Donna Kurtz is Métis and mixed European ancestry. She works with multi-sector university-Indigenous community and Indigenous-led collaborative teams in cultural safety education and research beyond social determinants of health, to foster respectful non-racist, non-discriminatory health care education, services and policy. Donna uses decolonizing gender relevant, equity based Indigenous methodologies in health promotion and health system change that benefit Indigenous peoples and communities across generations. As the Faculty of Health and Social Development Indigenous Health Liaison, she supports Indigenous nursing student recruitment, retention, and peer mentorship. She works closely with and is guided by local Elders and Knowledge Keepers in community engagement, education, research and practice.

Jessie Nyber is a Shuswap Elder registered to the Creek Band. Her Shuswap name is “Busy Ant” given to her by her grandmother when she was a year old. In Elder Nyber’s own words “I am a wife, mother of two, grandmother of three and a retired registered nurse having practiced for forty-five years. I was fortunate to achieve my RN, BSc and two courses away from a MHA. I am, and always will be, a strong advocate for my People. I believe that we must work together with the society in which we exist to help eradicate racism, discrimination, assumptions, etc that still exist and make it especially difficult for my People to access health care and receive adequate and appropriate care. I also believe that we, especially our children, must be viewed holistically. I believe that poverty, poor housing, poor nutrition, poor health, unsafe drinking water as well as parenting skills, language, culture, tradition, early childhood development programs, family, extended family and community, etc., all contribute to the development of our children. We must work to identify and then fill the gaps so that we will ultimately have equity with rest of the population.”

In November 2007, Elder Nyber received the 2007 Aboriginal Child Care Award presented by the BC Aboriginal Childcare Society in recognition of outstanding service and contribution to Aboriginal children in BC.

Np̓əppaxʷikn (Eric Mitchell) and Chris Marchand are Elders from the Okanagan Indian Band. As survivors of the residential school system, both Mitchell and Marchand have dedicated their life’s work to sharing their truth and the effects of intergenerational trauma so that future generations of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can reconcile. As professors who focus on the history of Canada’s Indigenous Peoples, Mitchell and Marchand created the Cultural Safety program at UBC Okanagan and have been implementing the program since 2008. In 2020, they received honorary Doctorate degrees from UBC Okanagan to recognize their sustained contributions to Cultural Safety in the Okanagan. Both Mitchell and Marchand consider themselves lifelong students of the Syilx/Okanagan language, culture, and traditions. Marchand and Mitchell have been life partners for 48 years and share two children and three grandchildren.

Use these keywords to search below for related publications with ICER Press.

Health, wellness, Indigenous, health discrimination, health racism, curriculum, health modules, health disparities

Please note that visual- and audio-based content published with ICER Press prior to 2022 may not have access supports such as complete transcripts and closed captioning. If you are experiencing difficulty accessing any content related to ICER Press or have any questions regarding accessibility, please contact us and we will be happy to work with you to find a solution that best supports you.