The purpose of this assignment is to design a Medicine Wheel and use it to facilitate a real or imagined conversation about meeting a challenge within a family or community.
Using 8 ½” x 11” paper that can be scanned, or using Microsoft Word graphics features, create a Medicine Wheel with four quadrants and a center. Label each quadrant according to traditional Native American qualities, using the module content and readings as a guide. Then, identify an issue that you would like to address on a family, community or organizational level and write it above the Medicine Wheel. This issue should be expressed in systemic, non-blaming terms. The issue may relate to colonization, but it doesn’t have to. Three examples:
1. “We have difficulty communicating about issues related to power and decisions.”
2. “Undocumented families are afraid to report crimes in our neighborhood.”
3. “LGBTQ individuals feel they cannot be themselves in our school.”
For each quadrant, design one question about the issue that is relevant to the focus of that quadrant.
. What is important is to relate the qualities of the four quadrants to your questions.
Option 2: Introspection/imaginary group setting
Set up a quiet space and create an optimal environment for introspection. Choose a time to hold each question in mind, sitting quietly for at least five minutes and allowing responses to come to you. If it helps, you can visualize asking the questions of a group from the community. Write down your impressions afterward on a separate paper or document. You may complete all four directions at once or break them up. For the center, hold the questions above in mind as you visualize yourself standing in the center of the Medicine Wheel.
To complete the written assignment, include a title page in APA format, a description of the issue you chose to focus on, the Medicine Wheel on a separate age, all of the questions and responses to those questions from your group meeting or your introspection. Conclude with your comments on what you found valuable and challenging as you went through this process, and how you might see yourself using this method in social work practice with a colonized community.
What have we learned from each direction about this issue?
What changes will we make as a result of this discussion?
What inner qualities must be cultivated as we make these changes?
How can we stay true to our commitments?
Rubric
– [ ] Medicine Wheel is clearly designed with appropriate labels, colors, and questions for each direction.
– [ ] Insights express understanding of conditions of oppression and liberation.
– [ ] Actions fit with the goals of the group and with decolonization praxis.
– [ ] Responses to the three questions are meaningful and integrate insights and actions from the four directions.
– [ ] Description of introspective process or group process meaningfully captures complexity of the issue and reflects thoughtfully on application of process to colonized communities.
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