Transforming the rhetoric, racism and realities for Indigenous peoples: Disrupting nurses’ thinking and practice

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Professor Denise Wilson (Ngāti Tahinga, Tainui)

The impacts of colonisation on Indigenous peoples globally have left a wake of historical and intergenerational trauma, ongoing cultural disconnection, and displacement in society. The ongoing effects of colonisation and health and social inequities are a reality for most Indigenous peoples. This reality has a devastating impact on Indigenous peoples and their families now and into the future. Nurses play a significant role in the health care of Indigenous people. Yet, research shows us Indigenous peoples’ wellbeing is framed within unfulfilled rhetoric, racist encounters, and realities shrouded in social and health inequities. Nurses are inadvertently (or knowingly) complicit in the rhetoric, racism and perpetuating Indigenous peoples’ realities. This 53rd Marion Woodward Lecture will provide a historical and contemporary exploration of Indigenous realities when seeking health care and discuss what is needed to transform nurses’ thinking and practice.

PANELISTS: Tania Dick, Chloe Crosschild, & Dr. Denise Wilson
MODERATOR: Dr. Saima Hirani

Join the symposium panelists and moderator for a dialogue and response to the keynote lecture.

Tania Dick is from the Dzawada’enuxw First Nations of Kingcome Inlet and has been a registered nurse in BC for 18 years. She is the first Indigenous person to graduate from the UBC School of Nursing’s Master of Nursing – Nurse Practitioner program in 2010. Her career has focused on rural and remote nursing, specializing in emergency and Indigenous health. Ms. Dick has recently been appointed to the UBC School of Nursing as the inaugural Indigenous Nursing Lead.

Chloe Crosschild (Iitaapii’tsaanskiakii) is a Blackfoot woman from the Blood Tribe (Kainai Nation). She is a registered nurse working towards her PhD at the UBC School of Nursing with supervisor Dr. Colleen Varcoe. Ms. Crosschild was the inaugural navigator for a new Indigenous Patient Navigation Service in Alberta and is currently employed as an Assistant Professor at the University of Lethbridge.

Dr. Denise Wilson (Ngāti Tahinga, Tainui) is a New Zealand registered nurse with intensive and coronary care, acute medicine, and community nursing experience. She is a Professor in Māori Health, an Associate Dean Māori Advancement in the Faculty of Health & Environmental Sciences, and a Co-Director of Auckland University of Technology’s Taupua Waiora Māori Research Centre.

[REGRETS] Dr. Margaret Moss, PhD, JD, RN, FAAN, Hidatsa/Dakhóta is Director of the First Nations House of Learning at the University of British Columbia. She holds nursing & juris doctorates & has published an award winning, first ever nursing textbook on American Indian health, and a second on Health Equity (both Springer Pub). She has given over 150 presentations.