AUNTIES ON THE ROAD

INDIGENOUS FULL SPECTRUM DOULA COLLECTIVE

Supporting Inuit, Métis & First Nations Youth ages 12-30 in the Ottawa region

Pijashig | Welcome!

Aunties on the Road Indigenous Full Spectrum Doula Care is an Indigenous Grassroots Organization which provides First Nations, Inuit and Métis youth between the ages of 12 and 30 with free reproductive and sexual health counselling and supports.

Our service provision spans the traditional territory of Algonquin and Mohawk peoples, from Pembroke to Ottawa to Cornwall, including local reserve communities.

Our approach to care builds on the traditional roles of Aunties in Indigenous communities by providing culture based emotional, physical, mental and spiritual care within the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health experiences including puberty (moontime ceremonies and other rites of passage), safer sex, fertility awareness and family planning, abortion and termination, conception, loss, adoption, post-partum care, perimenopause and menopause, etc.

We offer trainings and workshops

Aunties on the Road also provides annual Indigenous Full Spectrum Doula Trainings in the Ottawa region, and we are also able to provide Indigenous Doula trainings throughout Canada by request. We offer monthly programming of virtual and in person workshops and events, and we also host breastfeeding and play tents at Pow Wows in the Ottawa area. As Aunties and educators we are able to carry out education and outreach activities in many different community spaces.

Our Conception

Aunties on the Road was born in 2016 from the desire to assist young Indigenous parents in accessing culturally appropriate reproductive care. Founding members of the collective were trained as full spectrum doulas through the Native Youth Sexual Health Network (https://www.nativeyouthsexualhealth.com/) and wanted to contribute to a program that supported young Indigenous parents in navigating stigma,prejudice and racism that can pervade mainstream health care settings while working to (re)connect young Indigenous people to culture and community.

With both personal and professional experiences in the mainstream health care and education systems that illustrated the challenges for Indigenous peoples in these settings, our co-founders were inspired to create an organization that provides respectful, culturally relevant support to individual parents and also builds capacity in the community to carry knowledge to others.

Aunties On The Road

We are an Indigenous Grassroots Collective and are funded entirely through grants and charitable donations.

Our collective is currently funded primarily by the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Youth Opportunities Fund. We have also received funding from the Laidlaw Foundation, the Ontario Indigenous Youth Partnership Project, the Inspirit Foundation, the Samuel Connected North Youth Leadership Fund and the #RisingYouth Microgrant Program.

As an Indigenous grassroots organization, our funding flows through our organizational mentor Minwaashin Lodge: Indigenous Women’s Support Centre.