Asserting Indigenous Academic Sovereignty Through Assemblage, Indigenization, and Cultural Safety

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Health Sciences
• Higher Education

Background:

• Colonial academic institutions perpetuate systemic marginalization of Indigenous scholars.
• Indigenous knowledge systems are devalued by White-dominant cultural norms in academia.
• Nursing education and research are particularly affected by exclusionary structures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore strategies for Indigenous scholars to resist systemic barriers in colonial academia.
• To assert Indigenous knowledge sovereignty within institutional constraints.
• To challenge epistemic injustice and transform institutions from within.

Main Methods:

• Focus on nursing academia to examine resistance strategies.
• Application of assemblage, Indigenization, and cultural safety.
• Analysis of strategies across nursing education, research, and policy.

Main Results:

• Assemblage enables selective incorporation of colonial tools into Indigenous frameworks.
• Indigenization restructures institutions via Indigenous governance, ethics, and pedagogy.
• Cultural safety ensures accountability to Indigenous communities.

Conclusions:

• These strategies challenge epistemic injustice and offer a model for institutional transformation.
• Indigenous scholars lead efforts in decolonizing health sciences and higher education.
• The paper contributes to global conversations on decolonization in academia.