Child Welfare, Indigenous Child Welfare Practice

ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: The article challenges the current interpretation of Attachment Theory (AT) which favours placement of Indigenous children in non-Indigenous homes. Historical attempts to assimilate Indigenous populations are examined in relation to ongoing assimilation within child
intervention and justice systems. The goal is to stimulate discussion about possible culturally appropriate models to articulate the complex and multiple attachments formed by an Indigenous
person who is brought up in an Indigenous community, compared to the popular Western and Eurocentric view of parenting through dyadic attachment derived from AT.
METHODS: A review of AT literature examining key questions of cross-cultural applicability validity in relation to Indigenous populations. Consultations were held with Elders from the Blackfoot Confederacy of Alberta as part of the Nistawatsiman project. Data were gathered in a project relating to AT and the Supreme Court of Canada.
FINDINGS: Cultural Attachment Theory is emerging as a preferred way to think of Indigenous contexts as opposed to applying traditional AT. The validity of AT with Indigenous families is likely not valid and perpetuates colonial and assimilative understandings of family, parenting and the place of culture.
CONCLUSIONS: Pan-Indigenous methods bias child intervention, blinding them to the capacity of Indigenous caring systems’ capacity to raise their children. The use of AT sustains overrepresentation of Indigenous children in care and continues the colonial practices of fracturing
Indigenous caregiving systems which, in turn, creates the patterns for the next generation’s over-representation in care. Indigenous ways of knowing and being are required along with Indigenous-based decision making.

As a response to the persistent overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care, efforts are being made across Canada to develop models of child welfare practice that are consistent with Aboriginal cultural beliefs and practices, and which provide opportunities for ongoing cultural connection for children who have been separated from their families and/or communities. Although cultural continuity is associated with improved health and social outcomes, a majority of Aboriginal youth who are in the permanent care of government live in non-Aboriginal homes. Many of these young people live in in urban areas far away from their traditional territory, often with limited opportunity for connection to family or ancestral community. Efforts to provide culturally appropriate services, and to preserve and/or promote the cultural identity of Aboriginal children in care, can be a complex task in urban areas serving a diverse Aboriginal diaspora.

This qualitative study examines how social workers at an urban, delegated, Aboriginal child welfare agency think about, negotiate, and implement agency policies and legislative mandates requiring that workers establish and preserve cultural connections for Aboriginal children and youth. Data was collected on the demographic and health characteristics of children and youth served by the Guardianship office at the agency, and in-depth interviews were conducted with fourteen Guardianship social workers. The analysis of the interviews illustrates social worker strategies for fostering cultural continuity, impediments to these efforts, and concrete programming suggestions. Although the ways in which workers understood and defined culture varied, a consistent theme was the complexity of efforts to balance children's inherent right to cultural connection with other developmental needs. Workers identified a lack of supportive family resources in general, and in Aboriginal communities in particular, as impediments to maintaining meaningful connections between children in out-of-home care and their families and communities.
Recommendations from this study include: 1) Improvements in the recruitment, training and support of culturally competent caregivers; 2) Cultural programming developed for very young children; 3) Culturally appropriate services and programming that meets the needs of children and youth with Foetal Alcohol Effects and related disorders.

This article examines the development of a landbased program and lessons learned from reconnecting Indigenous 2 youth in the childcare system in the province of British Columbia to a local Indigenous territory and teachings as a vital restorative practice. The Culturally Relevant Urban Wellness (CRUW) program is an Indigenous land-based program which 1 Corresponding author 2 We acknowledge the complexities of navigating terminologies to describe the diversity of Indigenous, Aboriginal, and First Nations peoples who inhabit particular territories with specific genealogies and practices for sustaining those landscapes.

INTRODUCTION: The article challenges the current interpretation of Attachment Theory (AT) which favours placement of Indigenous children in non-Indigenous homes. Historical attempts to assimilate Indigenous populations are examined in relation to ongoing assimilation within child
intervention and justice systems. The goal is to stimulate discussion about possible culturally appropriate models to articulate the complex and multiple attachments formed by an Indigenous person who is brought up in an Indigenous community, compared to the popular Western and Eurocentric view of parenting through dyadic attachment derived from AT.
METHODS: A review of AT literature examining key questions of cross-cultural applicability validity in relation to Indigenous populations. Consultations were held with Elders from the Blackfoot Confederacy of Alberta as part of the Nistawatsiman project. Data were gathered in a
project relating to AT and the Supreme Court of Canada.
FINDINGS: Cultural Attachment Theory is emerging as a preferred way to think of Indigenous contexts as opposed to applying traditional AT. The validity of AT with Indigenous families is likely not valid and perpetuates colonial and assimilative understandings of family, parenting and the place of culture.
CONCLUSIONS: Pan-Indigenous methods bias child intervention, blinding them to the capacity of Indigenous caring systems’ capacity to raise their children. The use of AT sustains overrepresentation of Indigenous children in care and continues the colonial practices of fracturing
Indigenous caregiving systems which, in turn, creates the patterns for the next generation’s over-representation in care. Indigenous ways of knowing and being are required along with Indigenous-based decision making.

* This is a research poem 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.

Co-authored with Karine Levasseur. This article examines how language and discourse have framed the issue of accountability in Indigenous child welfare devolution in Manitoba. Devolution has been officially presented by the province as a structure and process of collaborative governance – a form of governing that requires horizontal account- ability among equal partners. Our examination of the accountability structures and processes reveals that, despite the rhetoric, there is continuing heavy insistence on vertical accountability to the provincial government. At best, the idea of collabora- tive governance is an illusion; at worst, it has serious negative impacts on Indigenous autonomy and on standards of accountability.

Using Canada as an example, social work must not only address its historical and current role in the colonisation and assimilation efforts aimed at Indigenous people, but also deconstruct its practices. Social work theory, methodology and practice parameters have been built on Eurocentric definitions and understandings. Indigenous peoples do not identify with these constructs but find themselves assessed and case managed based upon them. This extends colonialism and runs counter to a core principle of the profession, that being social justice. Canada is presently calling social work to participate in a reconciliation effort, although that assumes that there was a mutually beneficial relationship to restore. Some argue against that but there is a strong consensus that social work should carry its share of the burden in colonialism and self-reflect while also reaching out to build a different type of relationship with Indigenous peoples. This article reports on three projects that consider Indigenous knowledge and application to social work. Child protection is seen as a major focal point of change, as Indigenous children are significantly over-represented in the children in care population. Looking at this area of practice will help to illustrate the long roots of the colonial practices but also how current practice remains problematic.