Protecting the providers of Indigenous maternal care

Place is a powerful ontological force which is constitutive of health and well-being for Indigenous peoples. Colonial violence dis-places relationships to land, bodies, and community, leading to the unacceptable and pervasive health inequities suffered by many Indigenous peoples living in the territories now known as Canada. This thesis describes acts of resistance to this dis-place-ment by providers of Indigenous maternal care in their advocacy to return birth to community. By mapping the spatio-legal dimensions of the Indigenous maternal care landscape in Ontario and Québec, this thesis investigates how (neo)colonial governance comes to bear on experiences of providing maternal care. Grounded in the analysis of primary data from interviews with six Knowledge Holders, the findings of this research articulate divergent ontologies of governance within systems of Indigenous and state law.