We Are In Crisis

Federal and Provincial government must commit to addressing the health needs of the Mi’kmaw, NOW!
The Nova Scotia Native Women’s Association is declaring a State of Health Emergency in our Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw communities.

Over the past year Mi’kmaw communities have had thousands of people come forward and disclose past trauma they experienced at Indian Day Schools. Our women are now coming forward and disclosing their experience of being forcibly sterilized. Our people, especially women and girls, are being murdered and vanishing with families rarely receiving justice. Our people are being targeted and forced into human trafficking. Opioids are killing our people in astronomical numbers and are being used as murder weapons.

Mi’kmaw communities are not equipped to address this emergency and the governments’ inaction is a deliberate genocidal action.

Lorraine Whitman, President of the Nova Scotia Native Women’s Association explains that, “our communities are in crisis, and we cannot move toward reconciliation if we are fighting for our basic survival.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in his response to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry Commission’s final report, “we must continue to decolonize our existing structures and the racism, sexism and economic inequality that has allowed the violence against Indigenous Women and Girls to prevail; it must be eradicated.” ...