“Amy Wilson’s story is set sixty years ago when she provided health care for Indigenous communities across thousands of square miles of northern BC and the Yukon. With resilience, courage, and commitment, but only basic supplies, Nurse Amy responded to remote emergencies, with help from the RCMP, bush pilots, local traders, and First Nations and Metis leaders. Her deep concern for improving health care for Indigenous People remains relevant–poignant evidence that we have yet to provide desperately needed policies and resources for northern Indigenous People, despite decades of false promises.”
–Nancy Gibson, PhD, medical anthropologist
“The book gives a vivid description of one nurse’s response to remote emergencies, deeply concerned and committed to bring people nursing care within the constraints and larger social circumstances over which she had only limited control. It is a timely historical account that shines light on public health nursing work in BC in the context of epidemics and the health and lives of Indigenous communities that is both historically and currently relevant.”
—BC Studies, review by Geertje Boschma (Summer 2020)
“A compelling read about the fierce experience of life as a nurse in 1950s Yukon. But more than that, this story is an example of what it means to be an ally to Indigenous people: Amy Wilson listened, learned, and served the people of the North with heart, humility, and respect. At every turn she valued traditional ways without question and for that alone, Wilson’s vividly told story serves as a guide for us all.”
—Jennifer Manuel, award-winning author of The Heaviness of Things That Float
“When Days are Long is a charmer, its nuanced descriptions by a visiting nurse of the health care and everyday lives of Indigenous peoples across the far reaches of British Columbia and the Yukon now half a century ago forcefully reminding us of our common humanity.”
–Jean Barman, Governor General Award-winning author and historian
