Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Exploring my own familial roots and routes to Indigenous nursing knowledge was an important endeavor and contribution to this Indigenous nursing research. This experience while working with four Indigenous nurse scholars R. Lisa Bourque Bearskin, Evelyn Voyageur, Madeleine Dion Stout, and Lea Bill was grounded in an Indigenous research approach were we all drew from our collective experience and attended to the questions of how Indigenous knowledge manifests in the practices of Indigenous nurses and how it can better serve individuals, families and communities. This research framework captures four key components of the entire research process, which are based on Cree/Métis understandings of creating respectful research activities; enacting ethical relationships; being responsible for the gathering, documenting and analyzing the data, and ensuring that mutual reciprocity is honored in the dissemination of this work. The findings from this research included four main threads of understanding including roots of being, entanglement of roots, on nursing terms and living the practice. These were further articulated through ontological and epistemological considerations. What was central to this study was that Indigenous knowledge has always been fundamental to the Indigenous nurses' ways of undertaking nursing practice regardless of the systemic and historical barriers faced when providing healthcare for Indigenous peoples. The outcomes of this research showed many important aspects to building Indigenous knowledge in nursing scholarship such as how familial roots are vital to Indigenous wellness and how traditional approaches in nursing practice can improve the delivery of nursing service to families seeking wellness. Specific strategies that are geared to prevention, promotion and interventions of Indigenous healing will be discussed further against nursing standards and healthy public policy