News
Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) blames Ottawa for death of Fort Severn First Nations woman (SLFNHA) re Miranda Mamakwa.
September 18, 2026
Miranda Mamakwa missed four appointments following open-heart surgery, and claimed prior to her death that the Non-Insured Health Benefits program failed to provide for her transport.
The Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority (SLFNHA) and the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) are demanding “immediate, public accountability” and an independent investigation into the death of Fort Severn First Nation member Miranda Mamakwa.
Mamakwa died on Sept. 8. According to a press release by the SLFNHA and NAN, she had open-heart surgery on April 23 and was supposed to have had follow-up appointments “mandatory for her recovery and survival” on May 28, June 11, July 2 and Aug. 6.
SLFNHA and NAN say in their statement the federal Non-Insured Health Benefits program (NIHB), for First Nations and Inuit to access medical care not available in their communities, failed to arrange travel and accommodations, making it impossible for Mamakwa to reach her appointments and receive treatment.
Fort Severn is located in the extreme north of Ontario on Hudson Bay, near the Manitoba border.
Last weekend, Mamakwa was taken to the Fort Severn First Nation nursing station and transported to Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, where on Tuesday her family removed her from life support.
Nearly a month earlier, on Aug. 19, Mamakwa made a Facebook post listing the four appointments she said she had missed because NIHB had failed to arrange travel.
She closed by saying, “If I die, please go after them.”
“Those words,” the statement from SLFNHA and NAN reads, “are now a demand SLFNHA and NAN intend to see answered.”
In their statement, SLFNHA and NAN say they’ve warned for years that delays and bureaucratic failures in the NIHB program were risking the lives of people in Kiiwetinoong and across NAN territory.
“From cancelled medical travel to appointments booked, and missed, with little or no notice,” the statement reads. “Miranda Mamakwa’s death is the clearest and most devastating proof yet that these were not exaggerated warnings.”
NAN Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said, “It is outrageous that Miranda’s travel was denied on four separate occasions. There is no doubt in my mind that her life may have been saved if she had been allowed to travel to her appointments. The circumstances around her passing are extremely troubling and the denial of travel by NIHB demands accountability.”
Fiddler argued those in charge of NIHB must understand medical transportation as a matter of life and death, rather than a simple issue of paperwork.
“The officials responsible should be asking themselves why our members are still subject to such a horrific bureaucracy that denies them access to life-saving care,” Fiddler said. “Days before she began her Spirit Journey, Miranda posted to social media that ‘If I die, please go after them.’ We will honour her dying wish by demanding full accountability.”
SLFNHA and NAN are insisting upon an immediate, independent investigation into Mamakwa’s death, including identifying which staff members and decisions prevented Mamakwa’s medical travel.
They’re also demanding a public accounting from Indigenous Services Canada of what went wrong and who was responsible for those circumstances, as well as a direct meeting between NAN/SFLNHA leadership and Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty.
Finally, SLFNHA and NAN say they want to see “concrete, funded fixes to the NIHB medical travel and appointment system for the 33 First Nations SLFNHA serves and the 49 First Nations of NAN before another family loses someone they love.”
“Miranda Mamakwa should still be here today, raising her three children,” said SFLNHA president and CEO Sonia Isaac-Mann. “Her death is not something that simply happened to her, it is the result of a system that failed her, appointment after appointment, for months. SLFNHA and NAN have raised these gaps for years, and we are done accepting apologies with no accountability behind them.”
APTN News reached out to Indigenous Services Canada for a comment regarding the allegations NIHB failed to provide travel for Mamakwa’s four appointments, or that its handling of Mamakwa’s case was responsible for her death. We have not received a statement.
APTN also reached out to the minister’s office. In a statement forwarded by her press secretary, Gull-Masty said she has “instructed Indigenous Services Canada officials to urgently establish the facts surrounding Miranda’s death and the circumstances that led to it.”
She also said she would be meeting with SLFNHA and NAN “at the earliest opportunity.”
“Miranda Mamakwa was a member of Fort Severn First Nation, part of a family, a community and a Nation that knew her, loved her and are now mourning her loss,” said Gull-Masty. “I want to acknowledge Miranda, the life she lived and the place she held in her community.
“My deepest condolences go to Miranda’s family, loved ones and the entire Fort Severn First Nation during this incredibly difficult time. They deserve answers about what happened.”
Mamakwa’s family reached out to APTN but were not available for an interview prior to this article being published.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, the Hope for Wellness Help Line offers immediate help to all Indigenous peoples across Canada at 1-855-242-3310 or connect to the online chat at www.hopeforwellness.ca.
