Indigenous Nurses Day celebrates their contributions to the nursing profession

Indigenous Nurses Day is April 10, which is the birthdate of Edith Anderson Monture, a Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) woman and the first First Nations woman to become a registered nurse in Canada.

The day acknowledges the significant contributions of First Nations, Métis and Inuit nurses to the nursing profession. 

“Nurses are the unsung heroes in health care, generally,” said Holly Graham.

“They’ve been kind of the backbone. They’ve been the labourers, they’ve been innovators, they’ve been the advocators, they’re researchers and they want people to have the best health outcomes.”

Graham, who is Cree from Thunderchild First Nation in Saskatchewan, is a professor and Indigenous Research Chair in Nursing at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

Graham, who’s been a registered nurse for 41 years, said nurses are the foundation of health care because they comprise the largest percentage of the sector’s workforce. 

In her time as a nurse, she said she’s seen an increased acknowledgement and awareness of the history of colonization, the health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations, and in a broader context, the social determinants of health, which contributes to more holistic health approaches.

She said “those concepts have changed how we look at a person who comes into a situation and how we understand [them],” helping to prioritize a pathway towards wellness together with the patient.

Graham said the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing in Canada now requires a course on Indigenous health issues, which she said answers the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 24, as a part of their accreditation.

Nurses form intimate connections with their patients or clients, uniquely positioning them to identify — and also mitigate — potential harm that may come from “cultural clashes,” Graham said. 

“Culture impacts how we see ourselves in the world, how we see the world,” she said.

Indigenous people have always had their own health-care systems, Graham said, and there’s been more receptivity toward the integration of western medicine and traditional medicines in her profession.

“I think it’s much better navigated now with this increased understanding and willingness as part of reconciliation,” she said.

Education ‘an absolute must’

Hilary Fry, the Canadian Nurses Association’s first Indigenous policy analyst, said Indigenous Nurses Day is about uplifting all Indigenous nurses in Canada, apart from National Nurses Week which is celebrated in May, so the good work happening in Indigenous nursing practice is not overshadowed. 

Fry is a Labrador Inuk nurse of mixed ancestry; her father’s side of the family is from the Nunatsiavut community of Hopedale.

She said all the nurses at CNA take cultural sensitivity training that “highlights the historical challenges that have been faced by Indigenous people, specifically around accessing health services” and the actions that can be taken to move forward in a positive way.

Fry said traditionally, western ways of knowing and being were prioritized in her profession and “seen as being superior to Indigenous ways of knowing and being,” which is a challenge Indigenous nurses face.

There’s also a lack of resources for Indigenous nurses who are working in their communities, she said.

She said education for nursing students who would work with Indigenous people is “an absolute must” for all nurses.

“I think it’s really important though, in order to recruit and retain Indigenous nurses, that our non-Indigenous colleagues recognize that when it comes to participating in reconciliation that the responsibility really is on our non-Indigenous colleagues.”