 I'm Cheyenne Joseph and I work at the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Nursing and within that program we have an Indigenous Nursing Program. It's a program or service really where our focus, we have a few folk eyes, so we put a lot of energy into recruiting Indigenous students into the nursing program and our support during those four years or more is focused on supporting the students, the Indigenous students so that they can, because we want to see all those that come in, we want to also see them graduate as well. So the recruitment and retention is a focus and in recruiting part of the way it works is we do have five designated seats within the nursing program in our first year cohort. So as a way to try to level the playing field, otherwise the program itself can be very competitive to get into and we want to make sure that we have at least five Indigenous students. We usually have more and we usually have Indigenous students that have just as competitive GPA so they can still get in and not need those designated seats but that's to ensure that we have at least five in our class in every first year class. And even though I've talked about Indigenous students, the support we provide also has to include the non-Indigenous students that's part of creating a safe space in the classroom and as well as inviting the faculty and staff within the Faculty of Nursing to participate in any of the activities and events and workshops and that kind of stuff. So it's the focus is on the Indigenous students but it's actually more broadly a focus on the Faculty of Nursing. It's been in existence for about nine or ten years now so it's it's had its journey and so where we are now I think part of what makes it successful is that there is an Indigenous presence so even though I'm the only faculty member there's also other staff within the Faculty of Nursing the Director of the Indigenous Nursing Program so there's a visible presence and so when the students walk in the hallways of the Faculty of Nursing they can see themselves reflected not only in hopefully some of the curriculum but also in the faculty and staff. But I think part of what's also made it successful is that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has completely changed the conversation in Canada even in an academic environment and there's a much more willingness within the Faculty of Nursing to be talking about Indigenous education and Indigenous student success and recruitment and support and so there's been a lot more conversation over the last three years in particular and I think that has really helped boost the program in taking it to another level. I think the biggest challenge we're faced with right now is that we have we currently have an Indigenous health course that still remains unelective it's still optional for students who happen to want to take the course and we've been talking about making it part of the core curriculum of the Nursing Program for three years because one of the calls to action in the TRC report clearly calls for academic institutions especially medical and nursing programs to have this kind of content embedded in the core curriculum and we haven't been able to be successful yet in making that transition so it still remains unelective and I think that's that's a challenge because every a lot of non-Indigenous students who have taken the course walk away saying every nursing student should take this course but the challenge is a lot harder when it comes to actually doing curriculum planning and figuring out you know where does it sit in the program and what courses do we remove and all of the politics that go along with that so but it I mean I'm hopeful that it will happen very soon well it's easy to measure success with things that are measurable like the number of students that are part of the first year cohort number of Indigenous students and the number of graduates in comparing those numbers and seeing how we how well we've done with retention efforts but also when we do gatherings or when we do workshops or different cultural activities if we have a drum making workshop how many people are in in attendance and it doesn't success isn't necessarily there are five Indigenous students in this workshop but just how many people are in attendance because the more that we can share our culture with those that we work with and for the peers in the classroom the more it helps break down some of those barriers between between groups so just the number of people who are attending those are things that are easy to measure but then measuring success by just hearing about feedback from the Indigenous health course feedback from you know a sharing circle that we've had or a gathering that we had and just hearing the the difference and this isn't something that's I'm not sure it's measurable but just knowing that the five years that I've been at UNB and how much the conversations even at the faculty level have changed and the degree to which more and more faculty are willing to figure out how we embed Indigenous education into the core curriculum I think that that's that's part of what makes it successful but it's also a way for us to figure out if we're having an impact at all so not just focusing on the Indigenous students how many come in and how many graduate but the degree to which we're having these conversations and moving towards a more inclusive curriculum I think it was about almost two years ago now I believe in 2017 in that calendar year so we have graduations in May and October we had the highest number of Indigenous graduates in that calendar year than we've ever had and even if you count so when the Indigenous Nursing Program first started in 2009 I believe the faculty wanted to know how many Indigenous students had ever been through that nursing program and then we get to a point about nine years later eight years later where the number of graduates was the same as the number of students who had ever been in the program up to 2009 so those are things that mean that we're having an impact the fact that there's more and more student Indigenous students who want to be taking the nursing program here at UNB because of the kinds of support that we're able to offer and the kinds of experiences so not only that we that we can be supportive within the Indigenous Nursing Program but that they have opportunities within let's say their clinical practicum to go to an Indigenous community and do their entire practicum there so that they're learning nursing skills that are relevant to them and their community and that that's something that's important to them even having safe spaces or gathering spaces within our building where they can either learn about their culture because we can't assume that everyone just because their Indigenous knows their culture but having an opportunity to do the things that they might do at home if they have been engaged in culture we have spaces for that for students who are just learning and connecting to their culture for them to have a safe space to be able to say I don't really know my culture but I'd love to learn the fact that they can come to an academic institution and learn that has been fascinating because when I went to school that certainly wasn't an option so for students to be coming to a university knowing that they can learn their culture when they get here is an interesting perspective still trying to wrap my head around that so and some of the things that the impacts that we see on students is whether or not they're graduating but also just the things that they tell us and how they feel like when they're having challenges in the classroom or they're having challenges even just with life and trying to balance academic life and their real life that they can come to those of us who are working in the Indigenous nursing program and that we they don't have to retell their story we get it we've we've lived that we're both nurses and so they can come to us and and sort of unload some of those stresses and that that we understand what they're going through we've been there too but I think that that's important I would describe what we do is more of a service like it's not really a program like it's not really separate from the nursing program but we do try to organize for those that are we have different sites so we have a site in Moncton and a site in Fredericton and St. John so if there's for example there's a community course within the program depending on who's teaching it we try to so if I'm teaching it I will of course share with the students information that they need to know skills knowledge that they need to know in order to provide nursing care to Indigenous patients families communities and as much as we can we try to reach out to Indigenous communities so in the Fredericton area there's three reserves also a very strong urban presence as well a little bit more challenging in Moncton because but we do tend to partner with Elsie Booktook and so to have students be able to spend time 12 weeks with Indigenous people learning and that they're really sharing what they want the students to know about them and that that really can they appreciate the fact that they the community members might actually see those very nurses a few years from now in the hospital and that they already have a relationship and a connection built and that that can make the difference between a good or bad experience for community members when they they do go to the hospital we haven't yet been able to we we include elders but that there's a different set of challenges that come with that but we have been able to organize for example sweat lodge ceremonies which obviously includes an elder and it's it's off campus or invite them over to Elsie Booktook if they're at the Moncton campus and really providing opportunities for students to engage in culture not just read about us on the internet or in a book and sometimes it's part of a clinical sometimes it's just a here's an opportunity if you want to take advantage of it so I think we're doing the best with what we can there's obviously a lot more Indigenous knowledge that's embedded in an Indigenous health course but knowing that only 30 students take that course out of a class of 80 or 90 or more that means that we're not reaching everyone that needs to know this information so we try to figure out what other classes we can be part of but also understanding the challenges of having your own full-time workload and not overburdening yourself with being a guest lecturer all the time because that doesn't always that's not always seen as on your workload as taking up time so I'd really like to see this Indigenous health course become part of core curriculum everyone learns it we can embed it early on in the program and then build on it in other courses so sometimes instructors will come and say well I'd like to do a case study in this acute care class and then we work with them to try to make sure that the case study is reflective of you know an acute care experience in the hospital and if it was an Indigenous patient how might the care look a bit different I guess when I hear those two words put together I think of an education that's based from like that in Indigenous knowledge, philosophies, ways of teaching, ways of learning are the foundation that it's not an education that's from a Eurocentric point of view and adapted but that it's it's based on Indigenous knowledge and philosophies and ways of teaching and learning and that the education part is that the learners are learning something new to them so to me when those two words get put together that's kind of where my mind goes at this particular academic institution at UNB I'd love to see within the nursing program I love my dream would be to have sort of a stream of the nursing program so let's say at around year three of a four-year degree in nursing that students no matter their own ethnic background and heritage could choose to sort of specialize in Indigenous health and wellness because there's so much more that we could teach them than than just in a in a three-credit course three-credit hour course so I'd love for there to be sort of a stream that they could sort of specialize and spend more time in community learning how to be a nurse in community or I mean you could also learn how to provide nursing care in the hospital to Indigenous patients but also having I'd love to see us have a certificate program for those who are already professionals in the field because there is this appetite to want to learn how to do this better that they didn't have those opportunities when they were going through whether it was nursing school or any other health profession and have sort of a a continuing education certificate that's a year or two where they can focus on Indigenous health and wellness for those that are professionals already out in the field so and and for these things to be much more land-based type education where we're out with community we can be learning about health and wellness and concepts Indigenous concepts of health and wellness out on the land we could be canoeing we could be out in the woods we could and it's but it's really hard to do that when we have to sort of accommodate a regular academic schedule so you know your classes Wednesdays from one to two p.m it's hard to actually make a trip out in the land when we've got one hour of their time so these kinds of whether it's a concentrated stream or a continuing education certificate we can probably do that outside of a regular academic schedule so those are the kinds of because it's hard to share with students what Indigenous health looks like in a classroom with four white walls and chairs and tables but I'd love to get them outside out in the community meeting the people what does it mean when you go do a home visit and your clients and elder you know what you're probably going to need the whole afternoon for that one appointment sitting down having tea with the elder is providing nursing care but it's hard to really relay those kinds of things without actually doing it with the students and for them to use all of their five senses to understand what this really means and what it looks like so to be able to take a nursing education out where it belongs is that would be something I'd love to see I'd also love for academic institutions whether it's this one or any other one to value someone's cultural knowledge traditional knowledge as being just as legitimate as the letters that come after your name as a bachelor's degree and master's a PhD and to equate an elder who's who does ceremonies who's well respected in their community as being an equivalent equivalently educated as someone in the mainstream society with a PhD so that these elders can be part of our academic institutions and that there isn't this requirement for degrees for bachelor's master's PhD and they've they've lived life they've they've been honoured from their own elders you know when we give someone an eagle feather that means something and that that should mean something the same level of honour and respect as being given a degree a piece of paper that says you've gotten through the last four years good for you so for us to be recognizing that there's other ways of knowing about the world and it's just as legitimate as a degree a piece of paper and I think that would open different opportunities for elders to be or knowledge keepers to be included within an academic institution so that they because really when we include them it's with an honourarium it's a one-day event it's I'd rather see them as part of our daily educational experience and and honour the knowledge that they have because they have so much to share with us and that that should be recognized