A safe space for new Indigenous mothers is set to open this summer in Winnipeg, with province providing $2.5 million for the purchase and renovation of a new mothering centre.<\/p>\n
The Mino\u2019Ayaawag Ikwewag mothering centre will offer six bedrooms, a shared kitchen and dining space.<\/p>\n
New moms and babies would be able to stay for three to six months and have access to counselling, midwives, mental health and addictions support and cultural resources.<\/p>\n
Nahanni Fontaine, Manitoba\u2019s minister of families, said the centre will provide a safe and culturally grounded space for Indigenous mothers and their babies, both during pregnancy and after birth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mino\u2019Ayaawag Ikwewag mothering centre will be staffed by aunties and kookums, who will provide teachings rooted in Indigenous matriarchal care, strength and love,\u201d Fontaine said.<\/p>\n
Hillary Thompson, a program participant, welcomed the idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel the new mothering centre is an excellent idea for new moms like my self, to have a safe welcoming home with amazing supports from auntie\u2019s and kookums,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n
The program will be run by Blue Thunderbird Family Care, who also operates Granny\u2019s House in Winnipeg, a project that provides respite care for children outside the Child and Family Services system.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor generations, Indigenous mothers have had to parent under the weight of scrutiny and fear,\u201d said Dana Arabe, executive director, Blue Thunderbird Family Care, said,<\/p>\n
The funding will go towards the purchase and renovations of the property, start-up costs to hire staff, home furnishings and preparing the programming.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A safe space for new Indigenous mothers is set to open this summer in Winnipeg, with province providing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-532763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}