Opinion: Honouring the past, shaping the future: Aotearoa Social Workers’ Day and the journey ahead

This year, Aotearoa Social Workers' Day on 18 September celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers and the professionalisation journey of social work in Aotearoa. The Association’s theme for this year is Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua - I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past.

This year is also the 20th anniversary of establishing Aotearoa Social Workers' Day, coinciding with the first registered social workers being entered on the register 20 years ago.

For social workers, this day is a time of celebration and reflection. We celebrate the impact of our work in the lives of individuals, families, whānau, and communities, supporting people to navigate, transition, change and transform their situations and circumstances. At the same time, we reflect on the social situations and circumstances that create social pressure and stress, such as inadequate housing, the impact of substance use, ruptured relationships, family violence, crime, financial insecurity and poverty and food insecurity. We also reflect on the people we have walked alongside who experienced distress, grief and trauma when social circumstances impacted their human and indigenous rights, livelihood, health, wellbeing and dignity.

Looking back over the past 20 years, we have seen the day evolve into a celebration, reflection and professional development day. This year’s theme adds the importance of remembrance in the form of remembering the individuals, families, whānau and communities we have worked with. Remembering the lessons we have learned in practice from them, remembering our colleagues and all who have gone before us. It is within the stories of the past that we live the stories of the present and envision the future.

Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University’s School of Social Work is holding a seminar to celebrate Aotearoa Social Workers' Day. It will include:

• Mai Te Kāhui Mounga Ki Te Toka Tūmoana: I come from where my beginnings were - Ange Watson.
• Social Workers’ perceptions and attitudes of environmental issues and sustainable development as social work practice in Aotearoa New Zealand - Dr Lynsey Ellis and Associate Professor Polly Yeung.
• The narratives of Asians amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa: Navigating a virtual realm in the context with Chinese targeted racism - Dr Hagyun Kim.
• From the car park to social work practice – synergy as a transformational shift from biculturalism - Dr Paul’e Ruwhiu and Deacon Fisher.

These presentations celebrate the diversity of social work and social workers, the importance of respectful relationships between people and with their environment, and the significance of human and indigenous rights in social work. This professional development day celebrates, reflects and remembers the journey of social workers across Aotearoa. As a profession, we have come a long way in 60 years, and we have further to go if we are to realise the values of social work in Aotearoa of respectful relationships, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, human and indigenous rights, wellbeing and social justice.

Professor Kieran O’Donoghue is the head of Massey University’s School of Social Work.