Latest / Community Champion of the Week / Makayla Mantla, National Advisory Committee on Indigenous Nursing and Health

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Makayla Mantla, National Advisory Committee on Indigenous Nursing and Health · Community Champion of the Week

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Windspeaker Radio Network Community Champion of the Week.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Each week, the Windspeaker Radio Network recognizes and celebrates an Indigenous champion from Alberta who demonstrates exceptional commitment to enhancing their community.
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  SPEAKER_00: Hello, my name is Michaela Menkla.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm a nursing student in my fourth year at the University of Alberta.
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  SPEAKER_01: Congratulations, you're this week's community champion.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me, how does it make you feel getting recognized by your community?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: It makes me feel very grateful to be in the Canadian healthcare system as a nursing student and just increase the indigenous representation.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: So you recently got a letter acknowledged, you know, from the Premier of Manitoba.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me, how did that make you feel?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: When I got that letter from Wab Canu, the Premier of Manitoba, I was so thankful and grateful.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it just gave me that encouragement to keep following my dreams of being that motivational speaker to help more Indigenous people in Canada.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: So you recently also got invited by the president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Union.
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  SPEAKER_01: Tell me, as an Indigenous woman, how did that make you feel?
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  SPEAKER_01: Getting recognized, getting getting invited, you know, getting celebrated.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was after I was in Halifax just in January 2025, and I gave three speeches there, and it led me to be becoming part of the CFNU where I they asked me to be part of the Apology Towards Reconciliation.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And this also made me realize that Indigenous women also need to be uprising as advocates to help indigenous issues and looking at how we can fix the healthcare system.
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  SPEAKER_01: On that note, what do you think, in your humble opinion, needs to be fixed with the healthcare system here in Canada?
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  SPEAKER_00: I think for the general healthcare system, there's a lot of issues in regarding staffing and retention.
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  SPEAKER_00: But when I think about the indigenous healthcare staff within Canada, there is not that many.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: And for my dream, I want to bring more Indigenous people in youth and bring them into nursing as medical doctors to increase that representation and to show that Indigenous people do belong in healthcare.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: We are smart and educated, and we deserve a chance to be here as well.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: This has been the Win Speaker Radio Network Community Champion of the Week.