BSN students engaging with traditional medicines and remedies in NURS 353
Indigenous Cultural Safety Committee
About Us
Our goal is to help guide the co-creation of infrastructure, processes, resources, and capacity for Indigenous cultural safety and anti-racist care within the School of Nursing.
The ICS committee is currently led by co-chairs Leanne Currie and Elisabeth Bailey. The committee and its chairs are appointed by the School's Director, and is comprised of staff and faculty in multiple programs and roles in the School of Nursing. In 2021, Tania Dick, a member of Dzawada’enuxw First Nations of Kingcome Inlet, was appointed as the inaugural Indigenous Nursing Lead for UBC Vancouver School of Nursing.
Open Invitation
While the committee is Director-appointed, monthly meetings are open for members of the Indigenous Advisory Circle to join. In addition, faculty and staff can be invited to join a meeting by indicating to the Co-Chairs they would like to attend for consultation, discussion, and/or learning and engagement in topics relevant to Indigenous Cultural Safety.
Land Acknowledgement
The land on which we work is the unceded, occupied, traditional and ancestral territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh).
Strategic Alignments
The UBC Indigenous Strategic Plan sets out a series of 8 goals and 43 actions the university will collectively take in order to advance UBC's vision of becoming a leading university globally in the implementation of Indigenous peoples’ human rights.
We seek to align our work with the following elements of this plan:
Goal 4: Indigenizing our curriculum
Include Indigenous ways of knowing, culture, histories, experiences and worldviews in curriculum delivered across Faculties, programs and campuses.
Action 15: Undertake university-wide, Faculty-level curriculum reviews to ensure Indigenous histories, experiences, worldviews and knowledge systems are appropriately integrated and that all Faculties are fully compliant with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.
Action 16: Ensure all academic programs, undergraduate and graduate, include substantive content in at least one course which explores Indigenous histories and identifies how Indigenous issues intersect with the major field of study of the Faculty.
Action 17: Provide equitable and timely financial compensation to Indigenous people who support the Indigenization of curriculum.
Action 18: Continue to partner with Indigenous communities locally and globally to develop accredited post-secondary Indigenous knowledge programs that can be delivered in communities and on campus.
British Columbia College of Nurses & Midwives (BCCNM) in 2021 adopted a set of practice standards that clearly outline the expectations for how BCCNM registrants are to provide culturally safe and anti-racist care for Indigenous clients.
We strive to foster the following core concepts & principles from the BCCNM practice standards within nursing education, research, and practice and advance School of Nursing's commitment to health equity, social justice, anti-racism and Indigenous cultural safety.
Core concepts & principles:
1. Self-reflective practice (it starts with me)
2. Building knowledge through education
3. Anti-racist practice (taking action)
4. Creating safe health care experiences
5. Person-led care (relational care)
6. Strengths-based and trauma-informed practice (looking below the surface)
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is a human rights instrument that sets out the rights of Indigenous peoples around the world. The framework defines specific rights related to Indigenous identities, livelihoods and ways of knowing and being. The goal of UNDRIP is to defend the survival, dignity and well‐being of Indigenous people.
In 2019, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (Declaration Act) was passed into British Columbia law with the goal of providing transparency and accountability in how the BC laws align with UNDRIP, in consultation and co-operation with Indigenous Peoples.
We seek to align our work with the BC Declaration Act and the following elements of UNDRIP:
- Article 21: Indigenous Peoples have the right, without discrimination, to the improvement of their economic and social conditions, including in the areas of education, employment, vocational training and retraining, housing, sanitation, health and social security
- Article 24:
- Indigenous Peoples have the right to their traditional medicines and to maintain their health practices, including the conservation of their vital medicinal plants, animals and minerals. Indigenous individuals also have the right to access, without discrimination, to all social and health services
- Indigenous individuals have an equal right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. States shall take the necessary steps with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of this right
- Article 29: States shall also take effective measures to ensure, as needed, that programmes for monitoring, maintaining and restoring the health of Indigenous peoples, as developed and implemented by the Peoples affected by such materials, are duly implemented
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) reveals persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses as the root cause behind Canada’s staggering rates of violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people.
The Calls for Justice Report represent important ways to end the genocide and to transform systemic and societal values that have worked to maintain colonial violence.
We seek to align our work with the following elements of this report:
Section 7 for health and wellness providers, particularly:
- Calls for Justice 7.7: We call upon all governments, educational institutions, and health and wellness professional bodies to encourage, support, and equitably fund Indigenous people to train and work in the area of health and wellness.
The In Plain Sight Report describes findings of widespread systemic racism against Indigenous peoples in BC's health care system. The report made 24 recommendations centring around immediate, principled, and comprehensive efforts to eliminate prejudice and discrimination against Indigenous peoples.
We seek to align our work with the following elements of this report:
Recommendation 14: That the B.C. government, PHSA, the five regional health authorities, BC colleges and universities with health programs, health regulators, and all health service organizations, providers and facilities recruit Indigenous individuals to senior positions to oversee and promote needed system change.
- Recommendation 18: That the BC government require all university and college degree and diploma programs for health professions in BC to implement mandatory strategies and targets to identify, recruit and encourage Indigenous enrolment and graduation, including increasing the safety of the learning environment for Indigenous students.
- Recommendation 21: That all BC University and college degree and diploma programs for health practitioners include mandatory components to ensure all students receive accurate and detailed knowledge of Indigenous-specific racism, colonialism, trauma-informed practice, Indigenous health and wellness, and the requirement to provide service to meet the minimum standards in UNDRIP
The Truth and Reconciliation of Canada (TRC) released 94 Calls to Action as actionable policy recommendations to guide the healing process from the historical and ongoing impact of the residential school system. Healing is conceptualized in two folds: 1) acknowledging the full, horrifying history of the residential schools system, 2) creating systems to prevent these abuses from ever happening again in the future.
We seek to align our work with the following recommendations of this report:
Calls to action #23: We call upon all levels of government to:
- Increase the number of Aboriginal professionals working in the health-care field.
- Ensure the retention of Aboriginal health-care providers in Aboriginal communities.
- Provide cultural competency training for all health-care professionals.
Calls to action #24: we call upon medical and nursing schools in Canada to require all students to take a course dealing with Aboriginal health issues, including the history and legacy of residential schools, UNDRIP, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, and Indigenous teachings and practices. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.
Key Highlights
We acknowledge-
UBC and the School of Nursing gather and teach on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people.
This acknowledgement is only the beginning of our due diligence: our commitment is shown not in our affirmations but our actions.
Red Dress Day
A project created by BSN Class of 2024 to honour the 32nd Annual Women’s Memorial March
Dr.Elder Roberta Price
received an UBC honorary degree in 2021 in recognition for her 35+ years of dedication to improving health care outcomes
NURS 353
Students reflect upon positionality as the basis for providing safe, ethical and respectful care for Indigenous Peoples