The Arviat Cultural Safety Project is working to bring childbirth services closer to home by centering Inuit traditions in maternal care in Arviat, Nunavut. As the territory currently lacks any birthing centres, most pregnant residents are forced to travel south to give birth, a reality for roughly 80 percent of expectant parents in the Kivalliq region who must go to Manitoba for delivery.
Led by the Aqqiumavvik Society, the initiative has collected and documented the childbirth stories of more than 100 Inuit women to help shape future healthcare policy. These stories highlight a desire to return to practices once guided by traditional birth attendants known as ikajurti, who historically taught midwifery through hands-on, experiential learning rather than formal classroom-based credentialing.
Advocates behind the project point to the Inuulitsivik Health Centre in Nunavik, Quebec, as the gold standard for success. In that region, 92.2 percent of deliveries take place within the community, resulting in a C-section rate of just 2.4 percent. In comparison, Nunavut has struggled to maintain local services; a midwifery program at the regional college ended in 2014, and the Rankin Inlet Birthing Centre stopped providing services in 2020 after the departure of its Inuit midwifery staff.
The Government of Nunavut Department of Health has taken steps to address these gaps by contracting the University of Manitoba’s Ongomiizwin Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing to create an Inuit-led midwifery education pathway. While this contract aims to develop a new training model for the territory, the government has not yet announced a start date for the program.
