When Mi'kmaw scholar Dr. Michelle Scott Paul, EdD'23, associate professor (teaching) and associate dean, Indigenous Education, joined the University of Calgary's Faculty of Nursing in February of 2023, there were already plans to include an Indigenous health studies course in a newly redesigned curriculum for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program launching in Fall 2025.
Additionally, through curriculum meetings, Scott Paul was excited to learn that there was also an appetite to find ways to embed Indigenous ways of knowing, doing, connecting, and being throughout the BScN nursing program.
From left: Marlyn Bennett, Michelle Scott Paul
Riffing off the concept of Elemental Kinship that came from her doctoral research, Scott Paul says four themes through curriculum discussions were identified as integral, or elemental to make sure they were taken up throughout the new degree.
"The notion of the four elements became tied to the four themes we identified," explains Scott Paul.
The Four Elements Indigenous Framework for UCalgary Nursing ties the elements of air, fire, earth and water to four curricular themes: Self-in-Relation, Service and Reciprocity, Relationships to Land, and Anti-Indigenous Racism.
Along with this framework, there was a desire to have the four elements and themes be visually represented.
"It was always my intention to have an Indigenous artist breathe energy, life and spirit into the elements," says Scott Paul.
Enter Dr. Marlyn Bennett, PhD, an associate professor and Canada Research Chair Tier II in Indigenous Children's Wellbeing at the University of Calgary, in both the Faculty of Social Work and the Werklund School of Education. Bennett is a member of the Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation in Manitoba and comes from a family of prolific artists.
Bennett says she was ill while creating the art for the framework, which led her to think about the traditional belief that when we're ill or facing hardships, we're closer to the spirit world.
"It offered me a chance to connect more deeply with my spirituality, with my ancestors and my inner way of knowing," Bennett explains.
Bennett says the elements make up our world and we all rely upon them, and she drew upon the teachings of her ancestors during the complex process of creating the images. Bennett uses an iPad and software to sketch out her drawings before transferring them into Adobe Illustrator, which she then uses to link and smooth out lines from the sketches.
All the elements are drawn as circular because they all relate to the cyclical nature of life and Bennett says they are each tied to her understanding of Indigenous perspectives on each of the elements.
Air: Self-In-Relation
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.
"In putting this together I see the air representing the interconnectedness of life," says Bennett. "Anything that happens to us, happens to others, and nursing knows this because it's a science."
Fire: Service and Reciprocity
Building on one's evolving understanding of self-in-relation, we invite everyone to practice principles of service and reciprocity for the benefit of Indigenous communities and Land.
"Fire represents energy, transformation and reciprocity," says Bennett. "When you light a fire, it gives you heat in return; you feed it with all kinds of things, and it gives back to us."
Earth: Relationships to Land
Colonial violence disrupts and shapes relationships to Land. We invite everyone into the process of unlearning and repairing their relationship(s) to Land.
"Earth is the grounding force in the cycle of life for all of us," says Bennett. "We all need the land and rely upon it, so the image honours the sacred relationship we have with the earth."
Water: Anti-Indigenous Racism
We educate everyone to recognize the ways that racism shows up in health-care education and practice through systems of ongoing colonial violence. We help everyone develop skills to act in ways to redress these harms and create cultural safety through cultural humility.
"Water symbolizes flowing and healing; water is life for everyone, and we all rely upon it," says Bennett. "It connects deeply with addressing anti-Indigenous racism in health care as both a concept that involves a cleansing of harmful practices and creating a space for cultural safety and humility."
The artwork has so far made its way into the nursing strategic plan Toward Tomorrow, and the idea is to have it displayed in a bigger format.
Scott Paul has also had discussions with other Indigenous artists to see what their takes on the elements are.
"These are our icons, and the icons are so important," says Scott Paul. "But I don't want to limit it to just one interpretation because there is more than one way of knowing."
This approach is one that Bennett welcomes, and her artwork has even been designed to incorporate it.
"You can zoom in on any of the strands within the circle and embed other Indigenous teachings and knowledge about that element within those strands," says Bennett.
"It's built so that it can be expanded upon."
