Native women gain concessions in Ontario legislation.While many have heralded the RHPA RHPA Review and Herald Publishing Association RHPA Regulated Health Professions Act 1991 (Canada) (Regulated Health Professions Act) as landmark legislation for its provision for the regulation and professionalization pro·fes·sion·al·ize tr.v. pro·fes·sion·al·ized, pro·fes·sion·al·iz·ing, pro·fes·sion·al·iz·es To make professional. pro·fes of midwifery in Ontario, this act has caught the critical eye of native organizations in that province. The Union of Ontario Indians The Union of Ontario Indians is an Aboriginal political organization representing 42 Anishinabek First Nations in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was formed in 1919 and incorporated in 1949, to serve as a political advocate and secretariat for the Anishinabek Nation. and NAN (women in the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation) have claimed that the legislation infringes upon important areas of traditional practice. Many of the controlled acts listed in the RHPA are presently being performed by traditional healers, community health care workers and aboriginal midwives. Many native women feel that the RHPA jeopardizes their efforts to reclaim women's central role in the birthing process. A brief from Equay Wuk Women's Group stated, "It is time to bring back new life into our Native communities, to take back our traditional [ways] and blend them with the technologies of today." The brief calls for formal recognition of aboriginal midwifery practices and the exemption of aboriginal community midwives from the RHPA. It asks that First Nation eiders who practice as midwives and healers be involved in the process of accreditation, education and training of First Nations midwives in the remote north, and asks that the government recognize aboriginal women's rights The effort to secure equal rights for women and to remove gender discrimination from laws, institutions, and behavioral patterns. The women's rights movement began in the nineteenth century with the demand by some women reformers for the right to vote, known as suffrage, and to give birth without having to travel to the hospital at Sioux Lookout. The Ministry of Health recently acceded to aboriginal concerns by introducing amendments to the RHPA that specifically recognize the aboriginal right to determine health practices and exempt their healers and midwives from the RHPA's regulatory provisions. These amendments are similar to the Yukon's current Health Act. Frances Lankin, Ontario's Minister of Health, stated that amendments "will acknowledge the practice of traditional healing and midwifery by members of the aboriginal communities in Ontario Communities in the province of Ontario, Canada Note: this is a list of communities, not necessarily organized municipalities. For a list of organized municipalities and other census subdivisions see list of census subdivisions in Ontario. " to provide "access to health care providers who are representative of their culture and communities as well as access to the technology offered by allopathic Allopathic Pertaining to conventional medical treatment of disease symptoms that uses substances or techniques to oppose or suppress the symptoms. Mentioned in: Traditional Chinese Medicine health care institutions." --From "Native Women Reclaim Midwifery" in akwesasne Notes 23#3, Midwinter mid·win·ter n. 1. The middle of the winter. 2. The period of the winter solstice, about December 22. midwinter Noun 1. the middle or depth of winter 2. 1992, from the Canadian Tribune. |
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