This project builds on long term relationships between North Island College (NIC) Nursing program and First Nation’s (FN) communities on Northern Vancouver Island to leverage innovative systems change with the goal of addressing systemic racism and promoting health equity for Indigenous people and communities on northern Vancouver Island.
Project Dates: June 1, 2022 – May 31, 2025
Funding Amount: $359,044
Number of Student Researchers: 4
Project Summary
This project builds on long term relationships between North Island College (NIC) Nursing program and First Nation Communities on Northern Vancouver Island to leverage innovative systems change with the goal of addressing systemic racism and promoting health equity for Indigenous people and communities on northern Vancouver Island.
This project will design, implement and evaluate transformative reconciliation initiatives in partnership with Indigenous communities, health authorities, post-secondary education institutions and North Island College.
We will contribute to transformative reconciliation in health education and health services through offering a series of locally specific, Indigenous led, relationally oriented, wellness focused learning circles. Participants in the learning circles will engage with community members and Indigenous knowledge holders. They will learn from the land, from sharing stories and from being in ceremony together.
It is anticipated that students, faculty and health professionals who participate in the learning circles will create communities of practice with the capacity for driving systems change in health service and educational settings. We intend to investigate the impacts of this program on health services and education through participatory action research led by Indigenous knowledge holders using Indigenous research methodologies.
Project Updates and Outcomes
Research Team
Evelyn Voyageur, PhD, Lead Researcher
Evelyn is of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nation, of the Dzawadainox tribe. She speaks Kwak’wala fluently. She has worked in hospitals and communities in Alberta and BC, as well as taught and developed nursing curricula at UVic and NIC. Evelyn counsels survivors for the Indian Residential School Society. She has received many awards for her contribution to Indigenous nursing, including becoming one of Health Canada’s First Nation and Inuit Branch’s first recipients of the Award of Excellence in Nursing.
Joanna Fraser, RN BSN MCE EdD, Lead Researcher
Joanna has been a nurse educator at NIC for the past 21 years. Her focus is curriculum reconciliation through inclusion of Indigenous people and ways of knowing. Her research interests include the use of indigenous and relational methodologies in understanding the healing and transformational possibilities of relational, land based and experiential learning.
Paul Will, Project Advisor
Paul, a registered member of the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw First Nation, blends his traditional teachings with a robust academic and professional background. Mentored by his elders, he integrates cultural knowledge with specialized training in biochemistry, biomedical technology, management, organizational development, and therapeutic modalities like Hypnotherapy, Timeline Therapy, and NLP at the master practitioner level. His career spans roles such as Charge Biochemistry Technician at Royal Columbian Hospital, Health Director, and project lead for a survey that facilitated transferring Health Canada services to the First Nations Health Authority. Paul's continuous learning in areas like human resource development, negotiations, and addictions counseling complements his dedication to community health, allowing him to harmonize traditional and modern approaches to wellness.
Heidi Deagle, RN BSN, Research Assistant
Genevieve Freeman, Student Research Assistant
Genevieve is a fourth year nursing student at NIC. She is committed to promoting cultural safety in and out of practice.
Marissa Cotter, BFA, Student Research Assistant
Marissa was raised on a family farm on the treaty 7 lands also known as the drylands of South Eastern Alberta. She completed her Bachelor in Fine Arts from Emily Carr University with a focus on ceramics, visual culture and curatorship. Having always been interested in working with her hands, questioning culture and having a natural affinity for interprofessional collaboration, she applied to the BSN program at North Island College, and is currently in her 4th and final year as nursing student.
Marissa is committed to the work of reconciliation and is grateful to be part of the Learning Our Way research project.
Marissa respectfully acknowledges that she is living and learning with her two young daughters and husband on the unceded traditional territory of the K’ómoks First Nation, the traditional keepers of this land.
Kajenthini Ganeshamoorthy, Student Research Assistant
Kajenthini Ganeshamoorthy is from Sri Lanka and completed her master’s degree in economics at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She has been a senior lecturer in economics at the Eastern University of Sri Lanka for the past seven years. She is very involved in community-engaged research.
Ariel Vaikla, Student Research Assistant
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