In response to new and exacerbated challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Indigenous children and youth in Canada have developed innovative and holistic solutions to amplify their voices, continue cultural engagement and combat social isolation for themselves and their communities as a whole. In this analysis, we have selected three Indigenous philosophical tenets as an ethical orientation for discussion of how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the well-being of Indigenous young people. The guiding values of interconnected relationships, holism and Indigenous-informed restorative justice help us interpret existing pandemic-specific literature and identify, define and prioritize considerations of child and youth well-being from an Indigenous-centred worldview. This analysis can (a) help inform future pandemic measures affecting Indigenous young people and (b) foster similar considerations for Indigenous communities in other regions of the world.
Indigenous peoples in the settler state of Canada face racism on a daily basis, including in their interactions with nurses and the healthcare system. Canadian Nursing consistently fails to recognize their role in continuing to perpetrate anti-Indigenous racism. Many nurses are not taught enough about Indigenous history, settler colonialism and anti-racism to be able to recognize anti-Indigenous racism in practice, let alone effectively address it. Often the western based ethical principles nurses are taught in schools are weaponized against Indigenous peoples in practice. I propose using the nehiyaw (Cree) concept of wâhkôtowin as an ethical perspective that can help nurses tackle the problem of anti-Indigenous racism.
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