Indigenous Place Making
Indigenous placemaking is an ongoing, collaborative process that restores Indigenous presence, culture, and knowledge in public spaces through art, design, and land-based practices, with a focus on reconciliation. It transforms urban environments into spaces that reflect Indigenous history and contemporary identity, often driven by Elders and Knowledge Keepers.
Four Elements Indigenous Framework for UCalgary Nursing
We take seriously our responsibility to answer Call#24 from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action (2015), calling on nursing schools to teach about the historical and ongoing impacts of colonization on the health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
The Four Elements Indigenous Framework centers Indigenous ways of knowing, doing, connecting, and being; enlivening the ii’taa’poh’to’p conceptual model. Through the ongoing development of the Four Elements curricular themes, we commit to embedding them in our undergraduate and graduate curriculum, faculty development, and taken up collectively, and individually, by our faculty.
Air: Self-in-Relation
Fire: Service and Reciprocity
Earth: Relationships to Land
Water: Anti-Indigenous Racism
We invite everyone to understand their self-in-relation to settler colonialism in Canada, to recognize the ways systems of power and privilege shape the world around them, and to identify the roles and responsibilities that extend from their unique cultural inheritances.
Building on one’s evolving understanding of self-in-relation, we invite students to practice principles of service and reciprocity for the benefit of Indigenous communities and Land.
Colonial violence disrupts and shapes relationships to Land. We invite students into the process of unlearning and repairing their relationship(s) to Land.
We educate students to recognize the ways that racism shows up in health-care education and practice through systems of ongoing colonial violence. We help students develop skills to act in ways to redress these harms and create cultural safety through cultural humility.
Indigenous Gathering Space and Smudge Room
The Faculty of Nursing has a designated space for Indigenous nursing students to gather, study and is a smudge-friendly room. Smudging serves as a respectful and inclusive practice that encourages mindfulness, balance, and a positive atmosphere. By incorporating it into our workplace and academic spaces, our university better supports intercultural inclusion.
It supports intercultural understanding and aligns with ii-taapohtop and the University’s commitment to Indigenization in teaching, learning, and research. As part of reconciliation, smudging fosters a culture of respect and plays a vital role in creating a more inclusive and respectful academic community.
Please reach out to our Indigenous Student Liaison if you have any questions about accessing the Indigenous Gathering Space and Smudge Room.
Faculty murals and prints by Blackfoot artist
UCalgary Nursing Indigenous murals and artwork by Kalum Teke Dan to student spaces in the Professional Faculties Building
Wall art represents Indigenous Place Making for nursing students
The Gathering Space is meant to be a place for Indigenous nursing students to study, regroup, and connect, and its corner location on the lower level of the Professional Faculties Building is unassuming.
In January 2019, Blackfoot artist Kalum Teke Dan painted a mural that will inspire not only the Indigenous community, but anyone who ventures into the space.
Indigenous Admissions
Indigenous students who meet the competitive lottery threshold will be admitted. Students must provide documentation on Indigenous citizenship/membership prior to course registration.
Indigenous students can also be considered through the Indigenous Admission Process (IAP). Through IAP, Indigenous students who have the required courses are automatically admitted with a lower admission average (up to 10% lower for high school applicants, 0.5 GPA below for transfer applicants). Students must provide documentation on Indigenous citizenship/membership prior to course registration.
Indigenous students who have the required courses, but whose average is below the Indigenous Admission Process (IAP) average can be considered through the Indigenous Admission Supplementary Process (IASP).