"Edıı̨̀ Gots'ǫ Gogǫ̀hłı̨" Where We Were Born: Tłıchǫ Birthplace Mapping Project

Rachel Olson

The Firelight Group

Dr. Rachel Olson is a citizen of the Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation from the Yukon Territory. She has been a researcher in First Nation communities since 1998, working on various projects, from oral history, traditional land use and natural resource management to First Nations health issues. In 2003, Rachel earned a Master of Research in Social Anthropology from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. In 2013, Rachel completed a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Sussex, looking at the politics of midwifery care and childbirth in Manitoba First Nations communities.Dr. Rachel Olson has worked as a consultant for the LINKS (Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems) program at UNESCO in Paris, France and at the First Nations Centre at the National Aboriginal Health Organization on their maternal care file. She works closely with the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives (NACM) as a researcher and writer for their Aboriginal Health and Human Resource Initiative projects. At Firelight, Dr. Rachel Olson is a principal investigator and project manager. Her main areas of focus are maternal health and midwifery care for First Nations communities, as well as supporting Aboriginal midwifery at the local, provincial and national levels. Her research also focuses on access to primary health care, and has conducted social science research in both urban and rural settings on this topic. She has intimate knowledge of the complexity of delivering health services in First Nations communities, and is an active member of several organizations (including National Aboriginal Council of Midwives and the Midwives Association of British Columbia Aboriginal Committee) working towards improved health and wellness for First Nations. Rachel is also a Research Associate at the Centre for Cultures of Reproduction, Technology and Health at the University of Sussex, UK.

Janelle Kuntz

The Firelight Group

Janelle is an anthropologist specializing in traditional knowledge and gender-based research. She has been working as a researcher for Indigenous communities for several years, working on a variety of community-led projects related to land use studies, traditional ecological knowledge, birthplaces, community mapping, and social-economic impact assessments. In 2016, Janelle completed her Masters degree at the University of Victoria focusing on the participation of Indigenous women in environmental assessments in the Northwest Territories. Janelle is skilled in qualitative research methods, cross-sector research and analysis, community engagement, as well as designing and executing culturally-defined research projects. Janelle has also worked on social innovation strategies and community mapping initiatives on Vancouver Island.

Abstract

The Tłıchǫ Nation are an Indigenous community located in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Historically, Tłıchǫ women gave birth on the land wherever they were at the time. They did not have to travel to urban medical centers, where most Tłıcho women give birth today. In the past, Tłı̨chǫ women often relied on community midwives and their family members to safely deliver a child. This required specialized knowledge about childbirth practices, including the use of medicines, harvesting animals and ceremony that were relied on for the baby and mother’s health.

For Tłıcho, birthplaces reveal the interconnectedness between personhood and place, and how those spheres influence the Tłıcho way of life. Birthplaces have the potential to anchor a person’s cultural and ecological knowledge to a particular place through the agency of women’s bodies. Correspondingly, birthplaces also raise awareness about people’s relationship to their environments and their rights and title to the land based on traditional practices, which includes childbirth.

This is a birthplace mapping project conducted with the Tłıcho Government in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The goal of the project is to explore the importance of birthplaces through an ethno-historical mapping research process. The project highlights four elder’s stories about birthplaces and childbirth practices spanning across Tłıcho country, revealing the inextricable links between human-plant, human-animal, and human-human relationships with childbirth. In a focus group, the elders shared their stories about birthplaces and culturally-specific birth-related practices, such as breastfeeding, moss collection, and the care of afterbirth. Using direct-to-digital methods, the elders mapped a number of sites where they either gave birth, or knew of people who gave birth on the land. The mapped birthplaces and the elder’s stories illuminate the importance of learning about birthplaces and listening to their words so that younger generations may carry on the Tłıcho way of life.

This project contributes to current discourses of rural and remote maternity care, particularly for Indigenous women, and will discuss the implications of culturally safe healthcare provisions for Indigenous peoples.

Authors

Rachel Olson (The Firelight Group)
Janelle Kuntz (The Firelight Group)

Topic Areas

1. Studies that integrate knowledge from a range of scientific approaches and/or perspecti , Social and cultural precursors and consequences of optimal childbirth , Emotional and spiritual aspects of labour and birthing , Methodological innovations inthis and associated areas

Session

concurr1 » Place of birth (10:40 - Monday, 2nd October, Winster)

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