Nursing prof wins prestigious Indspire award
May 18, 2026
For over three decades, Mona Lisa Bourque Bearskin has helped reshape Indigenous health nursing in Canada, grounding systems of care in Indigenous knowledge.
A Cree Métis Registered Nurse, scholar, and national leader from Beaver Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6 Territory, Bourque Bearskin, an associate professor in the University of Victoria’s School of Nursing, recently was honoured with an Indspire Award for health.
One of the highest honours the Indigenous community bestows upon its own people, Bourque Bearskin received her award at an awards gala on May 14 in Halifax.
“I am so very proud to carry my family’s story in all that I do because if it wasn’t for them, I would not be here today. I am especially humbled by this opportunity to recognize my community as making this all possible,” she says.
“To be part of the powerful mix of First Nations, Inuk and Métis thinkers and doers who all clearly come from a place of cultural pride and a deep sense of responsibility to their families, communities and collective well-being was electrifying and inspiring.”
Bourque Bearskin is a leader in UVic's Master of Nursing in Indigenous Wellness program and is one of six inaugural Canadian Institutes of Health Research-Institute of Indigenous Peoples Health (CIHR-IIPH) Indigenous Health Nursing Research Chairs in the country.
The Indspire awards committee praised Bourque Bearskin’s scholarship, mentorship, and advocacy.
“Her work is internationally recognized for advancing Indigenous nursing leadership, health equity, and the integration of Indigenous knowledge systems across nursing practice, education, policy and research,” the awards committee wrote.
Bourque Bearskin earned her BScN, MSc, and PhD in Nursing from the University of Alberta while raising two sets of twins, born just 18 months apart, as a single mother.
She co-designed Canada’s first Indigenous Licensed Practical Nursing program in Maskwacis, central Alberta, and supported the development of the first Inuit Bachelor of Science in Nursing program in Nunavut and led Indigenous-specific nursing initiatives and collaborative partnership at the University of Alberta.
As former president of the Canadian Indigenous Nursing Association, she advanced national policy, strengthened Indigenous representation in nursing governance, and helped establish culturally safe nursing education frameworks across Canada.
Shaped by the impacts of the Residential School and Sixties Scoop era, Bourque Bearskin says she was inspired to become a nurse by her grandmother.
"It was really important for me to become a nurse to honour my Kokum, Marie-Anne, and my Chāpān," Bourque Bearskin says.
She says it was an honour to meet other Indspire award winners, particularly Indigenous youth leaders who are transforming systems.
“To witness the reshaping and recreating of Indigenous brilliance, innovation, humility and courage—a generation that speaks up, challenges hierarchies and hegemonic systems and refuses to accept the status quo—was transformative,” Bourque Bearskin says.
“They embrace their laws, songs and languages to create space for creative Indigenous brilliance to shine while honesty, justice and relational accountability are embodied.”
Bourque Bearskin invited people to register for the 2026 Indigenous Health Nursing Research Empowerment Summit, to be held from Oct 6 to 9, at the University of Victoria on the traditional lands of the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt) Peoples.