A global alliance of Indigenous nurses is seeking a stronger role in international healthcare policy, with Māori and Aboriginal nursing leaders calling for Indigenous knowledge, cultural safety and community-led health practices to be embedded in decisions shaping the future nursing workforce.
The International Alliance of Indigenous Nurses is being advanced by Dr Ali Drummond, an Indigenous nurse and chief executive of the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM), alongside Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation.
Representatives of the movement recently met with the International Council of Nurses (ICN) during an international nursing hui in Portugal. ICN is a global federation representing more than 30 million nurses through more than 140 national nursing associations.
Nuku says the alliance’s role is to provide insight into Indigenous health issues and ensure an Indigenous lens is included in policy and governance decisions affecting the future of the nursing workforce.
“It’s about being unified and strong and continue to build that power. It is about calling out systems that are so racist that they shouldn’t exist. It is about ensuring that whenever we’re doing that, we’re not doing that alone and that we’ve got the support behind us.”
A global indigenous movement
The alliance was established in 2016 after the International Conference of Indigenous Nurses hosted by CATSINaM.
It connects Indigenous nurses from around the world, including Māori nurses in Aotearoa, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses in Australia, First Nations nurses in Canada, and Indigenous nurses from the Americas and other regions.
Since then, the alliance has worked to strengthen the Indigenous nursing workforce by sharing knowledge systems, policies and approaches that aim to improve health outcomes for Indigenous peoples globally.
Nuku highlighted the adoption of rongoā Māori across health service providers in Aotearoa as an example of Indigenous health practices gaining greater recognition.
She says, however, many Indigenous communities internationally are still fighting for their traditional practices to be acknowledged.
“We know that rongoā Māori is used as an alternative, but for many of we use that as the first option to better our health and wellbeing. Whereas it’s not in some other countries. So, they’re having to fight to be recognised not just as Indigenous nurses, but their own Indigenous practices to be revitalised.”
Indigenous voice sought in global nursing decisions
The alliance aims to work alongside international professional groups and organisations to ensure Indigenous perspectives are considered in future policies affecting nurses worldwide.
Nuku says meeting with the International Council of Nurses in Portugal provided an opportunity to highlight the importance of Indigenous nurses and their often unrecognised contributions to healthcare.
As Nuku says, “We often overlook those ‘unregulated’ workforce, but actually they’re really key, they are the connectors to communities, they are the advocates and often silent, unrewarded advocates.”
She says working alongside one of the world’s first and largest international organisations of health professionals will help create a stronger Indigenous voice in global decision-making spaces.
“Does it reflect an Indigenous worldview? Have we critically looked at the impact on communities? If the World Health Organisation has global standards or the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), what does that look like when we talk about ‘leave no one behind’ and how we actually measure who’s being left behind?”
