IWK Health is located in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People for over 13,000 years. The IWK provides services for women, children, youth, families and gender-diverse people in the Maritime Provinces, which includes the traditional unceded territory of the Wəlastəkwiyik People, the Mi’kmaq People and the Passamaquoddy People. These territories are covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship,” which the Wəlastəkwiyik, Mi’kmaq and Passamaquoddy Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1726. The treaties did not deal with the surrender of lands and resources but, in fact, recognized Mi’kmaq and Wəlastəkwiyik titles and established the rules for what was to be an ongoing relationship between nations.
The IWK Health Executive Leadership Team acknowledges and commits to the calls to action and justice issued in the reports arising from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the National Inquiry’s Final Report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Canada’s adoption of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Persons (UNDRIP) which recognizes Indigenous Peoples' basic human rights, as well as rights to self-determination, language, equality, land and to be free from discrimination.
As a health authority in Mi’kma’ki/Nova Scotia focused on serving women, children, youth, families and gender-diverse people, we commit to working together with Indigenous communities and leaders to co-create a path forward focused on reflection, understanding, awareness, reconciliation and action that honours the knowledge, wisdom and strengths of Indigenous peoples and recognizes the historic and present-day harms and trauma experienced by Indigenous peoples.