By Daria Nowaczek and Karla Wilson
As BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) celebrates 50 years of service, we have been sharing stories about the people and programs that have shaped our past, and those that will lead us into the future.
Among these, the BCEHS Indigenous Health (IH) Team stands as a symbol of transformation and advocacy within our organization. Grounded in Indigenous laws, values, and ways of knowing, this recently formed team is working to dismantle systemic barriers, embed cultural safety, and ensure Indigenous patients and staff experience respectful and equitable pre-hospital emergency care.
On this last day of
National Indigenous History Month in Canada, we celebrate this team and their important work within and outside of BCEHS.
The BCEHS 50th Anniversary logo draws inspiration from kaaʔinm̓it aḥ quʔasam̓it himwica, The story of the crow and all the relations. The moral of the story is to respect, care, and love all your relations for their teachings and in turn we learn to love, care, and respect ourselves. Learn more about the meaning of our BCEHS 50th Anniversary logo
here.
Comprised of 14 team members, the BCEHS Indigenous Health team’s employees live and work across British Columbia. The work of each team member is varied, but it always comes back to the North Star vision to eradicate Indigenous-specific racism and embed cultural safety within BCEHS.
One of the most visible roles on the Indigenous Health team is that of Indigenous Cultural Advisor (ICA). BCEHS has ICAs working in the Interior West, Interior East, Northern B.C., on Vancouver Island, and in the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Valley regions.
The primary focus of the role is to ensure access to culturally safe healthcare experiences for Indigenous individuals. Each ICA works closely with Indigenous Peoples, families, communities and BCEHS employees.
Janine Nadeau, ICA for the Interior East region, has worked for BCEHS for over 17 years. Janine is Metis in her father’s lineage and Scottish in her mother’s. Janine’s Metis lineage originates from the Red River region in what is colonially known as Manitoba. She previously held both paramedic and emergency medical dispatcher roles, most recently completing her training as an advanced care paramedic.
Despite her broad and varied front-line experience, Janine has always been curious about what more she could do to support the patients in her community.
“I wasn’t able to provide the level of patient advocacy I aspired to,” she says. This drive for improving the patient experience, coupled with learning more about her family’s Metis heritage, further highlighted inequities and boosted Janine’s desire to see cultural safety in the health care system.
In her position as Indigenous Cultural Advisor for the Interior East, Janine supports 15 nations and approximately 20 BCEHS ambulance stations. Janine’s role focuses on education and facilitating community connections between Indigenous communities and BCEHS front-line employees. As the only ICA with front-line experience, Janine delivers Indigenous cultural safety education through a paramedic lens, creating a safe space for employees to learn and reflect.
“ICAs not only support Indigenous communities but we are here to support our frontline employees; to work with them, to answer questions, and to provide resources. We want to support learning in a safe way that isn’t going to add more pressure to the job” she says.
Janine finds this work deeply fulfilling and is both motivated and inspired by the follow-up and personal reflections shared by employees.
“Receiving messages from long-time paramedics who say: ‘Wow, thank you for opening my eyes to this, it’s not too late to learn’, brings me a lot of joy and is a huge win”, she says.
Janine’s commitment to support cultural safety has a bright vision for the future. She would like to see the ICA role expanded and available to support crews in real-time.
As the Indigenous Cultural Advisor for Vancouver Island, Summer Stonechild says her focus is on improving health outcomes for Indigenous communities. With 27 years of Indigenous health experience, Summer was a natural fit for the role, serving approximately 54 Nations on and surrounding Vancouver Island.
Summer is from Peepeekisis Cree Nation in her father’s lineage and Kahkewistahaw Cree Nation in her mother’s, which is located in Treaty 4 territory of southern Saskatchewan. She spent 16 years working for Alberta Health Services then returned to her home community for four years. In April 2023, Summer moved to British Columbia and joined BCEHS.
“Being on Vancouver Island has been a blessing,” Summer says. “It’s a totally different world from the prairies with a completely different accessibility dynamic. In terms of cultural knowledge, there are so many messages that align with what I was taught traditionally. And sharing my culture has been a gift.”
Summer explains that some relationships between BCEHS and Indigenous communities in BC have historically been impacted, as addressed in the December 2020 In Plain Sight report, which addresses Indigenous-specific racism and discrimination in B.C.’s health care system. Summer shares that her role is to engage communities, help to establish common ground and find solutions for both the organization and the community to build or repair communications and strengthen working relationships.
“I think the point of contact is the most important,” she says. “We must humble ourselves, and acknowledge that we are walking in as guests, without knowledge, and aspire to offer our best work. We need to have conversations to understand what best fits the community. I always ask myself: ‘What can I do in my position that will help people feel like they’re going to be treated well and respectfully when calling 911 and when they get into an ambulance?’.”
Summer’s role involves working with different Indigenous communities and offering options to help improve their emergency pre-hospital healthcare experience.
“There’s no set response mechanism in how we approach all of these different issues. I like to keep it simple: you tell me what you want, and I’ll tell you what we can do. I like to do more listening,” she says. “I look at different dynamics associated with community concerns and help to put together the best available supports.”
In January 2024, BCEHS welcomed Vicky White as the organization’s first-ever Executive Director of Indigenous Health. This historic appointment marked a turning point in the journey toward true reconciliation.
Vicky comes from the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and is a member of the Tseshaht First Nation. Both Nations are part of the 14 First Nations of the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples whose ancestral land is located on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. She is married into the Snuneymuxw First Nation and she is in the process of transferring to the community.
“My lived experience as a First Nations woman who experienced challenges with access to health care for my family has been one of the driving factors that led me to this role,” says Vicky. “This work is about meeting people where they’re at and providing the support they need while navigating the system.”
Under her leadership, the Indigenous Health Strategy for BCEHS has been developed and approved by the BCEHS Board in November 2024. The Strategy sets a long-term North Star Vision to eradicate Indigenous-specific racism and embed cultural safety across the organization. To support the realization of this work, BCEHS is mobilizing the Indigenous Health Action Plan, aligned to the Strategy goals and objectives. The action plan is in phase one efforts during 2024/25. Phase two will focus on BCEHS employees. The third phase of the action plan will involve engaging with Indigenous people and First Nations communities across the province, and the final phase will involve engagement with Indigenous patients. This work will be shared across the organization.
“Coming in not that long ago and seeing the volume and vastness of the work we do and our responsibility for patient care across the province, including First Nations & Indigenous people, I can see why the strategic goal was to build the IH strategy,” Vicky says. “We’re all in places where we have a learning journey, including myself.”
“We have to be proactive in having all the tools available to our employees within the organization in order for them to take action on the work,” Vicky says, noting that BCEHS’ 6,000+ employees work and live province wide.
White also feels she has joined the right organization at the right time.
“The organization was looking for an Indigenous leader to step in. The question to myself has always been: how do I take my passion and my family’s interactions with the health service delivery system, and what role can I play in making this better?”, she says. “It’s intrinsically rewarding to do this work, and the work is important.”
“After discussion with other BCEHS leaders, I believe and support that everybody is a leader in this work,” she continues. “I think everybody has a place in leadership because they’re developing relationships every time we interact.”
While the Indigenous Health Team at BCEHS is relatively new in the grand scheme of things, their impact is already being felt across the organization. With more than a dozen members on the team, the work is varied and there is plenty to go around.
“Because our roles are so dynamic and different, the Indigenous Health team has been influential in every aspect of the organization,” says Indigenous Cultural Advisor Summer Stonechild. “Instead of Indigenous health being talked about, an Indigenous Health team member is present as part of conversations – and that’s the game changer right there.”
The team has placed a strong emphasis on community engagement and improving access to culturally safe care in rural and remote First Nations communities in BC. The organization has supported the hiring of Indigenous staff and created data-sharing agreements that respect OCAP principles. These efforts are complemented by policy updates that ensure equitable access to hospital care for patients transported from First Nations communities.
The BCEHS Youth Pathways Program continues to strengthen relationships with First Nations through targeted training and outreach initiatives. School visits, health camps, and EMR/First Responder training programs support Indigenous youth in pursuing healthcare careers while also building local emergency response capacity.
Internally, BCEHS has enhanced cultural supports for Indigenous staff, including access to culturally aligned psychological support. Employees across the organization are required to take education to learn more about Indigenous-specific anti-racism, as well as Indigenous culture and history.
With their work guided by the Indigenous Health Strategy, the IH team has support from the highest levels of the organization.
"Our plan is to take the Indigenous Health Strategy out to all employees so we can make a difference with our frontline staff,” says BCEHS Chief Ambulance Officer Leanne Heppell.
“I believe if we have 6,000 employees who understand the systemic racism that occurs with Indigenous people in our health care system and our role in eradicating it, just think about what could happen at the dinner table when they get home from work, and talk about their learning journeys with their families. Every single one of our paramedics has a circle around them and can change culture in their circle of influence. We have a huge opportunity to make important improvements in our culture across the province.”
“I’m proud of the overall organization’s support to move this work forward,” says the Indigenous Health Team’s Executive Director Vicky White. “I see commitment to eradicate Indigenous specific racism, and our progress towards embedding cultural safety and humility.”
Indigenous Cultural Advisor for Vancouver Island Summer Stonechild is effusive when it comes to complimenting BCEHS on its commitment to eradicating Indigenous-specific racism.
“I’m working for an organization that has undertaken implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” Summer says. “I’ve lived in three provinces, and that step alone is the first time in my history of working in Indigenous health that it’s been taken seriously and been given the proper support that it needs to be successful. BCEHS has to be the only organization that has truly upheld its commitment to eradicating in-specific racism. That is gigantic. That is the mandate for our team. It’s what I call ‘reconciliation’.
BCEHS Indigenous Health Star of Life Pin
