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April 10, 2025

Celebrating Indigenous Nurses Day

Honouring Edith Monture and Indigenous Nurses 

A smiling portrait of an indigenous woman with half-dyed green bangs, glasses, pierced ears, and a septum piercing. Photo from CIRA’s Indigenous stock photo library.

On April 10, we celebrate Indigenous Nurses Day, a day dedicated to recognizing the contributions of Indigenous nurses to their communities.

This date is significant as it marks the birth of Edith Monture, a pioneering Mohawk nurse whose legacy continues to inspire.

Born on April 10, 1890, on the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario, Edith Monture was the first Indigenous nurse registered in Canada. Despite facing racial barriers, she pursued her education in the United States, graduating from New Rochelle Nursing School in New York in 1914.

Monture served in the United States Army Nurse Corps during World War I, becoming the first Indigenous woman from Canada to serve in the U.S. military. After the war, she continued to work as a nurse and midwife on the Six Nations Reserve until her retirement.

A scanned photograph of Edith Monture wearing a United States Army Nurse Corps uniform.

Photo of Edith Monture from the
Canadian Encyclopedia (courtesy John Moses).

Indigenous nurses play a crucial role in delivering culturally sensitive health care, bridging modern medicine and Indigenous knowledge. They serve a diverse range of patients, including First Nations, Inuit, Métis and urban Indigenous populations.

As we celebrate Indigenous Nurses Day on April 10, let us remember the legacy of Edith Monture and the Indigenous nurses who continue to make a difference. Thank you to all Indigenous nurses for your commitment to caring for your communities with strength and cultural pride.

Photo from CIRA’s Indigenous stock photo library.

About CNO

The College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) is the regulator of the nursing profession in Ontario. It is not a school or a nursing association. CNO acts in the public interest by:

  • assessing qualifications and registering individuals who want to practice nursing in Ontario.
  • setting the practice standards of the profession that nurses in Ontario are expected to meet.
  • promoting nurses' continuing competence through a quality assurance program.
  • holding nurses accountable to those standards by addressing complaints or reports about nursing care.

The College was founded in 1963. By establishing the College, the Ontario government was acknowledging that the nursing profession had the ability to govern itself and put the public's well-being ahead of professional interests.

For the latest information, please see our Nursing Statistics page.

Anyone who wants to use a nursing-related title — Registered Nurse (RN), Registered Practical Nurse (RPN) or Nurse Practitioner (NP) must become a member of CNO.

Frequently Asked Questions

Go to the public Register, Find a Nurse, to conduct a search for the nurse. Contact us if you can't find the person you are looking for.

All public information available about nurses is posted in the public Register, Find a Nurse, which contains profiles of every nurse in Ontario. Publicly available information about nurses include their registration history, business address, and information related to pending disciplinary hearings or past findings.

Unregistered practitioners are people who are seeking employment in nursing or holding themselves out as being able to practice nursing in Ontario, but who are not qualified to do so. They are not registered members of CNO. Only people registered with CNO can use nursing-related titles or perform certain procedures that could cause harm if carried out by a non-registered health professional. CNO takes the issue of unregistered practitioners seriously. See Unregistered Practitioners for more information.

To ensure procedural fairness for both the patient (or client) and the nurse, the Regulated Health Professions Act requires that information gathered during an investigation remain confidential until the matter is referred to the Discipline Committee or Fitness to Practise Committee. CNO will not disclose any information that could identify patients (or clients) or compromise an investigation. See Investigations: A Process Guide for more information.

Information obtained during an investigation will become public if the matter is referred to a disciplinary hearing. If a complaint is not referred to a hearing, no information will be available publicly.

See CNO's hearings schedule, which is updated as hearing dates are confirmed. Hearings at CNO are open to the public and the media. For details on how to attend a hearing, contact the Hearings Administration Team.

A summary of allegations and the disciplinary panel outcomes can be found on the public Register, Find a Nurse. Full decisions and reasons are also available.

Where a disciplinary panel makes a finding of professional misconduct, they have the authority to reprimand a nurse, and suspend or revoke a nurse's registration. Terms, conditions and limitations can also be imposed on a nurse's registration, which restricts their practice for a set period. Nurses can also be required to complete remedial activities, such as reviewing CNO documents and meeting with an expert, before returning to practice.

For detailed information see the Sexual Abuse Prevention section.

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