Relational Accountability: A Path Towards Transformative Reconciliation in Nursing Education

Abstract

This paper provides a vision for working towards relationally accountable transformative reconciliation in nursing education. The author shares the teaching gifts she has received from Indigenous Knowledge Holders and through her experience of co-facilitating Indigenous-led, land-based, wellness-oriented field schools. It offers a way forward for nurse educators who are searching for ways to responsibly and meaningfully address colonial harms and actively engage in ethical, accountable, and respectful relations with Indigenous People and Knowledges. The vision starts with transforming ourselves through bearing witness and experiencing the vulnerability of cultural humility. It requires us to transform our relationships through reframing our existing theories and practices and enacting pedagogies that are uplifting with love. Finally, we can transform our practice by engaging in relationally accountable and ecologically reciprocal relationships with Indigenous People and communities. This vision is for nurse educators to enact a sacred practice with the potential to transform our systems and our institutions for the well-being of all people and communities.