Cree Elder Christina Wilna ("Willy") Hodgson Memorial

Born Christina Wilna Pratt, “Willy” Hodgson began life at the Sandy Lake Reserve, Saskatchewan, on October 20, 1935. She and her sisters (Jean, Mabel and Norma), had lost their father to cancer when they were young. That loss was filled, partially, by Canon Edward Ahenakew, their mother’s brother. “Uncle Edward,” an Anglican priest and scholar, attended medical school at the University of Alberta. He had an enormous influence on Willy. In 1953 she boarded a bus for Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, to study nursing, a vocation she saw as a way to help others. The bus fare was $32—an enormous amount—so her brother-in-law, Ralph Greyeyes of Muskeg Lake, took it upon himself to collect it for her from family and friends. Willy never forgot Ralph’s kindness. Three years later she was one of the first Aboriginal women in Canada to become a registered psychiatric nurse. Her nursing career evolved into psychiatric social work and public service while she also served as wife, mother, community volunteer, and board member at local, provincial and national levels. Her efforts were devoted to groups as diverse as First Nation and Métis people, visible minorities, women and children, the intellectually handi-capped, those with addictions and the Anglican Church locally and nationally. Willy’s contributions were formally recognized. Named to the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 1995 and to the Order of Canada in 2002, she was Moose Jaw’s Citizen of the Year and YWCA Woman of Distinction in 1998. She received awards for public service and in 2003 the Law Society of Saskatchewan named an award after her for exemplifying integrity, leadership and character in advancing equity and diversity in legal education, the legal profession and administration of justice. An advocate for whoever asked for her help, she was a friend, colleague, Lay Minister for the Anglican Church and a Cree Elder.

Willy was fluent in Plains Cree and English having grown up in the community of Shell Lake, adjacent to her mother’s Reserve of Sandy Lake (now called Ahtahkakohp), Saskatchewan. Her parents, George and Agnes Pratt (nee Ahenakew), enfranchised and settled near the reserve so they could vote and enjoy the liberties of other Canadians.
When Willy finished the academic portion of her training, she began her work in hospitals where it was discovered she could help caring for patients in another way: fluent in Plains Cree, Saulteaux, and English, doctors and nurses frequently called upon her to translate for unilingual Cree patients.
The intention of this award made in memorial Cree Elder Christine Wilna (“Willy”) Hodgson is intended to encourage students to pursue an education in psychiatric nursing.