Lessons learned with Marty Landrie

by Laura Mushumaski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

(ANNews) – Marty Landrie started his career in psychiatric nursing. Fast forward to 30 years of working in various roles within healthcare – advocating, developing, and working on programs that promoted and advanced Indigenous health equity – our Cree/Metis brother Marty learned five fundamental lessons.

“Know who you are as an Indigenous person and let your heart and spirit guide you, not your brain. In other words, I know who I am! You should too!”

These are words Landrie shared through an essay he wrote for people who work within Indigenous health and peoples on the first lesson – learning ‘Indigenous Identity.’ The distinction between two noticeable groups, when working as a health care professional within Alberta— “will rattle your sense of self,” he explains. There are those from your own community who will challenge your Indigeneity when working inside the healthcare system. The other group is made up of the people you work with within the healthcare system while trying to make sense of where you belong.

Marty was encouraged to apply for psychiatric nursing as there were men needed. Turns out the “essence of psych nursing is about relationship building.” This is where it all started for him. Landrie’s focus was always on addressing Indigenous health. He observed the therapeutic nature of nurse-client interactions; this is the essence of relationship building. Soon an opportunity appeared for him and two other Indigenous nurses within Aboriginal mental health, to create cultural helper programs—this is where it all started…Indigenous voices being represented throughout the land.

Second lesson: ‘Role Identity’— “be clear with your role and accountability, then you can in turn assist others to be clear with their roles and accountabilities and address Indigenous health issues together. … Indigenous health is everybody’s business.” Around the time that Landrie was building a portfolio for the first Aboriginal Provincial Mental Health program, the Oka crisis was happening. This brought Aboriginal rights to the forefront, and motivated Marty to head back to school and earn a B.A. in Native Studies from the University of Alberta, to learn more about Aboriginal rights and histories.

As with anything in life, “Passion is required”—the third lesson that was learned. “Having passion in your work in Indigenous health is a protector. The stressors of work become much more manageable when you let passion drive your day.” This understanding that Landrie shared, “[is] rewarding, exciting  and takes you on a journey that opens your heart, your mind and your spirit. Once you’ve been involved in Indigenous health there’s no turning back. You become effected in ways you never expected.”

This passion was strengthened as Marty learned how traditional approaches to wellness and access to Elder’s teachings and ceremonies like smudging can be placed in the health care system when working as a nurse with the Aboriginal Diabetes Wellness program at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, in Edmonton.

‘The accountability in the healthcare system is grounded in privilege’ is the fourth lesson learned. “I learned that if I could impart even just a little bit of what I know about Indigenous health to anyone in the system, then my burden of wondering if the healthcare system ‘knew this…’ about Indigenous health would be much lower. I tell two people, they tell two, well, you get it!”

These are words shared by Landrie on how not all Indigenous health issues are addressed. Eventually Marty obtained a Master of Science in Population Health, that allowed him to promote and advocate for increased Indigenous health equity in the health care system.

One of the most emphasized lessons Marty shared during our interview was lesson number five: ‘I am not the expert.’ “Always stay humble when addressing Indigenous health needs,” he added. “Stay confident in your clinical knowledge and expertise but always defer to those who know better than you when it comes to Indigenous health matters—this means reaching out to the Indigenous communities, bringing them into the system, and creating a culturally safe space for them.”

The lessons of needing to be humble that Landrie spoke to, “[are] the cornerstone for developing relationships—you need everyone in society to help you …We need to bring in the experts, create space—physical room to smudge, for sweat lodge…[and] policy space.”

While reflecting over the course of his career, that lead to him becoming the Executive Director for the Indigenous Wellness Core at Alberta Health Services and now taking his learned experiences into the world of consulting at Landrie Health and Wellness Inc. the advice Marty would gift his younger self is: “Latch on to that humility, there is always time—that will lead to your heart. Stay true to that and honour that.”