Members of the Heiltsuk Nation in Bella Bella, B.C., are celebrating a joyful arrival with the birth of baby Anthony Bennett Johnson, the first Heiltsuk baby to be born on Heiltsuk territory in years.

And, making the moment even more special, the delivery doctor was also Heiltsuk.

The local hospital in Bella Bella, a village of about 1,200 people on Campbell Island around 480 kilometres northwest of Vancouver, isn’t equipped to deliver babies, so expectant parents usually travel to higher level medical facilities in the weeks before their due date.

But Nicole Johnson went into early labour Sunday at 34 weeks pregnant.

Bad weather meant an air ambulance couldn’t touch down, and the ferries were all booked up.

Enter Dr. Don Wilson.

Wilson, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Heiltsuk Nat

See Full Page