First Peoples Child & Family Review
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Foreword
No full textForeword by the Coordinating Editor for 13(1) of the First Peoples Child & Family Reivew
“You're Native but You're not Native Looking”: A Critical Narrative Study Exploring the Health Needs of Aboriginal Veterans Adopted and/or Fostered During the Sixties Scoop
No full textThis study employed a critical narrative approach to examine the experience of Aboriginal Veterans in Canada adopted and/or fostered during the Sixties Scoop. The objectives of this study was to: 1) understand lived experiences of Aboriginal veterans adopted and/or fostered during the Sixties Scoop, 2) investigate health needs articulated by this population, and 3) provide suggestions for the creation of health services to aid Aboriginal veterans adopted and/or fostered during the Sixties Scoop with their health needs. Individual interviews were audio-recorded and conducted with eight participants from across Canada. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using the holistic-content model (Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach & Zilber, 1998). Data analysis of the interviews uncovered three overarching themes: a) sense of belonging, b) racism: experienced and perceived, and c) resilience: not giving up in the face of adversity. Two main health needs conveyed by the participants included mental health care and support to fight substance abuse. More awareness regarding the historical realities experienced by this population and the impact this may have on their overall health is needed. Increased coordination between Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC), Royal Canadian Legion (RCL), National Aboriginal Veterans Association (NAVA), Aboriginal Veteran Autochthones (AVA), and Aboriginal agencies is needed to address the mental health needs experienced by this group of veterans
Our Time To Dance
No full textThis piece is dedicated to all the beautiful, strong Anishinabegkwewag who were separated from their children and in many cases permanently forced to give up their rights to parent their children and to the vision that they will someday get hold, kiss and dance with their grandbabies and great-grandbabies
The Indigenous Child Removal System in Canada: An Examination of Legal Decision-making and Racial Bias
No full textThis Indigenous child removal system in Canada has been in operation since the 1950s and has created unprecedented Indigenous child overrepresentation in the child welfare system. While five generations of residential schools and disastrous socio-economic conditions often warrant child welfare involvement, the statistics for Indigenous children in care are so disproportionate that we are called to examine key factors that have created and sustain the system. While history provides a contextual frame for these statistics, examining legislation and legal decision-making in Indigenous child welfare cases sheds light on how legal and racial factors contribute to ongoing Indigenous child removals from families and culture. This article is a call for the Indigenous child removal system to be overhauled and suggests that the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission final report can guide us in how that can be achieved
Youth and Reconciliation
No full textOn Monday, March 6, 2017, students from Glebe Collegiate organized a demonstration on the steps of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario. The students called on the Prime Minister and other elected officials to treat Indigenous peoples with dignity and respect and to immediately cease discriminatory practices. The students named this event Youth and Reconciliation. Erin Samant and Daxton Rhead helped organize and lead Youth and Reconciliation. What follows is a transcript of their statements to fellow students, allies, Members of Parliament, and Indigenous organizations that were present during the event
Nistawatsiman: Rethinking Assessment of Aboriginal Parents for Child Welfare Following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
No full textThe Truth and Reconciliation Commission report has challenged Canada to alter the relationship with Aboriginal peoples across the country. They have specifically identified child protection as one area that requires a significant reconsideration around how agencies charged with this responsibility interact with Aboriginal people both on and off reserves. The legacy of Residential Schools, the Sixties Scoop and other policies of assimilation and cultural genocide are found in a number of existing social policy and practices, including child protection. This work examines the depth of change that will be needed in child protection methodologies by challenging the current assessment practice which seeks to determine, from a Western child-rearing perspective, if parents are ‘good enough’ to raise their children. The project shows the depth of disparities between present and historical practices and Aboriginal culture, using reference to the Blackfoot Confederacy in southern Alberta. The project draws upon a broad literature review as well as an expert consultation with six traditional Blackfoot Elders
Ontario’s History of Tampering and Re-Tampering with Birth Registration Forms
No full textThis article is intended to open a discussion of the matter of Ontario administrators, hospital and government employees, history of interfering with and tampering long form birth certificates in situations where birth mothers were unmarried or separated. Relying on Indigenous methods of knowing such as personal stories, introspection, and listening to experts, the author moves on to explore how the practice of tampering with birth documents places Indigenous mothers and children in a double jeopardy of not only being denied the valued information of who their biological father is, but also being denied Indian status registration. Mothers and their children are deserving of more. This article ends with suggesting further research.
"You Don’t Just Get Over What Has Happened to You": Story Sharing, Reconciliation, and Grandma’s Journey in the Child Welfare System
No full textThis article "You Don’t Just Get Over What Has Happened to You": Story Sharing, Reconciliation, and Grandma’s Journey in the Child Welfare System highlights the memories of the strong Anishinaabekwe, or Indigenous women, in my family circle, most notably my grandmother, mother, aunt, and sister. My maternal grandmother, Marie Brunelle, lived through the child welfare system in the late 1940s and became part of what is known today as the “Sixties Scoop.” This article emphasizes the legacies and the intergenerational impacts of the child welfare system in our family through storytelling. By examining our stories of resilience, healing, and reconciliation, we can understand our family’s history, our displacement from Anishinabeg traditional territory, and the strength and resilience of the women in my family
Voices of Youth: How Indigenous Young People in Urban Ontario Experience Plans of Care
No full textThe plan of care is a document completed regularly for every child and youth in the care of Children’s Aid Society in Ontario. Using a mixed methods approach with a strong emphasis on Indigenous Methodologies, a key informant and two Indigenous young people who have been in care share their thoughts about how plans of care can be improved. The youth describe how their plan of care was impacted by the relationship with their worker and level of participation in goal setting. It is discussed that the plan of care presents as a standardized, bureaucratic tool that does not inherently reflect Indigenous culture. These findings lead to recommendations for change including greater opportunities for relationship-building between workers and youth, space for young people to participate in planning, integration of Indigenous culture in plans of care, and the need for reconciliation at the macro level
Understanding Innu Normativity in Matters of Customary "Adoption" and Custody
No full textThis article presents the preliminary results of a research project on customary custody and “adoption” in the Innu community of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam in northeastern Québec. From a legal pluralist perspective, the authors used a biographical method to understand the workings of the ne kupaniem/ne kupanishkuem Innu legal institution, which can be compared in certain respects to adoption in Western legal systems. The authors present certain characteristics of this institution in order to expose the limits of bills that seek to recognize “indigenous customary adoption” in Québec law. Innu “adoption” stems from an agreement between the concerned persons, which can crystallize gradually, which never breaks the original filial link, and which does not immediately create a new filial link. In theory, this type of adoption is not permanent. As such, a Québec law that only recognizes indigenous adoptions that create a new filial link runs the risk of either being inef- fective, or of distorting the Innu legal order