Our bodies are made to move and express themselves physically and emotionally in a variety of diverse ways. We experience, interpret, and feel the world through our physical bodies. Yet we live in societies that are constructed for normatively able-bodied people, societies which often actively create barriers to those with different abilities. Movement is not just a matter of getting from one…
Epilogue
The epilogue concludes the book by calling for new ways of envisioning a decolonized social work future, particularly in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the work of Black Quantum Futurism, the authors argue that the future of healing and social justice must be grounded in lessons of the past through memory work but also requires new imaginaries and ways of dreaming an alternative future.
Water
This chapter examines the role of water in healing. Starting with a story about water and Indigeneity, the chapter unpacks how humans’ relationship with water has become out of balance. Decolonizing our relationship with water begins with reimagining social work theory, which continues to be constructed along anthropocentric settler colonial binaries, to be more inclusive of sacred landscapes and elements. The belief in settler dominion over natu…
Discussion guide
This guide provides a brief list of discussion topics and tasks intended to broaden the conversation about decolonizing social work.
Postcolonial trauma and memory work
This chapter examines the impact of postcolonial trauma and the role of memory as the basis of decolonizing social work. The confluence of the nation-state, modern systems of knowledge, and the extractive economy homogenized strategies and techniques of domination over diverse peoples across the globe. Settler colonialism is not only an ideological structure but also has a material power base in extractive capitalism. Historical trauma has been d…
Mother Earth
This chapter examines the role of Mother Earth in healing. Social work now has to be practiced under the existential threat of extinction, a menace driven by human activities. The world is fragmented and wounded because of the impact of vast inequalities and disparities in vulnerabilities. Environmental disaster is the end result of extractive capitalism and settler colonial ideologies. Settler colonialism is based on a binary understanding of th…
Fellow creatures
This chapter examines the role of fellow creatures in healing. Settler colonial ideologies brought a deeply rooted binary between human and nature that expressed itself in relation to animals through domination, settlement, and commodification. Based on Cartesian dualism, which divided all sentient beings between those seen as able to think and analyze and those that simply exist, settler colonialism created a hierarchy of being that ranked fello…
Confronting professional imperialism and moving towards integrative healing
This chapter introduces the concepts of professionalism imperialism, Indigenous ways of healing, decolonizing, and integrative healing in social work. Decolonization is a major academic framework in Native American/American Indian and Indigenous Peoples studies. It refers to understanding, undoing, and overcoming the myriad negative and disabling effects of colonialism. Colonial systems have shaped social work’s professional identity, practices, …
Molecular Decolonization
Indigenous peoples are resilient peoples with deep traditional knowledge and scientific thought spanning millennia. Global discourse on climate change however has identified Indigenous populations as being a highly vulnerable group due to the habitation in regions undergoing rapid change, and the disproportionate burden of morbidity and mortality already faced by this population. Therefore, the need for Indigenous self-determination and the forma…
Decolonizing Pathways towards Integrative Healing in Social Work
Taking a new and innovative angle on social work, this book seeks to remedy the lack of holistic perspectives currently used in Western social work practice by exploring Indigenous and other culturally diverse understandings and experiences of healing. This book examines six core areas of healing through a holistic lens that is grounded in a decolonizing perspective. Situating integrative healing within social work education and theory, the book …
Lessons Learned from the CSWE Task Force to Advance Anti-Racism in the Social Work Education Policy and Accreditation Standards
On May 25, 2020, Mr. George Floyd, a Black man, was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a White police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In response to this disgusting display of police brutality, thousands of people all over the world began protesting Mr. Floyd's killing. The Capital of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia, became one of many flashpoints for the public's rage against white supremacy and systemic racism as thousands of people flooded the …
The Decolonization Equation
Decolonization is a complex, much-contested, multifaceted, ongoing change process and area of scholarship. This article proposes a quantitative model and heuristic device for scholars, students, policymakers, and Indigenous communities engaged in decolonization in various ways. The Decolonization Equation model offers a way to analyze and understand decolonization through six key factors that feature prominently in the decolonization literature; …
The Evolution of an Indigenous Mindfulness Program
Objectives: This study describes the collaborative design and implementation of the Indigenous MIND (IM) program, a culturally adapted mindfulness intervention developed in partnership with Indigenous communities in the USA. The aim was to explore the program's acceptability and cultural resonance and to document the processes by which IM evolved in each of our partner communities and explore how the program may be exported to other Indigenous co…
Psychology (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Indigenous (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Geography (3 works) · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Medicine (3 works) · Philosophy (3 works)