TD Insurance Indigenous Nurses Award

I am a two-spirit registered nurse and healer, and I come from a long family tradition of being nurses and healers on both my parent’s family trees. My father is a farmer and a second-generation English settler in Canada, and his mother was a nursing aide. My mother is Metis and a Registered Nurse, and so was my grandmother on this side. I grew up on a farm in northern Alberta, in Treaty 8 territory and Metis Nation of Alberta Region 6. I chose to become a nurse because I have always been a caring person, and nursing is where these natural talents for helping others, learning with others and making connections that improve people’s lives were able to shine. I am currently doing my Ph.D. in Nursing, exploring Metis people’s experiences of HPV-related cancer prevention in Alberta. In my career and life, my greatest accomplishments and the things I am most proud of are the relationships I have built and maintained over time and distance with my family, friends, colleagues, and other kin. I am so grateful for the learning I have had the opportunity to do with so many incredible and diverse people, places, and ideas.