IAA child welfare report

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Leaders saddened by desperate state of child welfare

The sad state of child welfare is a symptom of a greater problem that begins in the community with alcohol, loss of cultural identity and poor parenting, Indian Association of Alberta (IAA) Treaty 7 vice-president Narcisse Blood told leaders at the all-chiefs conference in Calgary Oct. 7.

Blood was referring to a unique child welfare report commissioned by the IAA and presented to the chiefs for their adoption.

The report contains extensive interviews with children, parents and grandparents who went into communities to record their feelings about growing up as a child or raising children. It also has drawings done by children living in alcoholic homes ? pictures of themselves crying because there's no food in the house, or because their parents are fighting.

"The statistical reports have been done; this is a report to get talking about the problems we have," said Blood, who coordinated the report. "It shows how desperate the situation is with our children, it says we have to do something, and it comes right from the people involved."

Wilton Goodstriker, spiritual leader of the Blood band, set the tone for the presentation of the report, saying: "I urge you ? the issue of child welfare is so important. People are crying for help as they search for their identity and heritage." He explained the chief teaching of Indian children used to begin at conception with naming ceremonies and societies that concentrated on the development of that child.

"The concentration on our youth has been destroyed, just as our strong spirit has," Goodstriker concluded.

IAA president Gregg Smith introduced the report, pointing out initiative. Jurisdiction is the other thing. Our recommendations have to be considered by the government of this province, yet we are under the federal responsibility."

Through interviews with community residents at all levels, including social welfare workers, numerous issues are brought to light in the report. Such intrusions on Native life as residential schools are discussed at length and pinpointed as part of the problem in family breakdown.

"Adults we talked to seemed to be very affected by the residential schools. In a lot of cases they never had the chance to be raised by their own parents, so they are at a loss as to how to bring up their own children," explained Betty Bastien, a research coordinator who worked extensively on the report.

Dr. Pam Colorado, who assisted Bastien with the report research, addressed the denial system at work with communities. "It's as though we set up our young people to choose death rather than break the denial surrounding school; we lie to them when someone dies from alcohol. We tell them that person went to heaven," she said, quoting from the report.

The 138-page report contains exhaustive insights into the problems facing today's children and the fact so many are being put into non-Native foster homes. Dr. Colorado outlined the major resolutions that had risen from the report: "We have to go back to the people so they can start talking about it, discuss the issues and come up with the answers, we have to go back to the family, to the Elders ? the relationship between them has been damaged. We have to create that relationship again . . . and finally, we have to realize that our children are on loan to us. They way we treat them comes back to us . . . it's reflected in the community."

Narcisse Blood and Betty Bastien are currently working on a proposal to implement suggestions made in the report and put them to practical use. "People are talking about the problems now. We wanted to impress upon our leaders how important it is to work together on this," Blood pointed out in a telephone interview after the conference. He thinks the chiefs recognize that problems start in their own communities and they must take steps to create a new environment for their people.

"The report says 'this is what's happening out thre' and impresses upon the chiefs that they must network and counsel and work together to save the children. Our kids are being ignored, if we don't do anything with this report, then we're doing the same thing," Blood said.

Such developments as "repatriation group homes" for children returning to reserves from foster homes, cultural youth camps and parenting workshops are practical applications arising from the report. Funds are needed before any of these developments can occur.

Blood stressed it is not the IAA's mandate to become involved with the delivery of services and programs regarding child welfare on reserves. It is his group's responsibility to lobby for funds and "get people networking and talking about the changes that have to be made. We've given the chiefs a mandate that they now have to follow up on to take responsibility for child welfare." He added the resolutions arising from the report will not be detrimental to those bands and tribal councils which already have tri-partite or bi-lateral agreements with the government for child welfare responsibility.

"We respect what they're doing where bands have taken the problems and tackled them. We want to work with them and share notes. Every person that's involved in this has got their own answer. In the past we've followed the white way of having a department for this and that and they never talk to each other and know what they're all doing. Now we want to find out how we can all work together."