When:

• 6:30–8:00 p.m. ET via Zoom

  • September 24, 2026
  • October 20, 2026
  • November 3, 2026
  • November 12, 2026
  • November 19, 2026
  • December 8, 2026

Where:

Zoom (The link will be sent one week prior to the date of the event.)

Description:

Reading Toward Accountability is a facilitated learning and reflection series for OASW members, social workers, social work students, educators, field instructors, and community practitioners. Through Indigenous-authored and decolonizing texts, participants are invited to reflect on social work’s relationship to colonial systems and consider what accountability, allyship, reconciliation, and responsible practice require.

Featured Books and Dates

• Pass the Sage: Stories from the Fire, Teachings from the Smoke — Tessa Belanger
  (September 24, October 20, and November 3, 2026)
• The Serviceberry — Robin Wall Kimmerer
  (November 12 and November 19, 2026)
• Inner Winter — Asha Frost
  (December 8, 2026, with continuation in the New Year)
• The Genocide Continues — Karen Stote
  (March 2027)

Books are available locally through Octopus Books and through other booksellers.

Series Audience:

OASW members, social workers, social work students, field instructors, educators, community practitioners, and others engaged in decolonizing, reconciliation, social justice, and accountable practice.

Overall Learning Objectives:

Participants will be invited to:

• Reflect on social work’s implication in colonial systems and ongoing responsibilities related to reconciliation.
• Engage with Indigenous-authored and decolonizing texts in ways that support humility, accountability, and practice change.
• Explore how storytelling, reciprocity, rest, collective care, and resistance to colonial violence can inform social work ethics and practice.
• Consider concrete implications for documentation, supervision, referrals, advocacy, education, policy, organizational culture, and community relationships.
• Practice non-extractive listening and respectful engagement with Indigenous authors, storytellers, speakers, and community educators.

NOTE ABOUT REGISTRATION QUESTIONS:

OASW is committed to inclusion and promoting a diverse range of identities, experiences, perspectives, and voices across all areas of the Association. As such, the registration contains some optional questions that are intended to assist us to better understand our social work community and ensure that our work is reflective of the diverse membership of OASW and our profession.