Our
Voices
MEET DANETTE
JUBINVILLE
Mother. Birth Doula. ekw’i7tl Collective Founding Member.
Danette Jubinville is a registered birth doula in BC. She comes from a lineage of midwives and medicine people from the Pasqua First Nation in Saskatchewan. However, the birthing traditions of her ancestors were lost three generations ago due to colonial policies. As a health science PhD candidate at SFU, she is working to reclaim the customs and wisdom that her family once held. She uses her passion for maternal health and plant medicine to educate and pass down knowledge of traditional Indigenous birthing to generations after her.
In 2015, she became a founding member of the ekw’i7tl doula collective. The collective aims to form a network and a support system for doulas in BC.
She lives in Vancouver with her partner and her daughter, Keestin.
MEET
THE ekw'7tl DOULA
COLLECTIVE
A circle of care.
The collective was founded in 2015 after a group of Indigenous doulas. Its original founders, Jessica and Keisha, met at a ‘decolonizing feminism’ event and they both felt that their expertise in doula practices was isolating. They saw the need for a supportive network for Indigenous doulas in BC. Danette and Sophie joined them soon after to complete the foundations of the collective. They each share a passion for reclaiming birthing practices and traditions from their ancestors.
The collective has since grown. Some members would routinely meet at Danette's home for a doula meeting. They sit in a circle in the living room to discuss the collective's goals and lend each other a support system.
MEET
KEESTIN
SCHOONER ROSE
The Future Generation.
Keestin is Danette’s daughter. She is three years-old and likes to help her mom make tea.
Her full name is Keestin Schooner Rose. It means ‘big windstorm’ in Cree, because there just happened to be a big windstorm the day she was born. However, she also likes to call herself “water volcano”. Origin unknown.
Danette wants to pass down her knowledge of Indigenous birth medicine to Keestin one day. Keestin is "a good helper" she said so herself. She picks up Danette’s wisdom just fine.