The Canadian child welfare system has increasingly found itself under attack for its
treatment of First Nations children. The charge is made that it imposes a colonial regime
on First Nations families which negates the importance of their cultural identity, and
devalues their cultural practices and traditions. Self-government is consistently advanced
as the only appropriate response. The question this thesis addresses is whether too much
faith is placed in self-government, without sufficient protections for children in the
communities.
The issue of First Nations child welfare is placed within the wider debates over the
need for decolonisation in Canada. It is a premise of this thesis that First Nations hold an
inherent right to self-government which demands respect for their sovereign authority in
core areas such as child welfare. However, self-government is not a panacea for First
Nations communities. The legacy of colonialism continues to manifest itself in the socioeconomic
problems prevalent on many reserves/These problems pose a direct challenge to
self-governing child welfare agencies and to the safety of the children in their care.
This raises the dilemma of how to ensure the fundamental rights of First Nations
children are effectively protected, whilst also respecting the 'sovereign' jurisdiction of
First Nations communities. The attempts of non-native society to impose controls on First
Nations governments, principally through the imposition of the Canadian Charter, are
rejected on the basis they continue to perpetuate a colonial philosophy. However,
adopting a theory of 'rejuvenated universalism,' and on the basis of a dialogue with three
native controlled child welfare agencies in British Columbia, it is argued that agreement on
fundamental standards of child welfare could be forged across native and non-native
cultures. It is suggested these standards should be guaranteed in a Children's Charter
binding all governments in Canada. A Children's Charter which has been developed
through fully inclusive cross-cultural dialogue, and which consequently reflects the values
of all the various cultures, would provide an essential mechanism for the external
evaluation and review of child welfare agencies in Canada, whether native or non-native,
according to their own freely accepted values and principles. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/6456 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Harris, Sonia Ruth |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 30240317 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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