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Child welfare uses the language of safety to move children from suspect families to middle class families where they can learn to become good citizens.
If you doubt this follow the money, see where most of it is spent.
The idea of home is sacred. But only settler homes.
If you doubt this follow the money, see where most of it is spent.
The idea of home is sacred. But only settler homes.
We talk about children's hunger, children's poverty. That language begins the separation from their parents.
If we cared about their families then we'd have universal basic income. We'd control housing costs and ensure food security. We'd fund education properly
But we don't.
If we cared about their families then we'd have universal basic income. We'd control housing costs and ensure food security. We'd fund education properly
But we don't.
So we move children from places where they are poor and hungry to places where they are housed and fed. First this meant poor houses and the like, but those were bad for children so white children got foster homes and farms instead.
Indigenous children got residential schools.
Indigenous children got residential schools.
Then Hitler happened and the genocide in Canada and the US looked a little too obvious so policy began to shift, but it was 1978 before it was legal to refuse to send your children to school in the US and the Fresh Prince left Bel Air before the last school closed in Canada
Still separating Indigenous children from their parents tho. Indigenous children followed the children of poor whites into foster homes just like Black people followed poor whites into prisons after the Civil War.
The dramatic uptick in the number of Indigenous children in care during the 50s and 60s mirrored that of the population shift in southern prisons after the war. It even got a name. 60s scoop.
As if it was limited to the 60s.
As if it was limited to the 60s.
@JustSaying2040 has done some amazing work on Indigenous child removal and the impacts that this has had one children and communities.
Remember, children have families. This is not just about children in poverty, children who are hungry, children who are removed.
Remember, children have families. This is not just about children in poverty, children who are hungry, children who are removed.
And can we please excise "forever family" from child welfare language? These children have families. They have parents and grandparents and siblings and aunts and uncles and cousins and second cousins three times removed and neighbours and clan and a lot of people.
This article takes up the challenge of identity, and the unintended consequences of children living in white homes and going to cultural activities, rendering them tourists in their own community.
https://fpcfr.com/index.php/FPCFR/article/view/25
https://fpcfr.com/index.php/FPCFR/article/view/25
We do this because we want them to stay connected but when the only connection they have is activities, that's not very real is it. Those aren't relationships. So. If you are caring for an Indigenous child, or if you are responsible for those who are I have two demands.
First off. Do not send the child to activities. Take them yourself. You. the caregiver. You take them. You build relationships with that child's community. You get to know them. You make friends with them. You accept that it will be hard but this is your responsibility.
This is literally your job. You are getting paid and all those other resources like drives and parenting support and respite and clothing allowances and medical coverage and so much more that the parents are not getting so you have that responsibility.
By taking them to things and building relatinships you are demonstrating to that child that their community matters to you. Even if it doesn't matter to them. Even if they don't want to go. Go by yourself.
I'm serious. Sign up for craft programs. Go to drumming.
I'm serious. Sign up for craft programs. Go to drumming.
White people are allowed to go to stuff like that. So you go, even if the child doesn't want to because eventually they will come with you. It is your responsibility.
Second thing. Do not seek permanence if the community wants the child back.
https://fpcfr.com/index.php/FPCFR/article/view/310
Second thing. Do not seek permanence if the community wants the child back.
https://fpcfr.com/index.php/FPCFR/article/view/310
This is really important. I get that the child is important to you. Wonderful. You took care of them when the community couldn't but now they can and it is also your job to say goodbye and to make that process as painless for the child as possible.
They do not belong to you.
They do not belong to you.
That's another phrase that needs to come out of child welfare. "Our children"
They aren't your children.
They're ours.
They aren't your children.
They're ours.
Source material includes the work of Laura Landertinger
https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/80850
https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/80850
