National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, A Time to Remember, Listen and Reflect

September 30th 2026,

Dear Nursing and Nursing Student Community,

Today, we remember. Today, we listen. Today, we reflect.

On this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day, the Canadian Nursing Students’ Association (CNSA) honours residential school Survivors, remembers the children who never returned home, and stands with their families and communities.

Today, I have the privilege of communicating with you from Ottawa, on the traditional and unceded territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation, where CNSA’s national office is also located. This is not simply something to acknowledge in words. It asks us to reflect deeply on the lands on which we learn, work, gather, and provide care, and on the responsibilities we carry as nursing students and future nurses.

A land acknowledgement, however, cannot be where our reflection ends.

September 30 asks us to confront a painful history, but it also asks us to recognize that the consequences of colonialism are not confined to history. They continue to shape experiences within education, healthcare, institutions, and communities today.

For those of us entering nursing, this carries a particular responsibility.

We are preparing to enter a profession built on trust. Patients will allow us into some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. With that privilege comes a responsibility to understand that healthcare systems have not always been places of safety for Indigenous Peoples, and that racism, discrimination, colonial policies, and the dismissal of Indigenous knowledge have caused — and continue to cause — harm.

Reconciliation in nursing, therefore, cannot simply mean knowing the history. It requires us to ask difficult questions of ourselves and of the systems we are entering:

Whose knowledge is centred in our nursing education? Whose experiences are missing? Do Indigenous students feel safe, respected, and heard within our programs? When we witness anti-Indigenous racism in a classroom or clinical environment, will we recognize it? And when we recognize it, will we have the courage to challenge it? When an Indigenous patient shares their experiences with healthcare, will we truly listen? And as future nurses, what will we do differently because of what we have learned?

These are not questions that can be answered in a single day. But it is our commitment, our responsibility, and our duty to keep asking them — today, tomorrow, and throughout our careers.

Reconciliation requires an ongoing willingness to question, to listen, to learn, and sometimes to unlearn. It requires us not only to recognize where harm has occurred, but to examine the systems and practices we are becoming part of and ask how we can contribute to changing them.

As nursing students and future nurses, our goal must be to carry these questions forward; into our classrooms, our clinical placements, our leadership, and eventually every space in which we provide care. Our responsibility does not end when September 30 does.

At 12:00 p.m. ET today, Remembering the Children: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation will be broadcast live from Parliament Hill. Where possible, CNSA encourages nursing students across Canada to set aside these 90 minutes — not simply to watch, but to listen intentionally, learn, and reflect.

Watch live in English:
https://www.aptntv.ca/ndtr/rtc/stream-english/

Regarder en direct en français :
https://www.aptntv.ca/ndtr/rtc/stream-french/

CNSA has also compiled a list of Indigenous-led ceremonies, walks, gatherings, commemorations, resources, and learning opportunities taking place across provinces and territories. CNSA encourages you to share these resources widely with nursing students, colleagues, classmates, and your communities and, where possible, to participate in opportunities taking place near you:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q2kjmV7BlK8Bk6bYYm5M-2SN2fB1aH45YUf9M1aH00Q/edit?usp=sharing

But sharing a resource is only a beginning.

Today, I encourage each of us to make space for deeper reflection. Sit with what you hear. Seek out Indigenous voices and perspectives. Consider what you were taught, what you were not taught, and what you still need to learn.

Most importantly, consider what responsibility you carry forward.

Because reconciliation cannot exist only in statements, social media posts, land acknowledgements, or on September 30.

It must be reflected in how we learn. How we lead. How we respond when we witness racism. How we advocate for change. How we approach Indigenous knowledge. How we listen. And, ultimately, how we care for the people and communities who place their trust in us.

As nursing students, we will inherit healthcare systems that we did not create. But we will also have a role in determining what those systems become.

May today be a day of remembrance, but also a day of meaningful reflection on the kind of nurses, leaders, colleagues, and advocates we choose to become, and on the actions we will carry with us long after today.

Every Child Matters.

In solidarity,
Scarlett Montserrat Sanabria-Ramos
President Canadian Nursing Students’ Association (CNSA)