Canadian nurses show reconciliation leadership

In the wake of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and incredible awareness-raising by individuals like the Wenjack family and Gord Downie, Canadians are publicly confronting the tragic history of residential schools.

Other injustices are still in need of public support.

In the 1970s, hundreds of Indigenous women were forcibly sterilized in Canadian hospitals. As recently as 2008, First Nations, Inuit and Metis mothers reported facing pressure to get their tubes tied after giving birth at one Saskatoon hospital.

In an historic move, a group of nurses are taking a stand, confronting the role of their profession in this injustice against Indigenous women, and working toward reconciliation.

On National Aboriginal Day last month, the Canadian Association of Perinatal and Women’s Health Nurses (CAPWHN) released a “statement on cultural safety and humility.”

The association acknowledged that, as active participants in forced sterilization and the administration of residential schools, nurses contributed to “the current social and health inequities amongst First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women.”

It’s a rare kind of admission. While the federal government and some churches have issued apologies, few other groups in Canada have stepped up to accept responsibility.

“It’s so important that a non-Indigenous organization did this. It speaks volumes,” says Lisa Bourque Bearskin, past president of the Canadian Indigenous Nurses Association.

But the nurses wanted to do more than just apologize, says Leah Thorp, co-author of the CAPWHN statement. Working with Indigenous nurses, Thorp and colleagues are striving to raise awareness about discrimination in health care and to build more culturally appropriate care for Indigenous women.

CAPWN is partnering with other health organizations, including the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, to develop educational resources for nurses, Thorp says. Resources will cover issues such as intergenerational trauma and its link to addiction and abuse. Greater education about and respect for traditional Indigenous practices will also be encouraged.

Western medicine historically has suppressed certain practices, such as having female relatives present during childbirth, or the use of cradleboards. For generations, missionaries and health workers discouraged these traditional baby carriers in order to break down Indigenous culture, citing unproven evidence that they harm babies.

When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report, there were 94 calls to action. While many of those items were directed at governments, others placed the onus on non-governmental groups, such as health workers and journalists, and Canadians at large. Justice Murray Sinclair, the commission’s chair, told Canadians to “step up and take the actions that are needed.”

Thorp says nurses have heeded Sinclair’s challenge.

Nurses shouldn’t stand alone. It would be a huge step forward for reconciliation if groups across Canada — doctors, teachers, police, lawyers — followed this example and reflected on the role their professions played in the darker side of Canada’s history. There’s an opportunity for many more groups to work with Indigenous peoples to answer the question: How can we, as a profession, do better going forward?

Reconciliation isn’t a job for governments alone. Canadians must all take responsibility.