Even just a nail in the structure: How Chyna Steele is building a better future for Indigenous healthcare – Niagara Health
Jun 20th, 2025
Chyna Steele remembers a moment from her time working at the only pharmacy in her home community of Wabasca, Northern Alberta – population 1,600. An Elder came in, clutching a paper bag of medications, clearly unsure of what any of them were for. He didn’t speak much English, and there was no one around who spoke Cree.
“He walked out with his prescriptions but still didn’t understand his condition or how to take the meds,” she recalls. “That stuck with me — it just felt wrong. And it wasn’t a one-time thing. It happened all the time.”
That moment — and many like it — sparked in Steele a need to make a difference. Even if that meant she would be just a tiny nail in the structure of change. Now a medical student at McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, she’s turning those experiences into action, with a mission to improve healthcare access for Indigenous communities like the one she grew up in.
