Our Children Are Left Alone
Today the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that “[
t]he federal government discriminates against First Nation children on reserves by failing to provide the same level of child welfare services that exist elsewhere” (big gratitude to Cindy Blackstock for her perseverance in this work). On this historic day, and with the upcoming Stolen Sisters Memorial March here in Lkwungen territories and beyond, we’d like to share a blog post with you by Laqwalaogwaan, an Indigenous woman who connects the child welfare system and missing and murdered Indigenous women.
In Solidarity, The AVP team
Our Children Are Left Alone
Definitions
– Indigenous: a person(s) who identifies as belonging to the Metis or Inuit peoples, or a First Nation community.
Our children are left alone when the social justice systems that are in place do not protect our Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit peoples.
I am kwakwaka’wakw woman who has been provided with the luxury of attending post secondary education and of being given the responsibility of a career in Social Work where I work with, and for, our Indigenous people.
Indigenous people are recorded as making up roughly 4.3% of the population of Canada. In 2011 reports indicated that 48% of the 30,000 children in foster care across Canada were listed as ‘aboriginal’ (Aboriginal Children In Care, 2015).
As the Stolen Sisters Memorial March approaches I think about how my role as a Social Worker is undoubtedly imbedded in the loss of these woman, girls and two spirited peoples. Many of our children in care come from homes of those who were held hostage emotionally, mentally and physically in violent relationships/partnerships as well as by the State that we live under.
Our children are in care due prevalence of discrimination and racism that is thriving in the policies and practices of the Justice Systems and Child Welfare Systems in this country that choose to remove versus provide safety and support. Those who are missing are the grandmothers, mothers, aunties, sisters, and cousins of some of the over 14,000 Indigenous children currently under the care of this “nation state”, Canada.
My hope is that steps will be taken by the governing bodies of Canada to accept the responsibility of those who are missing and murdered and to give our families the attention and support they need to allow our women and two spirited people to remain safe, remain home, and to be able to raise their children in culture, love and safety.
Gilakas’la
All my relations,
Laqwalaogwa
( English name: Tanille Johnston )
