FORUM: "Honouring Indigenous Midwives: Safeguarding Life and Well-being". International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples 2026. The United Nations General Assembly on 23 December 1994, decided, in its resolution 49/214, that the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People shall be observed on 9 August every year. The date marks the first meeting, in 1982, of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations.This year's observance will focus on the recognition of Indigenous midwives as vital knowledge holders and guardians of community health. Indigenous midwifery has sustained the well-being of Indigenous Peoples for generations. It brings together knowledge systems, values and practices that Indigenous Peoples have developed and passed on over time. It reflects holistic worldviews that connect territory, spirituality, community and ways of life. These practices are central to transmitting and sustaining Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge, strengthening cultural identity and supporting self-determined forms of care and community wellbeing, and ensuring the continuity of Indigenous Peoples’ ways of life for future generations. Despite the continued presence of these knowledge systems and forms of care, Indigenous Peoples face significant and persistent health inequities. Evidence indicates that Indigenous women and adolescent girls experience poorer maternal health outcomes than non-Indigenous Peoples, including lower access to essential services and, in some contexts, substantially higher maternal mortality. Such disparities are closely linked to structural barriers, including discrimination, geographic isolation, the limited availability of culturally appropriate services, and the insufficient recognition of Indigenous knowledge systems within formal health frameworks. Culturally appropriate midwifery models can improve continuity of care, strengthen trust in health systems, and contribute to better maternal and newborn outcomes. Yet, in many settings, Indigenous midwifery continues to be stigmatized, face regulatory restrictions, exclusion or lack of recognition, and even criminalization. These conditions limit access to culturally safe care and affect Indigenous women’s ability to make informed and meaningful decisions regarding pregnancy and childbirth, with implications for dignity, bodily autonomy and quality of care. At the same time, there is growing global recognition of the value of culturally grounded and communitybased approaches to maternal care. In many advanced economies, including urban health systems, there has been a notable increase in demand for continuous, personalized and non-clinical support during pregnancy and childbirth, including through the expanded use of doulas and other community-based birth companions. These approaches respond to gaps in conventional maternity care models, where clinical staff may be unable to provide sustained one-to-one support during labour, and are increasingly integrated into health systems and public health programmes, with coverage now available in multiple jurisdictions. Against this backdrop, this year’s theme, “Honouring Indigenous Midwives: Safeguarding Life and Well-being,” is presented in a spirit of recognition and respect. It contributes to the global momentum leading to the inaugural commemoration of the International Day of Indigenous Women and Girls by highlighting Indigenous women, who have always been part of their Peoples’ struggle, as leaders, knowledge holders and caregivers, and by bringing focused attention to a critical but often underrecognized dimension of their contributions to Indigenous Peoples’ well-being. The United Nations system has progressively strengthened its engagement at the intersection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, health and knowledge systems. The United Nations Declaration on the Rightsof Indigenous Peoples affirms the rights of Indigenous Peoples to maintain and strengthen their cultural practices and institutions, and to access health services that respect their knowledge systems and ways of life. The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) has consistently identified Indigenous women’s health as a priority, including the role of Indigenous midwifery. The Forum has highlighted the lack of culturally appropriate services and called on Member States to remove discriminatory barriers, recognize Indigenous midwives, and strengthen support for Indigenous-led systems of care. The Forum has further underscored the role of Indigenous women and elders in transmitting cultural knowledge and sustaining Indigenous cultures, including through midwifery. It has called upon Member States to support the establishment of mechanisms for the empowerment of Indigenous women and girls and has called for their equal involvement and participation in decision-making processes at all levels. Other United Nations Indigenous Peoples’ mechanisms, including the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, have underscored persistent challenges in implementation, particularly in relation to non-discrimination, access to culturally appropriate services and the recognition of Indigenous knowledge systems. The World Health Organization has similarly highlighted that Indigenous Peoples experience systematically poorer health outcomes – including in maternal health – and has called for culturally appropriate, rights-based approaches across the life course. The UNFPA has supported Indigenous midwifery as a vital component of culturally appropriate maternal and reproductive health care. UNFPA has promoted the recognition of Indigenous midwives, advocating for strengthened links between Indigenous Peoples’ own health systems and formal health systems, and supported efforts to preserve Indigenous knowledge and practices while improving access to safe and respectful maternity care for Indigenous women. Despite this growing normative and policy framework, implementation gaps remain across many national contexts. Strengthened dialogue, evidence-sharing and policy action are required to advance equitable, culturally grounded systems of care and to ensure the full respect of the rights of Indigenous Peoples’, their identity, their forms of social organization, their cultural values and their ways of life.
EVENTS: On Sunday, August 9th, the Commemoration of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples 2026 was held.
On Monday 10 August 2026, from 08:30-10:30 AM EDT (New York time), the Virtual Commemoration entitled Honouring Indigenous Midwives: Safeguarding Life and Well-being was held. This year, due to 9 August falling on a Sunday, the International Day observance will take place online on Monday, 10 August 2026. This year’s theme is: “Honouring Indigenous Midwives: Safeguarding Life and Well-being”. Get the Concept Note: EN | ES & Tentative programme: EN | ES. The Interpretation will be available between English and Spanish, kindly provided by Land is Life. Watch the livestream!
Dialogue 1: Indigenous Midwives as Knowledge Holders and Guardians of Well-being
This moderated dialogue will aim to raise awareness of Indigenous midwifery as a living Indigenous knowledge system, highlight the contributions of Indigenous midwives to community well-being, and illustrate the challenges they face in maintaining and transmitting their knowledge.
Dialogue 2: From Recognition to Action: Protecting and Supporting Indigenous Midwifery.
This dialogue will examine policy reforms and practical pathways for recognizing Indigenous midwifery as critical knowledge systems, and for advancing implementation of related international commitments, human rights obligations and recommendations.
DIALOGUE 1 | Martha Arotingo is an ancestral midwife, herbalist, and keeper of the ancestral sciences of the Kichwa Kutakachi People of Ecuador. She is the founder of Partera di Anaku and spokesperson for the Plurinational Council of Elders, Midwives, and Traditional Birth Attendants of Ecuador (CONPASA). Together with the Indigenous Council of Ancestral Health, she helped advance the First National Congress of Ancestral Midwifery. She supports the training of new ancestral midwives through community programs. She is the author of a bilingual Kichwa–Spanish poetry collection on birth stories and co-author of an agro-culinary postpartum care manual.
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DIALOGUE 1 | Nicolle Arthun (Diné) is an Indigenous Certified Nurse-Midwife from the Navajo Nation. She is an Indigenous birth knowledge holder with 22 years of experience restoring Native-led maternity care. She founded Changing Woman Initiative, the first Native women-led maternal health and wellness organization in the United States, and the Mni Wiconi Midwifery Field Clinic at Standing Rock. She is a member of the International Confederation of Midwives Indigenous Midwifery Working Group and has testified before the UN Human Rights Committee and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
DIALOGUE 1 | Rhonda Lee Grantham is an Indigenous midwife, herbalist, and citizen of the Cowlitz Nation, a Salish-Sahaptian Tribe of southwestern Washington whose name translates to "Seeker of the Medicine Spirit." With nearly 30 years of experience supporting birth, wellness, and traditional healing, she has dedicated her life to strengthening Indigenous families and communities through culturally grounded maternal care. As the founder of the Center for Indigenous Midwifery, Rhonda is guided by her perspectives as both a Native woman and cultural anthropologist, combining Indigenous knowledge with a commitment to global health, family wellness, and culturally centered care. For more than two decades, she has supported births and developed maternal health programs within Tribal communities across the United States and internationally.
DIALOGUE 1 | Laura Lemons is an Indigenous Alaskan, Licensed Midwife, Certified Professional Midwife, and Certified Indigenous Doula. She has lived in the Mat-Su Valley since 1998. She became a Certified Doula in 2018, a Certified Indigenous Doula in 2020, and earned a Bachelor of Science in Midwifery in 2022. As one of the few practicing Indigenous midwives in Alaska, she is dedicated to supporting women and families throughout pregnancy and birth. Through compassionate care, education, and culturally grounded support, she strives to empower families to make informed decisions and approach the birth process with confidence.
CEREMONIAL OPENING | María Herminia Quiñelen Martínez is a Lawentuchefe, a Medicine Woman of the Mapuche tradition, with more than 40 years of experience and expertise in the properties of medicinal plants, learning from them as one who comes to know another living being. She began her learning and communication through dreams at the age of 7, being guided and trained through a learning process of approximately 15 years.
She is also a Puñeñelchefe, a Master of Ancestral Mapuche Childbirth, with more than 1,300 births providing comprehensive and respectful accompaniment to women during natural and home births. She is a Mapuche Authority and Medicine Woman, belonging to the eighth generation of a lineage of Mapuche healers on both her father's and mother's sides. She is a Kimelfe, author and educator of her Mapuche School of Medicine and founder of the Women’s Circles, “For the Recovery of the Culture of Being a Woman,” an initiative dedicated to strengthening women's identity and revitalizing ancestral knowledge.
Messages on the Occasion of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples
Statement of the United Nations Secretary-General for the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples 2026, observed on August 9th.
Indigenous Peoples account for over 6 per cent of the world’s population. They are guardians of cultural heritage, stewards of vital ecosystems and crucial contributors to our shared future.
Yet, across the globe, their rights and well-being face disproportionate threats. Some of the starkest relate to maternal and infant health, with complications and deaths far more prevalent than among the wider population.
That is why, on this International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, we celebrate Indigenous midwives. Evidence shows that they improve outcomes for mothers and babies, strengthen trust in health systems and ensure continuity of care. As knowledge holders and leaders, they also help preserve the languages, values and practices that sustain Indigenous cultures across generations.
The United Nations is working with Member States and Indigenous Peoples to advance rights-based approaches to health. Governments must gather the missing data that so often leaves Indigenous patients invisible in healthcare systems, and they must invest more in training for midwives and natal care. It is also vital that we uphold the rights of Indigenous women to make informed decisions about their own bodies and care.
Traditional wisdom can protect new life. Together, let us ensure that Indigenous midwives, and the communities they serve, have everything they need to thrive.
Their work reminds us that indigenous knowledge systems are living, dynamic, and contemporary.
It also reminds us of the leadership of indigenous women, the importance of transmitting knowledge across generations, and the need to safeguard the conditions that allow indigenous peoples to thrive.
The knowledge of indigenous midwives is part of these broader knowledge systems. It is placebased, culturally specific, and rooted in relationships with territories, waters, biodiversity, and traditional governance systems.
This recognition is closely connected to the work of the convention. At COP 16, parties adopted the program of work on article AJ and established a subsidiary body on article AJ, marking an important
step forward in the recognition of the traditional knowledge, contributions and participation of indigenous peoples. At COP 17, parties will consider the modus operandi of the subsidiary body on
article AJ, which is needed for this subsidiary body to become fully operational and to support the effective and inclusive implementation of the program of work on article AJ.
On this day, let us honor indigenous midwives by recognizing their knowledge, supporting their leadership, and safeguarding the conditions that allow life, culture, biodiversity, and well-being to flourish for generations to come.
Across the world, Indigenous Peoples sustain vital knowledge systems and cultural heritage deeply intertwined with their lands, waters, and environments offering invaluable perspectives for addressing today's global challenges. This year’s theme of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples –“Honouring Indigenous Midwives: Safeguarding Life and Well-being”–highlights the practice of midwifery. Inscribed as a transnational element on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2023, midwifery bridges traditional knowledge systems with women’s health, well-being, cultural identity, andthe sustainable use of medicinal plants.Committed to supporting Indigenous Peoples, UNESCO is leading the International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022-2032 to ensure that Indigenous voices, worldviews, and intellectual diversity receive the recognition they deserve. As we approach the midpoint of this milestone, UNESCO is also leveraging the 2026 International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists to amplify the voices of communities practicing transhumant pastoralism, demonstrating the power of cultural reclamation, community resilience, science-based conservation, and local stewardship.On this International Day, let us reaffirm that humanity’s diversity is one of its greatest strengths. By valuing Indigenous Peoples, their languages, cultures, heritage, and
knowledge systems, we safeguard an irreplaceable part of humanity’s heritage that our world cannot afford to lose. ;;
Communications and Outreach
FAO: Connecting Mothers: Indigenous midwives weaving life
FAO: Indigenous Peoples' knowledge is the first knowledge
IFAD: Targeted investments give ancestral knowledge new value
Minamata Convention on Mercury: Strengthening action against mercury pollution through Indigenous Peoples' knowledge and participation
OHCHR: Honouring Guatemala’s Indigenous midwives and making space for Indigenous health systems
UNDP: 24 years of the Equator Initiative: From local spark to global launchpad for Indigenous leadership
UNESCO: Beyond birth: How media can tell the stories of Indigenous midwives
UNESCO: International Day of Indigenous Peoples: From words to action
For social media engagement please use the below hashtags:English: #WeAreIndigenous | #IndigenousPeoplesDay
Spanish: #SomosIndígenas | #DíaPueblosIndígenas
French: #NousSommesAutochtones | #JournéeAutochtones
Portuguese: #SomosIndígenas | #DiaDosIndígenas | #DiaDosPovosIndígenas | #PovosIndígenas
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