Ceremony, silence, and storytelling offer forms of healing that our health system often overlook, according to advanced practice nursing student Sheena Doyle
For Advanced Nursing Master’s student Sheena Doyle, participating in the Interdisciplinary Indigenous Field Study Course last May opened her eyes, her mind and her heart to new perspectives and new ways of relating to her work as a labour and delivery nurse. The interdisciplinary nature of the course was particularly appealing to Doyle. “Coming from a nursing background, I was struck by how much I learned about colonialism and decolonization when examined through the interconnected perspectives of anthropology, social work, healthcare, and law,” she reports.
“Rather than studying ‘about’ Indigenous peoples, our interdisciplinary students learn ‘with’ them, engaging with Indigenous communities as dynamic political entities actively shaping their own futures,” explains Professor Leslie Sabiston, Red River Métis from Aswahonanihk (Selkirk), Manitoba and Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology.
