about

meet rachel

Rachel is Ktunaxa from ʔakisq̓nuk First Nation. She serves Indigenous families as a Registered Midwife at Mount Carmel Clinic in Winnipeg and is an instructor in the Midwifery Education Program at the University of Manitoba.

Rachel’s work and research experience demonstrate a decade long commitment to reproductive safety and culturally-based services. Highlights include: supporting Indigenous youth who relocated to Winnipeg from Northern or rural communities to complete high school, developing and launching the Heart Medicine Lodge program at Ka Ni Kanichihk — a program offering healing and support services to Indigenous women who have experienced sexual assault; health policy at the First Nations Health Authority in Vancouver; research internships — with Nanaandawewigamig (First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba), the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Manitoba branch), and the Population Council (Kenya branch).

Rachel’s interest in midwifery grew from her passion for reproductive justice and experience volunteering at sexual and reproductive health clinics — first as a birth control and unplanned pregnancy counsellor at the Women's Health Clinic, as a clinic assistant at Options for Sexual Health in Vancouver, and with Yúusnewas at YouthCO AIDS Society in Vancouver.

Rachel has been dabbling in art from a young age. She loves to using her art to fundraise to hold ceremony space for her midwifery clients.

Rachel is part of big beautiful blended family and new mom. She enjoys reading, board games, drinking tea, and being outside (as long as it’s not too hot).