Volume 7, numéro 2, 2013

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This article addresses topics related to Indigenous holistic well-being including, 1) Indigenous perspectives on Aboriginal child and youth holistic mental health; 2) Factors undermining Indigenous well-being; 3) Process and curriculum for training to support mental health practitioners working with Indigenous children, youth and communities; 4) concrete applications and participant feedback. To begin, it is important to explore the following question: What is holistic mental health for First Nations, Métis and Inuit children and youth? In outlining this training curriculum we hope to contribute to a broader conversation about supporting and enhancing the well-being of Indigenous children and youth in Canada.

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This paper explores the issues and technique that were used with a group of non-conforming youth to prepare them for successful entrance into university. It will produce and affirmation of the inner wisdom of non-traditional students as a mirror of learning for traditional teachers, to provide an example of dialogic learning through a de-colonizing lens. Then it will present the results of six years of group support and counselling to prove that denouncing the gaps in institutionalized systemic barriers to sexual minorities, coupled with persistent clincal, advocacy, and community activism, is effective in breaking the cycles of magrinalization of fervent, creative, and resilient youth once termed "at risk". Immigrant latino youth in general and the case study of Tenoch in particular shows that a direct application of present clinical practices are not enough to provide long-term healing and decolonizing attitudes to survive the academic needs of a border-gender communities. Regularm on-going therapy focused on anti-oppressive pracitces coupled with Aboriginal healing techniques has proved to be a valid, reliable, and consistent method to increase this vulnerable population's well-being without further marginalization. A practitioner might conclude that mixed model is more affirmative of individual process of personhood while still connected to one's roots and communities of origin. The implication of practice is that a clinical needs to also engage in advocacy, support, and profound transformations in order to unmask both inner and outer colonized mind traps.

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Gestalt therapy is similar to an Aboriginal worldview in that they both involve a holistic approach and focus on health and wellness strategies. The Aboriginal worldview is best portrayed as holistic in nature, where the circle of wellness symbolizes unity, wholeness, completeness, and balance. Dream work is a therapeutic technique utilized in Gestalt therapy that could be very useful for Aboriginal peoples given their spiritual and narrative way of being. This article demonstrates the cultural acceptability for utilization of dream work in Gestalt with Aboriginal clients. Furthermore, it discusses both strengths and limitations of this modality of therapy. Implications for use are also discussed.

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Secure attachment has been consistently associated with positive outcomes for children. The complex and intergenerational trauma resulting from colonialism that Aboriginal people in Canada have suffered may threaten the development of secure attachment. Using a case example drawn from social work practice, this paper proposes that Aboriginal children who are insecurely attached and traumatized present particular treatment needs. There is little prior research addressing the treatment needs of insecurely attached Aboriginal children in out-of-home care. Further, in provincial and territorial child welfare agencies Aboriginal children are overwhelmingly in the substitute care of non-Aboriginal caregivers. This paper looks to attachment theory for a treatment approach within these cross-cultural relationships. Attachment theory has shown that the attachment styles of children can be reliably predicted at a rate of 75 percent by looking to those of their caregivers. Additionally, children have been shown to be capable of developing multiple attachment styles in response to the attachment styles of the adults with whom they are in caregiving relationships. Thus, given the stronginfluence of caregiver attachment on the attachment styles of children, it is compelling to look at the potential impact of the attachment styles of substitute caregivers on the children in their care. This paper proposes that in provincial or territorial child welfare it may be necessary to promote substitute caregivers who are securely attached and to acknowledge the context of trauma within which these children and caregivers are striving for well-being.

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For indigenous peoples, recovering from colonial rule and aspiring to flourish, the revival of traditional decision making (TDM) is considered essential. However, transitioning from established colonial practices to TDMs is not well understood. In this paper we identify some of the challenges experienced by a First Nation urban community in the north east of British Columbia as they have tried to develop and implement a culturally-relevant child and family-centered traditional decision-making (TDM) process in the context of government-regulated child protection system. Specifically, we problematize a collaborative decision-making strategy—Family Group Conferencing (FGC). FGCs are premised on values of collaboration, participation, and empowerment, and because this strategy shares many of the values and aspirations of Traditional Decision-Making (TDM), there is a temptation to directly download and incorporate FGCs into the TDM model. In this paper we explore five challenges that warrant particular attention in developing TDM model in this contemporary context: 1) power, 2) cultural adaptability, 3) family support and prevention, 4) coordinator “neutrality”, and 5) sustainable support. We conclude with eight recommendations to overcome these challenges while developing TDMs in a child protection context.

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Aboriginal children are overrepresented in foster care and more Aboriginal foster parents are needed. A randomized group of licensed First Nations, Métis and Inuit foster parents in a Canadian jurisdiction were asked about their spiritual needs to foster. In response to the question “what do you need spiritually to foster?” there were 55 unique responses that were grouped by participants into five concepts including: religion, practice, integration, sharing and contentment. These results were compared and contrasted with the existing fostering literature.

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This study moves beyond evidence left behind by church and state officials to ask who knew what when about residential schooling in Canada. While our historical knowledge about residential schooling and the people involved in and affected by it has grown in recent years, scholars have characteristically focused on official church and state agents. Other non- Aboriginal individuals who lived in or spent some time in Aboriginal communities, and who are not typically implicated in residential schooling, have consequently been overlooked as a source of knowledge about the truth of residential schooling. By broadening our examination of the various people who knew about residential schooling, by considering what they knew, and by coming to terms with the truth that many of them did little or nothing to stop the abuse they witnessed, this study suggests that we can more fully understand ourselves and our history, and we can be more properly prepared to move forward in a process of reconciliation and healing.

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The incidence of crimes against Indigenous women in the Americas has a long history in the making, but in remembering this history now, in redressing the invisible violence, in rendering the invisible visible, is how we as community can put a stop to the atrocities. Two Indigenous women academics from north and south America explore the intersections between art, activism and advocacy in this article on missing, raped and murdered Indigenous women in Mexico, Guatemala and Canada. It asks questions and provides examples about how artists, activists and advocates can redress the invisibility of the violence against Indigenous women, violations of their human rights and potentially repair loss.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine prevention programs, and discuss their potential for having an impact on reducing crime and poor health outcomes for Aboriginal people. A historical context is first outlined in order to provide a context for understanding the disproportionate amount of crime and related poor health outcomes affecting Aboriginal people. Risk factors for crime and health are identified, demonstrating their interrelatedness and overlapping nature, indicating that risk factors do not existing in isolation from each other. Existing crime prevention programs are subsequently discussed, paying particular attention to the intersection between evidence-based outcomes and programs offered at Aboriginal Friendship Centres. The use of prevention programs for preventing/reducing crime and related health costs (i.e. substance use/abuse, smoking, and/or addictions) has been positively established by existing research. Thus, it is suggested that these programs offered in Aboriginal centres, such as Aboriginal Friendship Centres, should be furtherexpanded and supported.

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There has been historical abuse of Native American children in the U.S. which began in the late 19th century in what is known as the residential school movement. It led to their forced integration on pain of removing and eradicating traces of their Indian heritage. The lack of protection for Indigenous children in being transferred from the reservations to non- Indian foster parents caused the U.S. Congress to use their legislative power and enact the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 [ICWA]. This has intervened in a process that is aimed at keeping Native American children within the tribe of their parents over the last 35 years. The result of the ICWA is that it has led to the greater supervision by tribal courts over children but it has caused a conflict to arise with the state courts due to jurisdictional reasons that allows guardianship and supervision to non-Indian parents. The Arizona Court of Appeals has recently ruled in Navajo Nation v. Arizona Department of Economic Security (2012) CA-JV 11-0123 that an Indian child can stay with his non-Native foster parents despite the protests of the tribe that it was infringing the provisions of the statute. This article is intended for the practitioner and policy makers and brings to the fore the issues of the preservation of children on reservation lands, and the need for a greater care consideration in the determination if they should be transferred to foster parents outside the tribe’s jurisdiction. It also conducts a comparison with Canada where First Nations children have also suffered abuse and where there is an ongoing debate about the course of action to prevent the appropriation of children from the reserves to live with the non-Native foster parents.