Uproot – Addressing colonialism – half-day virtual symposium



Uproot – Addressing colonialism

Half-day virtual symposium

February 28, 2023 from 12:00 PM – 04:00 PM

Online Symposium
The National Aboriginal Council of Midwives is hosting a Symposium! Join us to learn more about Addressing Colonialism – the greatest barrier to restoring birth. Topics will include colonial health policy, midwifery regulation, hospital privileges, decolonial approaches, and resources to advance the restoring of birth.

Anti-Racism Sharing Circle – Indigenous Student Midwives

December 19, 2022 from 03:30 PM – 05:30 PM ET
Online Event

NACM is interested in hearing about Indigenous midwifery students’ experiences in their Midwifery Education Programs (MEP). These circles will be confidential and will contribute to transforming Indigenous specific discrimination within the MEP, ways we can track improvements and measure impact to make midwifery learning safe and relevant to Indigenous students.

With the presence of an Elder, we aim to create a safe space to say what you are feeling around the theme of race, racism, and inequalities.

An honorarium will be provided for your time and expertise.

 

 

International Day of the Midwife 2022 Joint Statement by Pauktuutit, Inuit Women of Canada and National Aboriginal Council of Midwives

International Day of the Midwife 2022 Joint Statement by Pauktuutit, Inuit Women of Canada and National Aboriginal Council of Midwives

Today, NACM and Pauktuutit jointly call on all levels of government to fund and support the integration of traditional midwifery practices into health service delivery, and to recognize the leadership of Inuit midwives for their 36 years of health care excellence. We call on governments, primary care providers, health educators, policy makers and administrators to center the work of Indigenous midwives. We must work together to grow and sustain Indigenous-led sexual and reproductive health care in our communities.

 

Read the full Joint Statement >

The New York Times and the World Health Organization write about Indigenous midwifery

The New York Times and the World Health Organization write about Indigenous midwifery

March 4, 2020

In January 2020, Indigenous midwifery featured in articles in the New York Times and in the World Health Organization newsroom.

“Canada’s government once pressured Inuit women to travel south to give birth. Now, they can have their babies at a hometown maternity clinic led by Inuit midwives.”

Photographs by y Amber Bracken and 

This article features two of NACM’s Core Leaders, Brenda Epoo and Margaret Mina.

Read the full article today >>

Bringing midwifery back to a northern Canadian community – Jan 31, 2020

“Heather Heinrichs is a midwife working in remote Hay River in Canada’s Northwest Territories – a sub‑arctic town of 3,500 nestled on the south bank of Great Slave Lake. Until five years ago, women from Hay River who wanted to give birth had to fly or drive around the huge expanse of lake to deliver in Yellowknife, the Territorial capital, or travel hundreds of kilometres south to larger centres.”

Text and photos © WHO/Christine McNab

This article features NACM member Heather Heinrichs.

Read the full article today >>

NACM affirms our solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation!

NACM Solidarity Statement with the Wet’suwet’en Nation

February 24, 2020

The National Aboriginal Council of Midwives (NACM) affirms our solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation.

NACM exists to promote excellence in reproductive health care for Inuit, First Nations and Métis people. As Indigenous midwives we are protectors of our peoples’ first environments, the waters of the womb. We know that respect for Life‑Givers and the Earth are intimately linked. As the source of all life, the Land gives us everything we need to thrive, and teaches us everything we need to live well including the bond of love and kindness that exists between relatives. Our responsibility to care for each other and the Land, to defend our traditional territories and the waters comes from these original instructions and our natural laws. As midwives we are bound by our cultural teachings, and our Nations’ agreements, to care for, protect and advocate for all our human and non‑human relations.

 

We offer deep gratitude to the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs as well as the land and water protectors for their courage and commitment to defending not only the lands and waters of the Wet’suwet’en, but also standing against cultural erasure and corporate bullying for us all. Climate change is real, and no person, Indigenous or not, can survive eating money alone.

 

We condemn the violent invasion of Wet’suwet’en lands by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, supported by the British Columbia and Canadian governments. Forcibly removing peaceful land defenders from their traditional unceded lands is in violation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. As Indigenous midwives, responsible for the sexual and reproductive care of the communities we live in, we know that violence on our lands and violence on our women, girls and gender-diverse people are inextricably connected.  What we do to the land and water affects our women, girls and gender-diverse people as well as the generations not yet born. We know that extraction from our natural resources is also linked to the unacceptable numbers of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls through nearby man-camps that are occupied by men who do not respect Indigenous women. Our lands and environments are critical to the health and well-being of our people, families, communities and Nations. There will be no reproductive justice for Indigenous people without environmental justice.

 

We call on the governments of British Columbia and Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Coastal Gaslink pipeline to respect the position taken by the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs. We stand in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en peoples and demand that the government of British Columbia and Canada uphold their responsibilities laid out in the Supreme Court Delgamuukw‑Gisday’wa decision of 1997. We demand the recognition of the self-determination of Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island. We stand as witnesses at this historic moment when our governments will make a choice to uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples or continue the ongoing legacy of colonization.

 

All our Relations

Claire Dion Fletcher, Indigenous (Lenape‑Potawatomi) Registered Midwife

Carol Couchie, Registered Midwife, Nishnawbe Kwe Nipissing First

Co-Chairs of the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives

 

Nathalie Pambrun, Métis Midwife, NACM Core Leader, President of the Canadian Association of Midwives

Lighting the Eastern Fire: Growing Indigenous Midwifery in the Atlantic Region

Lighting the Eastern Fire: Growing Indigenous Midwifery in the Atlantic Region

Join us October 23 from 1:30‑4pm
Westin Nova Scotian, Halifax / Kjipuktuk

This session is being organized by NACM specifically for communities in the Atlantic Region. It will include a sharing circle with members of NACM, followed by teachings and discussion of broader themes in the work of bringing midwifery back to the Region. More information available here >>>