‘We Need to Take Care of Our Own Children’

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‘We Need to Take Care of Our Own Children’ – The Tyee

by ahnationtalk on January 17, 202517 Views

Inside the fight for Indigenous jurisdiction over child services in Canada. First in an occasional series.

Indigenous Peoples are reclaiming their right to take care of their children after at least 500 years of colonization. The transition to taking back jurisdiction — the power to make legal decisions — over their children is a move full of hope, but also fraught with concerns about inadequate funding and offloading responsibility from federal and provincial governments to Indigenous nations.

“The reason [children are a top priority for First Nations people] is that children are the keepers of the possible. They’re the keepers of our tradition. They’re the keepers of our peoples,” said Cindy Blackstock, a noted activist for Indigenous children’s rights who is a member of the Gitksan First Nation and the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.

“If you don’t pay attention to the children, then really, you’re losing that. You’re losing your culture, you’re losing everything.”