Aboriginal Child Welfare in Canada

Aboriginal Child Welfare in Canada

Premise

The history of Aboriginal people in Canada dates back to over 10 ,500 years . The Aboriginal children used to grow up and learn to assume adult roles in an atmosphere of love and affection . This practice continued until some time after their first contact with colonists in the 1490s For the early missionaries , the Aboriginal ways were negligent and irresponsible towards the children . Their goading and coaxing continued until the 1800s when finally the government , aided by Christian churches , strengthened the system of residential schools

for Indian children

The main objective of these schools was to remove all traces of Aboriginality and instill the Euro-western culture , education and spirituality . The Indian Act was suitably modified to force the Indian parents to send their children from five years old to fifteen years old to residential schools . According to Milloy , the conditions at the schools were abysmal as they were built of the cheapest possible materials , employed by untrained staff , and were often overcrowded due to government financial inducements to increase enrolment . Sexual and physical abuses were prevalent as were preventable deaths from disease (Milloy , 1999

Social workers of the 1960s practiced mass removals known as the 60 's scoop . The sixties scoop , coupled with a growing movement within First Nations and Aboriginal communities to stem the tide of children and youth being placed outside their communities , motivated the development of First Nations child and family service agencies . The number of First Nations child and family agencies expanded in the early 1990 's when the Federal government lifted a moratorium on the development of Aboriginal child agencies serving on reserve residents and implemented a national funding formula known as Directive 20-1 Chapter 5

Aboriginal Peoples and the Child Welfare System in Manitoba

The history of Aboriginal child welfare in Manitoba closely parallels the situation across the country . During the late 1970s and 1980s however , the Manitoba government made a number of changes to its child welfare system in to provide Aboriginal communities with better and more humane services through greater local control . Like other provinces , Manitoba had passed various laws over the years , dealing with child welfare matters . In 1979-80 , Manitoba created the first mandated First Nation 's child welfare agency in Canada

The completion of tripartite negotiations on child welfare between Aboriginal leaders of the Four Nations Confederacy and the federal and provincial governments , and the signing of a master agreement in 1982 were giant steps towards establishing Aboriginal controlled child and family service agencies serving status Indians living on reserves throughout Manitoba . This agreement has been called perhaps the most comprehensive and significant development affecting child welfare services to Indian people ' in Canada

The Master Agreement outlines the obligations and responsibilities of the various parties , establishes guiding principles for the operation of Aboriginal child welfare services and specifies the way in which these agencies would be funded . Each government is responsible for funding services on behalf of children who are that government 's...