Volume 10, Number 2, 2015 Special Issue: 10th Anniversary of the Touchstones of Hope for Indigenous Children, Youth, and Families

EN:

Entire generations of First Nations people have been separated from their birth families and tribes by historical acts of relocation, boarding schools, and the adoption era. Reunification is an essential component to rebuilding the First Nations population. It is echoed across tribes captured by the phrase, “generation after generation we are coming home” (White Hawk, 2014). The purpose of this study was to investigate personal and social identity indicators that contribute to a satisfactory reunification for 95 First Nations adult adoptees who were separated from their birth families during childhood by foster-care and/or adoption. Retrospective survey data originated from the Experiences of Adopted and Fostered Individuals Project. The overall model of satisfactory reunification was statistically significant, and explained 16.6% of the total variance. The study’s findings revealed two social identity variables were statistically significant in relation to the reunification experience – high social connection to tribe (positive relationship) and reunification with the birthmother (negative relationship). First Nations adoptees have not only a biological/birth family to return to, but also a tribe, and ancestral land. Components of social identity are particularly important for the reunification process of First Nations adoptees. Reconnection with extended family and social connection to tribe play a critical role in bettering the reunification experience from the adoptee’s perspective.

EN:

Parenting Capacity Assessments (PCA) are used by child protection workers to assist in determining the ability of a parent to care for their children. They may be used at various stages of the case management process but these assessments serve as powerful tools for decision making by these workers. They can also be introduced in court as part of expert testimony. Most PCAs utilize psychometric assessment measures to elicit data in respect to personality, parenting knowledge, as well as mental health and addiction issues. The authors argue that the norming of these measures has insufficient inclusion of Aboriginal peoples to be used for assessments with this population. They further argue that different approaches need to be developed as current approaches, including assessment measures, are based upon the constructs of the dominant culture, which is individualistic as opposed to the Aboriginal collectivistic approaches to parenting.

EN:

This article considers the unique challenge for Aboriginal professionals working in a government child welfare system responsible for the oppression of Aboriginal children, families and communities. A non-Aboriginal organizational insider researcher uses an Indigenous/ethnographic approach to explore these issues with Aboriginal professionals within the British Columbia Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD). This study involves a dual focus that examines the history, identity, values, motivations, and practice approaches of Aboriginal professionals as well as how organizational structural and environment variables support or impede their efforts toward critically needed improvements to child welfare services for Aboriginal children, youth, families and communities. Analysis of these two areas results in significant findings for the organization and its perceived inability to achieve progress with transforming service delivery for Aboriginal peoples.

The findings contribute to better understanding of factors that impede Aboriginal professionals from achieving improved practice and outcomes. Organizational variables, such as low Aboriginal practice support, racism, cultural incompetence, hierarchical structure and decision making, risk-averse practice norms, poorly implemented or rhetorical change initiatives, and institutional physical environments impede the ability of Aboriginal professionals. However, significant mitigating factors were found to help, such as meaningful organizational support at the worksite level provided through dedicated culturally competent Aboriginal management and practice teams.

EN:

There is growing recognition in Canada around the role of intergenerational trauma in shaping physical and mental health inequities among Aboriginal youth. We examined recommendations on best practices for addressing intergenerational trauma in interventions for Aboriginal youth. Academic-community partnerships were formed to guide this scoping literature review. Peer-reviewed academic literature and “grey” sources were searched. Of 3,135 citations uncovered from databases, 16 documents met inclusion criteria. The search gathered articles and reports published in English from 2001-2011, documenting interventions for Indigenous youth (ages 12-29 years) in Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Australia. The literature was sorted and mapped, and stakeholder input was sought through consultation with community organizations in the Calgary, Canada area. Recommendations in the literature include the need to: integrate Aboriginal worldviews into interventions; strengthen cultural identity as a healing tool and a tool against stigma; build autonomous and self-determining Aboriginal healing organizations; and, integrate interventions into mainstream health services, with education of mainstream professionals about intergenerational trauma and issues in Aboriginal health and well-being. We identified a paucity of reports on interventions and a need to improve evaluation techniques useful to all stakeholders (including organizations, funders, and program participants). Most interventions targeted individual-level factors (e.g., coping skills), rather than systemic factors (e.g., stressors in the social environment). By addressing upstream drivers of Aboriginal health, interventions that incorporate an understanding of intergenerational trauma are more likely to be effective in fostering resilience, in promoting healing, and in primary prevention. Minimal published research on evidence-based practices exists, though we noted some promising practices.

EN:

Conventional health and social science research has contributed to advances in public well-being over the past century. Despite these advances, a significant gap exists in the health of Aboriginal children as compared to non-Aboriginal children in Canada. This has occurred, in part, as a result of the failure of conventional research to acknowledge the worldview of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, to fully take into account their experience of the social determinants of health (SDOH) and to address the intergenerational impact of colonization. In this article we review and discuss the social determinants of health (SDOH) with a specific focus on Aboriginal children and youth. Motivated by our experience in carrying out community based participatory research (CBPR) with children and families from First Nations and Métis communities in Alberta, Canada we review how use of CBPR) approach to research with Aboriginal children and communities can serve to enhance research results, resulting in greater relevance to community identified questions. We will address these issues in the context not only of good research practice but as an aspect of “wise practices” (Wesley-Esquimaux & Calliou, 2010) occurring within an “ethical space of engagement” (Ermine, 2007). We conclude that CBPR allows for meaningful and equitable research partnerships to occur in an ethical space without reinforcing colonial processes of knowledge construction and translation while marginalizing Indigenous knowledge.

EN:

Aboriginal youth in Canada need mental health services that address culture as an integral component of treatment. Suffering and oppression caused by colonialism have led to collective distress among Aboriginal peoples and continue to impede the health and wellness of children. Counsellors have an ethical responsibility to recognize culture as an important construct that may influence a client’s healing and treatment preferences. Play therapy is a promising therapeutic approach that allows counsellors to utilize developmentally appropriate theoretical orientations and methods in treatment; however, current literature fails to provide adequate direction and guidelines for culturally competent practice. Counsellors can assume an active role in ensuring that all components of counselling are conducted in a culturally sensitive manner. More research is needed in this area, but this article explores cultural considerations that could be relevant to a child and family accessing play therapy services.

EN:

This article builds upon limited resources available to support counsellors working with the Inuit population in Nunavut, Canada. The author discusses the history of Inuit culture with a focus on the intergenerational trauma that stemmed from colonialism, forced assimilation, and the Canadian government’s sovereignty efforts. This article addresses the loss of cultural identity that resulted among Inuit people due to these events. An analysis of current statistics and drawing on literature that discusses differences between Northern and Southern Canada reveals the stark prevalence of psychosocial issues such as drug and alcohol abuse and family violence. The modernization of society has contributed to the gap between traditional and modern Inuit culture. This population is in a state of cultural transition and therefore requires culturally sensitive and knowledgeable counsellors. It is the position of the author that by using a family systems therapy approach, the interventions would more closely align with Inuit values and therefore be the best choice when counselling Inuit clients.

EN:

This is a story about three virtual and face-to-face communities which met in the capitals of Canada’s three Northern territorial cities over a two-year period to discuss and act on culturally safe and gender-specific services for Northern women (and their children) experiencing homelessness, mental health and substance use concerns. It is a story of how researchers and community-based advocates can work across distance and culture, using co-learning in virtual communities as a core strategy to create relational system change. The three communities of practice were linked through a pan-territorial action research project entitled Repairing the Holes in the Net, in which all participants: learned together, mapped available services, discussed the findings from interviews with northern women about their trajectories of homelessness, analyzed relevant policy, planned local service enhancements, and generally took inspiration from each other.