Suicide Among Aboriginal People in Canada - Institut universitaire ...

Chapter 4Aboriginal communities and, in many circumstances, served as an institution of child welfare (Bennett,2005). Aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins were key figures in the development and care of thecommunity’s children. However, it was non-Aboriginal values of what a family should be structuredlike and how parents should socialize their children that informed provincial child welfare programs.While there were clearly many instances of necessary and justified apprehension, it has been arguedthat the lack of cultural knowledge on the part of social workers and perceptions informed by a foreignvalue system resulted in the unnecessary seizure of many Aboriginal children from their communities( Johnson, 1983; York, 1990). Johnston states that many Aboriginal parents were perceived by childwelfare agents to be unfit simply because of their economic status, and their children apprehended notbecause they were “unloved or unwanted or neglected” ( Johnston, 1983:76), but simply because theywere poor. Material and emotional poverty was a characteristic of most if not all reserves in the middleof the twentieth century, and continues to be present in many reserve communities across Canada.Impact of the “Sixties Scoop”The apprehension of Aboriginal children from their communities for child welfare purposes strippedsome territories of almost whole generations of children. 11 Many Aboriginal families suffered multipleapprehensions and their children often placed in separate homes from one another. The comfortingpresence of siblings was not afforded, nor was the guarantee of adoption and a stable home. Greaternumbers of Aboriginal children than non-Aboriginal children ended up “stuck” in the system and werebounced from home to home ( Johnston, 1983).These practices have had profound effects at individual, community, and wider cultural levels.Recognizing the unique nature of Aboriginal child-rearing practices, in particular, the increased role thatthe extended family plays, Johnston (1983) argues that individual Aboriginal children and their familieshave experienced removal more traumatically than their non-Aboriginal counterparts. 12 An examinationof the narratives of those former children who were “scooped” out of their communities and placed in the“care” of strangers demonstrates the validity of Johnston’s argument and the similarities in experiencesthat child welfare wards shared with former residential school students. These narratives reveal thatmany former wards experienced cultural dislocation and liminality (marginalization), identity confusion,emotional emptiness, attachment disorders, abuse, substance addictions, racism from foster families, andself-hatred (York, 1990). Former Aboriginal child welfare wards are also overrepresented in Canadianpenitentiaries. A 1990 study of Aboriginal prisoners in a Prince Albert penitentiary found that 95 percent of them were products of group or foster care (Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1996a).Graduates of the child welfare system also make up a significant portion of street kids and sexuallyexploited youth in Canada (Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1996a; Brant Castellano, 2002).The removal of Aboriginal children from their communities for educational and social welfare purposeslasted well over a century and resulted in great suffering and loss. The loss of children because parents10It must be noted that by the 1950s, residential schools were being phased out by the federal government. Those thatremained operational served more of a child welfare function, operating as “alternative parenting” institutions as opposedto educational institutions. For more information on the changing function of residential schools during the move towardsintegration see: Milloy, 1999:211–23811This was the case with the Spallumcheen Band in British Columbia. In the 1960s, approximately 150 children—virtuallyan entire generation—were removed from the community and placed in non-Indian homes.75