Fallen Feather Productions

There is a direct link between the limited funds for decent housing and the physical and mental health of our families.

Poverty is linked to housing and as you see this house here, if I were a Child and Family worker and was assessing the home, I would consider health, would consider safety and overcrowding. Obviously the poor parents wouldn’t stand a chance against the policies and standards that are set forth in the guidelines. And that happened a lot in the 60’s Scoop. A lot of our kids were scooped up because the parents couldn’t meet the criteria. The real shame is that we are surrounded by all our traditional territory that was never surrendered or ceded to the Government.

There is now a Paper Mill that has been operating on our land for 82 years. Also, the Province gets substantial revenues from the stumpage fee from the forest industry. Trees from our land that was never surrendered. All the taxation from these business. All this revenue that is raised by the Government. Why wont they share this with us.

With all this natural wealth, it’s a shame that we have to have a housing situation like this across Canada.

Clearly you can see the link between the removal of our land resources, the resulting poverty, and the quality of care we can provide our children.

To help solve this crisis, we have to start sharing this land wealth that was taken away.

All we are asking for is our fair and equal share.

What I believe needs to happen is that as we as Indigenous Nations and Leaders and Grand Parents and Parents.  If we truly believe that the children are the future then we have to know that the future is right now.  Not five years from now or ten years from now.  It’s Today.  We need to take responsibility, we need to stand up and protect our children and put systems in place to ensure that this happens.  We have to assert our laws and jurisdiction.  And bring back to life the rituals that made our people strong.  The Rituals of puberty, the rights of passage the vision questing.  The things that taught young boys to be men and young girls to be women. Because it’s only through these cultural tools can we can exist as indigenous peoples in this world.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip

The one thing the Government of Canada needs to understand is that as Indigenous People we enjoy undiminished rights to self-determination.  Within the Sprit and Intent of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.  The Government of Canada needs to respect our human rights and our land rights and adjust its response and behaviour accordingly.  And in the event that this requires legislative and policy reform then the sooner that the Government embraces this then the better off we will all be.

Control of Foster Care of our children belongs to us.

As Indigenous People, I think that we need to understand what our responsibilities are to ourselves, to our children and grandchildren. We must look to the wisdom of our elders and ancestors. We need to work together collectively to create a better future for our children.

Chief Wayne Christian and Marie Tonasket – Denommee, Director of Splatsin Child and Family Preservation Team including Jayne Taylor, Tresha Stevens and Vivian Bonneau

Lately in the province of BC their looking at doing an Aboriginal child welfare legislation, which I think is the direction that we want to go. 

It makes a huge difference when you try to identify needs with a family early on and build on that.  We need resources to be able to do that.

What happens in our funding formula right now is that we don’t get paid for any prevention dollars, we only get paid for every child we have in care.  So there is no prevention fund, zero.  A prevention fund is to help children so they don’t come into care.  So you may know there could be a problem so you go in and do the early work with the family.  Or if children are not having problems you work with them to get the relationship going so they can role model their good behaviors to their peers.  Prevention keeps children out of care.

When working with Aboriginal families or children in care there has to be involvement between the foster parents and the Aboriginal community, and the child’s Band. 

There’s a lot of history that an Aboriginal person can identify with in their background.  It starts with the first experience with a social worker.  Most typically, they (social worker) are either non-native, middle class, and they see being in poverty as being a bad thing.  There are different levels of poverty, that I don’t think they totally understand.  And how a person percieves being in poverty, because for them poverty may be a way of life, to them it’s not a hardship, but for say a white, middle class person they would see that as inadaquate.  Also the historical stuff, loosing their families, the lack of trust, Aboriginal people don’t always trust social workers.  Social workers took their children, their identities and entire Aboriginal communities would go silent when the government took the children to place in non-native foster homes.  That’s the difference that an Aboriginal person can bring to the work because that’s what clients can identify with because there is a stigma given the history of child welfare since the 60′s Scoop.

Chief Sydney Douglas

The funding of First Nations driven child welfare needs to be reviewed,

The Ministry for Children and Family currently pays its employee more then we receive from the government to perform similar duties. Funding must be fair and equal.

Currently in Sto:lo Nation’s there is no funding until there is an apprehension. So the system doesn’t work to support the family before the child is taken away.

We feel that there should be a program developed that funds the support and education of families before apprehension becomes necessary.

Education with in the schools that is aimed to prevent teen pregnancy.