Lucy Barney is a Perinatal Nurse and a cultural advisor who works with the Provincial Health

Services Authority and the First Nations Health Authority. She is an RN with a MScN. In all the

work she does she brings a cultural approach to it whether it be working with diabetes or

perinatal services. In 1999, she developed “The Braid Theory” which serves as a bases for the

work she does. The Braid Theory weaves together the physical, spiritual, and mental. It can be

applied to all aspects of life. I sat down with her at an office at the FNHA on West Hastings to

talk about her life and her work. 

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Where does your family come from?

 

I’m from Lillooet, so it’s the St’at’imc. The band that I come from is called T’it’q’et, that’s where my father is from and my mother is from Nqaqua, which is the Darcy band. 

 

Was there a specific event in your life that made you choose this career path working with the FNHA and the PHSA?

 

It just happened. I was doing unit clerk training and I worked in different hospitals like the Cancer Agency, Richmond hospital and the various departments. One day I was working on the maternity ward and someone said, “You’re smart. Why don’t you become a nurse.” So, I said “Okay.” Then I had to go through the whole process of applying to different colleges and the one I got accepted to was Langara College. I had to do my grade 11 and 12 math, biology, english, and chemistry all over again. I did that in high school because I worked evenings at the hospital as a unit clerk. 

 

When you first became a nurse did you ever see yourself getting into the position you’re in today?

 

I never ever dreamed that I could be in this position. I just did one step at a time and let the creator decide what was here for me in nursing and it allowed me to work with Aboriginal people from the beginning. First I worked in diabetes at the Canadian Diabetes Association, then I worked at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, and then with the Aboriginal HIV STI Education Program. From there I have been employed at Perinatal Services B.C. which is a PHSA Program. B.C. CDC is also a PHSA program. I’ve been working at PHSA for 20 years in the two different departments. First HIV and now perinatal services, but I’m also part-time here at the First Nations Health Authority working with the nursing department.

 

Does all the work you do bring in a cultural approach?

 

I always will weave our cultural beliefs, values, and practices into all the work I do. For example, say if it was diabetes and I talked about exercise and food, I would bring in our traditional foods and our traditional exercises. Like canoeing, hunting, fishing, berry picking because those are physical activities and they’re traditional foods and they’re healthy for you. I also weave in our spirituality because it’s our spirituality that kept us strong. For example, we honoured the plants and we honoured the animals that provided us with nutrition. That was a ceremony in itself by acknowledging the plants and animals that fed us, nurtured us and kept us strong. 

 

                           Can you tell me more about the Braid Theory and how it plays into day to day life?

 

                                  It’s a whole life thing. It helps me personally in my own life by looking at my own mind and my own spirit. Knowing where I                                     am and knowing what I need to work on. The Braid Theory works with any disease, it could be HIV, diabetes, tuberculosis                                       or heart disease. When you develop any physical disease it’s the same issues that create barriers for us. Even to diagnose                                       what it is that we have. For example, our people have been oppressed, we’ve always had low socio-economic status, we’ve                                   had the residential school issue that was very abusive physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Therefore our people                                   turned to bad coping skills like addictions to alcohol, drugs and smoking. There’s a lot of discrimination against our people                                   and that prevents us from taking care of ourselves physically. We need to educate ourselves on diseases that we have                                             created and that we developed over time. Looking at the spirit, it’s the spirit that was outlawed of that braid theory. You                                         have the mind, body and spirit. With the spirit strand that was outlawed of our people we weren’t allowed to practice our                                       culture in the past. For example, potlatches and sun dances were outlawed. There was a huge loss of our people to be able                                   to be self-sustaining and self-sufficient people because we were under the Indian Act which the federal government                                               created in order to control our people. We’re still wards of the queen and wards of the government because of that Indian                                     Act that’s in place. That’s one of the policies which began our people becoming unwell.

 

 

 

 

 

Have you ever found it hard to balance life as a mother, dancer, and a nurse?

 

I do find it hard, but it did help me a lot in the very beginning by being with our people, the drums and the dancing. The spirit of the dance and the spirit of the people, the songs, the food was there for me. I don’t practice it as much as I should because I’m so busy doing other stuff. It’s hard to maintain it and it’s time consuming as well to dance because sometimes you have to take Friday’s off in order to get to where it’s happening and I can’t do that with a Monday to Friday job. So it does interfere, but it did help me very much with my spirituality. It was actually in nursing school that I had my young son, who maybe was about 9, and a partner who was just diagnosed with diabetes, and myself in nursing school while still working part-time. I was feeling very overwhelmed and I didn’t know it. What happened was, I developed anxiety so I went to the health clinic at the college and I went to the psychologist every week or so and tried to do what she told me to do but it wasn’t helping my anxiety. Finally, I was at the end of my rope and I went to the Indigenous liaison at the college. What she did was give me sage and matches and told me to go find a quiet place on the college site and smudge myself. What smudging does is cleanse our mind. We put the smoke to our eyes so we see only the good, our nose so we smell only the good, our mouths so we only talk about good, our ears so we only hear the good and our heart so that we’re always filled with love. We do our bodies too so that we can take the everyday burdens and deal with them in a good way. When I smudged myself I found that quiet place and what happened was absolutely amazing. There was this line of trees and they were just shimmering and shining — it was absolutely amazing. All that was in focus with me was this one rock and that one rock is with me today and that was probably 30 years ago. My mother had died 11 years prior and I was needing her and I didn’t know it. That was cool. From then on I knew I had the permission to practice my culture because we were outlawed and it really didn’t happen a lot before that because of the outlawing.

 

What would you say your greatest achievement is?

 

My greatest achievement is the fact that I am able to weave the science, the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of any illness together. Whether it’s diabetes, heart disease, tuberculosis or having a baby. You have to weave all of those together and that’s how I practice in everything that I do.

 

What are your thoughts on having sacred spaces in hospitals?

 

I think it’s great because hospitals are institutions, residential schools were institution, tuberculosis hospitals were institutions. Hospitals in general are supposed to be a good place, but it’s still an institution and it’s foreign and it’s scary and some people don’t understand what’s going on in their body. Maybe something happened maybe they’ve come from far away and they’re in this huge city. Just having a quiet place, a spiritual place to help them out is awesome because it grounds them in the city. It’s so awesome that more and more places are doing that.

 

Is there anything else you’d like to say?

 

I think it’s important for moving forward for all organizations, all companies to look at the truth and reconciliation to help Indigenous people find our place back in Canada. For far too long we’ve been outside on this land we live on. We were put on reserves and our resources were taken. Just very bad treatment. The apology that the Prime Minister gave to the Inuit just last week was great. That’s apologizing to the Inuit and their experience with tuberculosis and being taken away. The apology regarding the residential school and all the children that were taken away from their homes and abused mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically — that truth and reconciliation I think every organization needs to follow those recommendations there’s 94 of them. We all have a part. The first part is awareness.