Self-in-Relation: Seeking Understanding and Transformation through Indigenous Métissage

Authors

  • Dr. Heather Bensler University of Calgary

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55016/ojs/jah.v2025Y2025.81907

Abstract

In this article, I consider the narrative practice of Indigenous Métissage as a creative, subversive praxis to help understand my identity as a settler in Canada and how settler colonialism has shaped my relationship to Indigenous peoples, history, and Land in Canada. Given the hermeneutic roots of Indigenous Métissage, I suggest it is a research approach that can handle the complexities inherent in these relationships while also providing imagination and hope for transformation. I discuss how personal, and family stories can be textually braided with larger national narratives to draw attention to similarities and differences with the hopes of provoking understanding and new ways of seeing Indigenous and settler relations.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Dr. Heather Bensler, University of Calgary

Dr. Heather Bensler, RN ,MSN, EdD is an associate professor (teaching) in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary. She has previously held three leadership roles at in the faculty, including the assistant dean academic partnerships where she was leads the ongoing development, sustainment, and extension of the faculty’s undergraduate Rural and Indigenous “Grow Your Own” nursing program with campuses across Alberta in rural and Indigenous communities. Previously, she served as the faculty’s inaugural director of Indigenous Initiatives. Dr. Bensler’s research focuses on white settler identity in nursing education and the use of participatory theatre to build the capacity of nursing students and practicing nurses to recognize and disrupt anti-Indigenous racism in education and practice.  

 

Downloads

Published

2025-07-25

Issue

2025: 2025

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  • Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).