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

Abstract

Colonial academic institutions systematically marginalize Indigenous scholars and devalue Indigenous knowledge systems by privileging methodologies, epistemologies, and structures rooted in White-dominant cultural norms. This exclusion is a structural feature of what this paper terms colonial academia. These systems persist in nursing education and research due to tenure and promotion criteria, Institutional Review Board protocols, publishing standards, and the underrepresentation of Indigenous faculty. These mechanisms function to suppress relational, land-based, and community-driven approaches fundamental to Indigenous ways of knowing. Focusing on nursing academia, we explore how Indigenous scholars can resist these systemic barriers through three interconnected strategies: assemblage, Indigenization, and cultural safety. We share how these strategies are applied across nursing education, research, and policy, enabling scholars to assert knowledge sovereignty while navigating institutional constraints. Assemblage allows for the selective incorporation of colonial tools into Indigenous frameworks. Indigenization aims to restructure institutions through Indigenous governance, ethics, and pedagogy. Cultural safety ensures these transformations are accountable to Indigenous communities. Together, these strategies challenge epistemic injustice and offer a model for transforming colonial institutions from within. By illustrating how Indigenous scholars lead these efforts, this paper contributes to global conversations on decolonization in health sciences and higher education.