Abstract
The resurgence of the Western psychedelic movement has raised concerns among Indigenous Nations regarding colonization, bioprospecting, commodification, and cultural appropriation of sacred medicines. These practices perpetuate exclusion in research, scalability, and commercialization, silencing Indigenous voices and eroding the profound ecological and cultural wisdom contained therein (Celidwen, Redvers, Githaiga et al., 2023; Ens, 2021; Fotiou, 2020).
As Fotiou (2020) notes, the intensifying Western psychedelic movement faces a critical bifurcation: to perpetuate the hegemonic, ethnocentric paradigms of Western science or to re-examine Western frameworks through pluralistic, cross-epistemological approaches. The latter invites methodological expansion, ethical reflexivity, and deeper community engagement to drive future nursing research. Emerging from this transformative lens, the R3 Framework: Reverence, Reciprocity, and Relationality, introduces cultural accountability that challenges Western dominance and disrupts colonial legacies.
Settler colonialism, birthed from the Doctrine of Discovery, allowed colonialists to seize any terra nullius, providing legal, spiritual, and political justification for the dispossession and subjugation of Indigenous Peoples (Avalos, 2024; Chavez, 2024; O’Donnell, 2023). This enabled centuries of Indigenous genocide, beginning with the colonization of the Taino islands of Kiskeya/Ayiti, renamed as “Hispaniola” by Columbus. This colonialism endures in the “psychedelic renaissance,” where innovation and healing discourses continue extractive practices that sever sacred medicines from Indigenous ecosystems. Commodification, patenting, and commercialization mirror the epistemic violence of settler colonialism. Without reverence, reciprocity, and relationality, this "renaissance” risks repeating colonial exploitation and Western ethnocentrism.
The Entheogen-Assisted Care in Nursing Concentration, a first of its kind, strategically aligns AACN Essentials and NONPF Nurse Practitioner Role Competencies to establish a concentration within any Master of Science in Nursing program. This concentration reorients academic and clinical entheogenic education around the R3 Framework, teaching the science of these sacred medicines, while centering Indigenous epistemologies, sovereignty, and anti-colonial frameworks. This innovation cultivates nurses grounded in cultural humility, global accountability, and ethical stewardship.
Notes
Reference list included in attached slide deck.
Sigma Membership
Delta Mu
Lead Author Affiliation
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Other
Keywords:
Curriculum Development, DEI/BIPOC, Health Equity or Social Determinants of Health, Hallucinogens, Psychotropic Drugs, Rituals and Ceremonies
Recommended Citation
Rodriguez, Christine and Korbey, Samantha, "R3: Reverence, Reciprocity, & Relationality: Indigenous Entheogen Perspectives in Health Curricula" (2026). International Nursing Research Congress (INRC). 115.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/inrc/2026/presentations_2026/115
Conference Name
37th International Nursing Research Congress
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Conference Year
2026
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2026-08-03
R3: Reverence, Reciprocity, & Relationality: Indigenous Entheogen Perspectives in Health Curricula
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The resurgence of the Western psychedelic movement has raised concerns among Indigenous Nations regarding colonization, bioprospecting, commodification, and cultural appropriation of sacred medicines. These practices perpetuate exclusion in research, scalability, and commercialization, silencing Indigenous voices and eroding the profound ecological and cultural wisdom contained therein (Celidwen, Redvers, Githaiga et al., 2023; Ens, 2021; Fotiou, 2020).
As Fotiou (2020) notes, the intensifying Western psychedelic movement faces a critical bifurcation: to perpetuate the hegemonic, ethnocentric paradigms of Western science or to re-examine Western frameworks through pluralistic, cross-epistemological approaches. The latter invites methodological expansion, ethical reflexivity, and deeper community engagement to drive future nursing research. Emerging from this transformative lens, the R3 Framework: Reverence, Reciprocity, and Relationality, introduces cultural accountability that challenges Western dominance and disrupts colonial legacies.
Settler colonialism, birthed from the Doctrine of Discovery, allowed colonialists to seize any terra nullius, providing legal, spiritual, and political justification for the dispossession and subjugation of Indigenous Peoples (Avalos, 2024; Chavez, 2024; O’Donnell, 2023). This enabled centuries of Indigenous genocide, beginning with the colonization of the Taino islands of Kiskeya/Ayiti, renamed as “Hispaniola” by Columbus. This colonialism endures in the “psychedelic renaissance,” where innovation and healing discourses continue extractive practices that sever sacred medicines from Indigenous ecosystems. Commodification, patenting, and commercialization mirror the epistemic violence of settler colonialism. Without reverence, reciprocity, and relationality, this "renaissance” risks repeating colonial exploitation and Western ethnocentrism.
The Entheogen-Assisted Care in Nursing Concentration, a first of its kind, strategically aligns AACN Essentials and NONPF Nurse Practitioner Role Competencies to establish a concentration within any Master of Science in Nursing program. This concentration reorients academic and clinical entheogenic education around the R3 Framework, teaching the science of these sacred medicines, while centering Indigenous epistemologies, sovereignty, and anti-colonial frameworks. This innovation cultivates nurses grounded in cultural humility, global accountability, and ethical stewardship.
Description
The Entheogen-Assisted Care in Nursing Concentration, a first of its kind, reframes entheogenic education through the R3 Framework, teaching the science of these sacred medicines, while centering Indigenous epistemologies, sovereignty, and anti-colonial ethics. Strategically aligned with AACN Essentials and NONPF Nurse Practitioner Role Competencies, this innovation cultivates clinicians grounded in cultural humility, global accountability, and honors the ethical stewardship of these compounds.