When nurses Lee Ann Johnson and Renata Good Striker talk about reconciliation in healthcare, they don’t begin with policy—they begin with people. Johnson, a clinical educator with more than three decades of nursing experience on and off reserve, and Good Striker, a long-term care nurse manager who graduated in 2012, work in a First Nations long-term care facility licensed by Alberta Health Services and staffed almost entirely by Indigenous professionals. Their daily practice weaves clinical excellence with culture, language, and land.

What follows are highlights from a candid conversation about truth and reconciliation, culturally safe care, and the work still ahead.

Truth and Reconciliation: A Beginning, Not an Endpoint

For Johnson, the Calls to Action have opened a door that must now be walked through with patience and persistence. “I think it’s a start,” she says. “It’s all about building relationships and gaining knowledge because our Native history was never taught in school.”

That gap in public understanding, she emphasizes, affects care. If Canadians don’t learn the true history of residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, dispossession, and how these policies shaped family structures, health behaviours, and trust in institutions, then stereotypes fill the vacuum—and show up in exam rooms, ERs, and discharge plans. Progress, Johnson adds, will not be instantaneous; meaningful change takes time, reflection, and steady work across generations.

Good Striker echoes this, stressing that reconciliation begins with acknowledging past harms and rebuilding trust. When trust is present, people are more likely to seek care earlier, share information, follow treatment plans, and access preventative services. Culturally safe environments make this possible.

What Culturally Safe Care Looks Like—in Practice

Both nurses describe culturally safe care as a living practice rather than a checklist. It includes:

• Respectful, unhurried listening—making space for full stories, not just symptoms.

• Holistic views of health—balance across physical, emotional, spiritual, family, and community well-being.

• Integration of traditional healing—prayer, ceremony, land connection, and medicines where appropriate.

• Family and Elders at the centre—moving from “patient-centred” to “family- and community-centred” care.

• Clear, compassionate follow-up after consultations—affirming that people matter beyond the appointment time.

These aren’t abstract principles. Johnson shares a vivid example: an Elder couple asked her to accompany them to a physician who “talked too fast” and didn’t seem to hear them. She intervened to slow the pace and ensure their story was received. In a time-pressured clinic model, she notes, people who don’t feel respected or acknowledged often withhold key details. The consequence is poorer care. As Johnson puts it: “If we don’t feel that we are respected and acknowledged, we won’t tell our story.”

From Paternalism to Partnership

Good Striker is frank about the shift reconciliation asks of health systems: moving from paternalism to collaboration. Open dialogue and humility transform relationships—patients become partners, families co-design plans, and communities help shape services that reflect local values.

A core barrier, Johnson adds, is racism within the system. Anti-racism is not an add-on; it’s foundational to quality. Training, accountability, and leadership commitment must work alongside culturally grounded practice to dismantle that barrier.

The Determinants We Can’t Ignore

Both nurses tie health outcomes to conditions beyond clinic walls: poverty, housing, food security, transportation, and meaningful work. Crowded homes accelerate the spread of illness; limited access to nutritious food worsens chronic disease risks. Diabetes rates are higher in many Indigenous communities; there are unanswered questions about dementia risks. Research, they argue, must be strengthened with communities, not merely about them, and resources must be directed to where need is greatest.

Knowledge, Values, and the Role of Elders

Johnson describes Indigenous values—particularly caring for others—as central to nursing itself. Knowledge is shared, not hoarded; wisdom is earned through observation of nature, respect for land, and intergenerational teaching. Good Striker underscores the importance of restoring Elders’ roles in decisions that affect health. When Elders are heard and families feel safe, people open up; when they don’t, they close down.

They also point to a broader cultural renaissance. Traditional medicines and land-based teachings are returning to the forefront, and some nursing programs are integrating Indigenous ways of knowing into curricula. The direction is promising, they say, but sustained effort is essential.

Good Striker recalls her grandfather, Rufus Good Striker, a traditional herbalist and medicine man whose knowledge of plants and healing practices drew recognition far beyond their community. In a TED Talk by Burnett (watch here), the story is told of how a physician in California chartered a private jet to bring Good Striker south for traditional healing—a striking example of the respect his teachings commanded. For Good Striker, this memory underscores that Indigenous ways of observing nature, working with plants, and approaching health holistically are not remnants of the past but living practices with enduring value that deserve a place alongside contemporary medicine.

Calls to Action—for Healthcare and Beyond

From their vantage point, progress requires both clinical and civic action:

Inside healthcare

• Commit to culturally safe, anti-racist practice in every interaction.

• Build time for listening and follow-up into care pathways.

• Invite Elders and families into planning and rounds, as appropriate and desired.

• Recognize (and where possible integrate) traditional healing and ceremony.

• Train leaders and teams to understand history and its impacts today.

• Strengthen community-led research, prevention, and mental health supports.

Beyond healthcare

• Learn Canada’s true history; don’t outsource that responsibility.

• Listen to Survivors with openness and humility.

• Support Indigenous-led services and governance.

• Ensure newcomers to Canada also learn this history as part of citizenship education.

“Plain, Simple, Human”

Good Striker offers a simple compass: be kind, be humble, be human. Much of what the profession aspires to—non-judgment, respect, attentive presence—has always been embedded in Indigenous teachings shared by Elders. Reconciliation, in this view, isn’t something separate from nursing; it’s nursing done well.

Johnson returns, again, to values. Health cannot be reduced to throughput or cost containment. Communities thrive when care honours people’s stories, acknowledges history, and restores balance—with self, family, and the land.

On this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, their message is clear: start with truth, act with respect, and stay the course. The work is long, but the path is well lit.