Nursing students at TWU who take courses in Indigenous integration receive a six-week immersive experience into Indigenous history, culture, and ways of knowing particularly as it applies to health care.
Kathleen Lounsbury is Part-time Instructor and Consultant for Curricular Indigenous Integration in TWU’s School of Nursing and a member of the School of Nursing's Indigenous Advisory Council. She comes from Namgis First Nation and the traditional Kwakwaka'wakw territories of Alert Bay, B.C.
For 10 years, Kathleen has taught in various classes at TWU about Indigenous history as it relates to nursing, psychology, and religious studies. She has also worked in community health for Indigenous communities and was a research assistant for Dr. Richard Sawatzky, investigating quality of life for end-of-life care.
“As a Nursing instructor and emerging scholar, I have found Trinity Western University to be a warm and welcoming place, a place that supports me to grow at my own pace. There is a word in my language, Olakalan Mu’lan, which means ‘deeply grateful.’ That is what I feel towards TWU, a sense of deep joy and gratitude for our community of faculty, researchers, staff, and students.”
— Kathleen Lounsbury
Experiential learning informed by Indigenous knowledge and perspectives
At TWU, Kathleen regularly leads first-year students in activities such as bundle-making for medicinal purposes. Students learn Indigenous naming practices and experience Indigenous ceremonies used in traditional wellness and healing. They also participate in the blanket exercise, which visually demonstrates the shared history of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada through the timeline of pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization, and resistance.
Second-year students in the program delve deeper into topics including healing modalities, land entanglement theory, and global health. Kathleen introduces knowledge on medicinal plant usage and the methods of honourable harvest that focus on environmental stewardship, gratitude, and respect. Other hands-on activities that students engage in include gathering cedar needles and properly storing them in mason jars to make teas for health.
Kathleen has also invited Indigenous medicinal experts to lead students on walks to discover how Indigenous peoples interact with the environment and rely on natural resources for health and healing.
Third-year students are invited to participate in a Day of Learning within Kwantlen First Nation. They also have the opportunity to complete their community health practicums within a First Nations reserve. For many years, TWU has had strong partnerships with Sea Bird Island and Sts'ailes First Nations communities.
Kathleen Lounsbury’s reflections on being at TWU
As Kathleen continues to lead curricular Indigenous integration at TWU, she is also working on multiple research projects and is part of the University’s inaugural cohort of PhD in Nursing students this fall.
Reflecting on her years at TWU, Kathleen comments:
“As a Nursing instructor and emerging scholar, I have found Trinity Western University to be a warm and welcoming place, a place that supports me to grow at my own pace. There is a word in my language, Olakalan Mu’lan, which means ‘deeply grateful.’ That is what I feel towards TWU, a sense of deep joy and gratitude for our community of faculty, researchers, staff, and students.”
About Indigenous Initiatives at Trinity Western University
At TWU, we seek to hear, understand and acknowledge our shared history with Indigenous peoples and the impact that it continues to have throughout the generations. As a global Christian university, TWU continues to foster greater knowledge and understanding of Indigenous cultures, worldview, and history among students, staff, and faculty. We do this by providing educational opportunities, engaging in community partnerships, and through caring for and supporting Indigenous students.
Learn more at TWU's Indigenous Initiatives.
About Trinity Western University
Founded in 1962, Trinity Western University is Canada’s premier global Christian liberal arts university. We are dedicated to equipping students to discover meaningful connections between career, life, and the needs of the world. Drawing upon the riches of the Christian tradition, seeking to unite faith and reason through teaching and scholarship, Trinity Western University is a degree-granting research institution offering liberal arts and sciences as well as professional schools in business, nursing, education, human kinetics, graduate studies, and arts, media, and culture. It has four locations in Canada: Langley, Richmond-Lansdowne, Richmond-Minoru, and Ottawa. Learn more at www.twu.ca or follow us on Twitter @TrinityWestern, on Facebook and LinkedIn.