New Indigenous health studies course co-created and co-taught with Elder at UCalgary Nursing

A new Indigenous Health Studies course at the Faculty of Nursing is helping first-year UCalgary students better understand Indigenous Peoples’ health in Canada. They’re learning directly from an Indigenous Elder about the ongoing impacts and influences of colonial violence, structures and systems on health.

“It’s one thing to have an Elder advise on curriculum development or look over a course but it’s an entirely new process to have an Elder co-develop and then deliver it,” says Dr. Michelle Scott Paul, EdD'23, associate professor (teaching) and associate dean, Indigenous Education, with UCalgary Nursing. 

This fall marks the first time NRSG 202 was delivered as part of faculty's Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) curriculum. It is co-created and co-taught by Scott Paul; Dr. Heather Bensler, BN'97, EdD'22, associate professor (teaching) and assistant dean, academic partnerships; and Lakota Dakota Elder Evelyn Good Striker. 

Good Striker grew up experiencing shifting education policies of the federal government, attending day school, residential school and eventually integrating into a public school in Fort Qu’Appelle, Sask., where she attained a Grade 12 education. She earned a Bachelor of Education and a Master of Education from the University of Lethbridge and has been in the education profession for many years as a classroom teacher and administrator. 

“This is a class that will reach from your head to your heart and that understanding is what is going to allow these future nurses to be empathetic in their work every day,” says Good Striker. 

“What we’re doing, in my mind, is building that understanding. When we talked with nurses and Elders, they related stories of professionals they dealt with and how they didn’t understand who our people are, our lives, our customs. But, when nurses internalize that understanding, that empathy will go a long way.” 

Bensler says a major push behind the course’s creation and formal integration into the faculty’s BScN curriculum is Call No. 24 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. It calls on nursing schools to teach about the historical and ongoing impacts of colonization on the health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

“Often, Indigenous health courses are about colonization and sickness, that's not Indigenous health. In this course, we start with Indigenous health and pre-contact instead of Indigenous sickness.”

In this course, students enhance their awareness and relationship to Indigenous ways of knowing, being, doing and connecting. Guest speakers have included Renate Good Striker of the Kainai Continuing Care Centre on the Blood Indian Reserve; Bonnie Healy, health director of the Blackfoot Confederacy; and researcher Chyloe Healy, who is working with the Blackfoot Confederacy Tribal Council and studying Blackfoot-defined wellness indicators and improving data linkage. Students even had a Zoom call with Bob Joseph, author of 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act. 

Scott Paul says it’s important to have students learn from not just Indigenous experts, but also Indigenous people who are leaders doing work in their home communities within health from a strengths-based approach.

“We want to equip students with the ability and tools to understand themselves in relation and to eventually be able to have a voice in a system that they will continue to interact with,” says Scott Paul.

Students are encouraged to attend one Indigenous event and write a reflective paper as well create a digital photo journal. A major component of the course is a story robe final project where, over eight weeks, students make symbols that reflect their learning from class with written reflections. 

Tami Adedokun, a first-year nursing student in NRSG 202, says he expected the course to be a review of high school social studies, but was surprised to learn about lesser-known facts, like how Canada’s Food Guide was developed through experiments on Indigenous children in residential schools. 

“That really stood out to me," he says. "These are real people who went through this and it’s not that long ago when the schools closed. It’s still impacting people today.

“It’s one thing to hear about all these stories and learn about all the background and history. It’s another thing to talk with someone who has this history, this background and knowledge and first-hand experience with this issue. (Evelyn Good Striker) can talk about what her family went through and how systemic racism and discrimination has affected her family and relatives."

“I feel like this class is really impactful because you can't know things you’re not exposed to. If you're not exposed to Indigenous people and the background of what they've gone through with colonization and all the issues that have compounded over time that are impacting them today, you can't give proper care.”

Adds Bensler: “It has been really exciting to watch the students shift the way that they come into nursing. We all live out of the story that we understand about the world. I think we're disrupting the story that many of these students have about where they live. And we need to know our story in order to relate in a good way.”