Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T23:34:31.272Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Embodied Indigenous knowledges protecting and privileging Indigenous peoples' ways of knowing, being and doing in undergraduate nursing education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2020

Ali Drummond
Ali Drummond*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland4001, Australia
*
Author for correspondence: Ali Drummond, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

In the era of Indigenising the academy, health disciplines like nursing are required to teach Indigenous peoples' health, history and culture in their undergraduate programmes in order to meet national accreditation standards. This inclusion of Indigenous peoples' perspectives within nursing education towards registration thus qualifies respective Indigenous perspectives as legitimate parts of the Australian nursing profession's scope of practice, which may sound like a reason to celebrate. However, caution should be exercised. Indigenous and Western knowledge systems are incommensurable. The practice of defining Indigenous perspectives for placements within curricula could be likened to extractive colonialism. Thus, the commodifying of Indigenous perspectives in creating competitive education products is problematic. As a Meriam and Wuthathi man who grew up in the Zenadth Kes (Torres Straits) now living and working on Turrbul and Yuggera country, and as a nurse academic, being immersed in this space of contentions is my reality. In order to enhance the education preparation of nursing students I teach, while simultaneously protect my embodied Indigenous knowledges and the Indigenous perspectives included in the curricula I teach, I privilege Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing in my teaching practice. This yarn is about my experience in this cultural interface.

Keywords

Indigenous knowledgesIndigenous pedagogynursing educationrelationalityTorres Strait Islander knowledges
Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 49 , Special Issue 2: Critical conversations on higher education as an enabler to building an Indigenous health workforce , December 2020 , pp. 127 - 134
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, C (2016) Intellectual predilections and institutional realities. In Moreton-Robinson, A (ed.), Critical Indigenous Studies. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press, pp. 49–68.Google Scholar
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) (2009) Registered nurses. Retrieved from https://www.anmac.org.au/sites/default/files/documents/ANMC%20Accreditation%20standards%20-%20Registered%20Nurse%202009_0.pdf.Google Scholar
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) (2019) Registered nurse accreditation standards 2019 (ISBN: 978-0-6487395-0-0). Retrieved from https://www.anmac.org.au/sites/default/files/documents/registerednurseaccreditationstandards2019.pdf.Google Scholar
Bessarab, D and Ng'andu, B (2010) Yarning about yarning as a legitimate method in Indigenous research. International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies 3, 37–50.Google Scholar
Brigg, M (2016) Engaging Indigenous knowledges: from sovereign to relational knowers. The Australian Journal of Education 45, 152–158.Google Scholar
Bullen, J, Roberts, L and Hoffman, J (2017) What predicts health students’ self-reported preparedness to work in Indigenous health settings? Australian Educational Research 44, 71–87.Google Scholar
Christie, M and Asmar, C (2012) Indigenous knowers and knowledge in university teaching. In Hunt, L and Chalmers, D (eds), University Teaching in Focus: A Learning-Centred Approach. Camberwell, VIC: ACER Press, pp. 214–232.Google Scholar
Commonwealth of Australia (1997) Bringing them home: National inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. Retrieved from https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/pdf/social_justice/bringing_them_home_report.pdf.Google Scholar
Courtney-Pratt, H, Levett-Jones, T, Lapkin, S, Pitt, V, Gilligan, C, Ven der Riet, P, Rossiter, R, Jones, D and Everson, N (2015) Development and psychometric testing of the satisfaction with Cultural Simulation Experience Scale. Nurse Education in Practice 15, 530–536.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Department of Health (DoH) (1994) A National Aboriginal Health Strategy: An evaluation December 1994. Retrieved from Department of Health website http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/health-oatsih-pubs-NAHSeval.Google Scholar
Doran, F, Wrigley, B and Lewis, S (2019) Exploring cultural safety with nurse academics. Research findings suggest time to ‘step up’. Contemporary Nurse 55, 156–170.Google Scholar
Faulkner, S (2007) Life B'long Ali Drummond. Canberra, ACT: Aboriginal Studies Press.Google Scholar
Fleming, T, Creedy, DK and West, R (2020) The influence of yarning circles: a cultural safety professional development program for midwives. Women and Birth 33, 175–185.Google ScholarPubMed
Geia, LK, Hayes, B and Usher, K (2013) Yarning/Aboriginal storytelling: towards an understanding of an Indigenous perspective and its implications for research practice. Contemporary Nurse 46, 13–17. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1519974520?accountid=13380&rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jackson, D, Power, T, Sherwood, J and Geia, L (2013) Amazingly resilient Indigenous people! Using transformative learning to facilitate positive student engagement with sensitive material. Contemporary Nurse 46, 105–112. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1519974535?accountid=13380&rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo.Google ScholarPubMed
Kennedy, J, Thomas, L, Percy, A, Dean, B, Delahunty, J, Harden-Thew, K and de Laat, M (2019) An Aboriginal way towards curriculum reconciliation. International Journal for Academic Development 24, 148–162.Google Scholar
Martin, K (2003) Ways of knowing, being and doing: a theoretical framework and methods for Indigenous and Indigenist re-search. Journal of Australian Studies 27, 203–214.Google Scholar
Moreton-Robinson, A (2015) The White Possessive: Property, Power, and Indigenous Sovereignty. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Moreton-Robinson, A (2016) Relationality: a key presupposition of an Indigenous social research paradigm. In Andersen, C and O'Brien, JM (eds), Sources and Methods of Indigenous Studies. London: Routledge, pp. 69–77.Google Scholar
Nakata, M (2002) Indigenous knowledge and the cultural interface: underlying issues at the intersection of knowledge and information systems. IFLA Journal 28, 281–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakata, M (2007) Disciplining the Savages, Savaging the Disciplines. Canberra, ACT: Aboriginal Studies Press.Google Scholar
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nursing Forum (1998) Aboriginal Health Worker Journal 22, 28–30. Retrieved from https://search-informit-com-au.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/documentSummary;res=IELIND;dn=214390374510014.Google Scholar
Office of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commission (1996) Indigenous Deaths in Custody 1989–1996. Retrieved from https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/publications/indigenous-deaths-custody.Google Scholar
Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs (1979) Aboriginal Health. Retrieved from Parliament of Australia website https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=reports/1979/1979_pp60report.htm.Google Scholar
Turale, S and Miller, M (2006) Improving the health of Indigenous Australians: reforms in nursing education. An opinion piece of international interest. International Nursing Review 53, 171–177.Google ScholarPubMed
Watson, I (2014) Aboriginal Peoples, Colonialism and International Law. Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar