Weechi-it-te-win Family Services

Last updated

Weechi-it-te-win Family Services [1] is a family services agency focused on the needs of Anishinaabe families in ten communities in the southern part of the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty #3 in Canada. [2] It provides bicultural aboriginal and mainstream child protection and prevention services based upon cultural competence. Weechi-it-te-win "is an example of First Nations communities reclaiming jurisdiction for their children and safeguarding a cultural heritage shaken by the impacts of colonization, the legacy of the residential schools and intervention by the mainstream child welfare system." [3] Weechi-te-win is a national child protection agency of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty #3. [4] The defining difference between Weechi-it-te-win and mainstream services is its focus on customary care. Its website says: "Weechi-it-te-win was founded as an Indian Alternative and we continue to envision the revitalizing of an Anishinaabe child care system that is rooted in the customs, traditions and values of the Anishinaabe people." [5]

Contents

Children and cultural survival

Like other agencies for aboriginal child protection world-wide, Weechi-it-te-win is focused on the protecting children within a modern aboriginal and bi-cultural context. "The mission of Weechi-it-te-win is to preserve Indian (Anishinaabe) culture and identity among our people; to strengthen and maintain Indian (Anishinaabe) families and through them our communities; and to assure the growth, support and development of all children within our families and communities." [6] This mission must be understood in the context of a history of both the systemic use of aboriginal child protection for genocidal purposes and the participation of Anishinaabe communities in mainstream society in Canada. [7] Denying a people the right to raise its own children is a method for culturally extinguishing it. [8]

Anishinaabe customary law

Weechi-it-te-win bicultural practice is based upon both the customary law of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty #3 and statutory law of the province of Ontario. [9] Customary care derives from customary laws. Customary Anishinaabe laws are mostly uncodified. [10] Such laws are enforceable in the courts of Canada. [11] "Abinoojii naaniigaan" expresses a foundational legal principle [12] in Anishinaabe law: that the total well-being of a child is the central consideration in the care and protection of children. It means literally, "The child comes first and foremost," and admits neither exception nor excuse. This principle is consistent with but more forceful than the conventional child protection concept: "the best interests of the child". Even more forceful is a companion principle: "kizheowsowin", which invokes the fierce love for, and protection of, children exemplified by a mother bear who will kill or die in the protection of her cubs. Taken together, Anishinaabe customary legal principles reflect a more holistic worldview and so give relatively greater emphasis to spiritual, cultural and relational needs in addition to physical needs of the child. This emphasis seems to be a common element in aboriginal child protection principles and practice.

Community-based services

Weechi-it-te-win's child protection services are community based. Each community has its own service delivery system, which is supported by Weechi-it-te-win. Customary care practices are community-specific because they are adapted to local culture and circumstances. [13] Ontario child protection laws, developed for non-aboriginal culture and urban circumstances, are not necessarily relevant to or effective in these communities and may result in unintended injury to Anishinaabe children. [14]

Enforcement

The Anishinaabe people's maintenance of its customary law and its cultural continuity through its children are aboriginal rights. [15] Such rights are recognized and affirmed by the Canadian Constitution. [16] Although infrequently relied upon in the past, aboriginal laws including customary law continue to be enforceable in Canadian courts. [17] Anishinaabe customary laws, the Canadian Constitution, and Ontario laws are enforced by the Court of Ontario.

Notes

  1. ↑ Weechi-it-te-win (from wiiji'idiwin in the Anishinaabe or Ojibwe language) means "looking after each other".
  2. ↑ Weechi-it-te-win provides aboriginal child protection services in part of this territory that now falls within the Province of Ontario.
  3. ↑ Peter Ferris, Estelle Simard, George Simard, & Jacqueline Ramdatt, "Promising Practices in First Nations Child Welfare Management and Governance," September, 2005, http://www.fncfcs.com/docs/WFSPromisingPractices.pdf; accessed 5 October 2008.
  4. ↑ Anishinaabe Abinoojii Family Services is also a national child protection agency of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty #3, providing bicultural services to five communities in the north-west area of Treaty 3 territory; http://www.aafs.ca/homen.htm, accessed 8 September 2008.
  5. ↑ "Weechi-it-te-win Family Services". www.weechi.ca. Retrieved 5 October 2008.
  6. ↑ See http://www.weechi.ca/index.php; accessed 5 October 2008.
  7. ↑ In 2008, the government of Canada acknowledged and apologized for a major element of this systemic problem; Hansard, Wednesday, 11 June 2008, Stephen Harper, "Apology to Former Students of Indian Residential Schools", http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=3568890&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=39&Ses=2; accessed 5 October 2008.
  8. ↑ Such actions are now illegal: "In the second half of the twentieth century, removing children from their parents in order to change a people and a culture came to be recognized as an act of oppression, formally considered by the United Nations to be a form of genocide." Andrew Armitage, Comparing the Policy of Aboriginal Assimilation: Australia, Canada and New Zealand, UBC Press, Vancouver (1995), p. 6.
  9. ↑ The ten communities serviced by Weechi-it-te-win are in Ontario. Initially, Weechi-it-te-win operated under Part X of The Child and Family Services Act, R.S.O. c. C11; http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_90c11_e.htm.
  10. ↑ See, e.g., R. v Secretary of State For Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, [1982] 2 All E.R. 118, wherein Lord Denning said "These customary laws are not written down. They are handed down by tradition from one generation to another. Yet beyond doubt they are well established and have the force of law within the community."
  11. ↑ See, for example, Campbell v. Attorney-General of British Columbia, 2000 BCSC 1123, at para. 84: "If it need be said, the common law will be enforced by the courts. The common law has long recognized 'customs' or rules that have obtained the force of law in a particular locality."
  12. ↑ This may be a constitutional principle in the sense that it cannot be amended or over-ridden by temporal customary law.
  13. ↑ In 2008, the Auditor General of another Province recommended there that "the ministry [of Children and Family Development], in consultation with First Nations and Aboriginal organizations, obtain ... community-by-community knowledge of Aboriginal child protection needs." Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia, "Management of Aboriginal Child Protection Services, May 2008, p. 9; http://www.bcauditor.com/include/view_file.asp?id=10&type=publication, accessed 5 October 2008; there is no similar report for Ontario.
  14. ↑ For example, a regulation introduced under Ontario Bill 210 subjects foster homes to searching inquiry that is appropriate to a location where neighbours may be strangers but may be an inappropriate obstacle to finding much-needed culturally-compatible child placements in a close-knit community where almost everyone knows almost everything about almost everyone else. The Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty No. 3 represented by the Executive Directors of Weechi-it-te-win and Anishinaabe Abinoojii Family Services are developing more effective procedures in consultation with Ontario on a community-by-community basis; see correspondence between Ogichidaa Arnold Gardner of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty #3 and the Ontario Minister of Children and Youth Services on file at Grand Council of Treaty 3, the Ministry and Weechi-it-te-win.
  15. ↑ Brian Slattery, "What Are Aboriginal Rights?", in Let Right Be Done: Aboriginal Title, the Calder Case, and the Future of Indigenous Rights, Hamar Foster, Heather Raven and Jeremy Webber (eds), UBC Press, Vancouver (2007); see also SSRN   787244, p. 9.
  16. ↑ Constitution Act, 1982 (Can.), s. 35. http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/const/annex_e.html, accessed 7 September 2008.
  17. ↑ "[T]he most salient fact, for the purposes of the question of whether a power to make and rely upon aboriginal law survived Canadian Confederation, is that since 1867 courts in Canada have enforced laws made by aboriginal societies." See: Campbell v. British Columbia, 2000 BCSC 1123.

Related Research Articles

First Nations is a term used to identify Indigenous peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. Traditionally, First Nations in Canada were peoples who lived south of the tree line, and mainly south of the Arctic Circle. There are 634 recognized First Nations governments or bands across Canada. Roughly half are located in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia.

<i>Indian Act</i> 1876 Canadian act of Parliament

The Indian Act is a Canadian act of Parliament that concerns registered Indians, their bands, and the system of Indian reserves. First passed in 1876 and still in force with amendments, it is the primary document that defines how the Government of Canada interacts with the 614 First Nation bands in Canada and their members. Throughout its long history, the act has been a subject of controversy and has been interpreted in different ways by both Indigenous Canadians and non-Indigenous Canadians. The legislation has been amended many times, including "over five major changes" made in 2002.

Children's Aid Societies (CAS) takes place in Ontario, Canada. They are separate, independent organizations which have each been approved by the Ontario government's Ministry of Children and Youth Services to provide child protection services. The declared goal of CAS is to "promote the best interests, protection and well being of children".

Foster children in Canada are known as permanent wards. A ward is someone, in this case a child, placed under protection of a legal guardian and are the legal responsibility of the government. Census data from 2011 counted children in foster care for the first time, counting 47,885 children in care. The majority of foster children – 29,590, or about 62% – were aged 14 and under. The wards remain under the care of the government until they "age out of care." This age is different depending on the province.

The Sagkeeng First Nation is a Treaty-1 First Nation in the Eastman Region of Manitoba, Canada, that is composed of the Anishinaabe people indigenous to the area at or near the Fort Alexander Indian Reserve #3 located along the Winnipeg River and Traverse Bay. Today, Sagkeeng holds territory in the southern part of Lake Winnipeg, 120 kilometres (75 mi) north of the city of Winnipeg, and on the mainland.

The Pikangikum First Nation is an Ojibwe First Nation located on the 1,808-hectare (4,470-acre) Pikangikum 14 Reserve, in Unorganized Kenora District in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. The main centre is the community of Pikangikum, on Pikangikum Lake on the Berens River, part of the Hudson Bay drainage system; it is approximately 100 kilometres (60 mi) north of the town of Red Lake.

Poplar Hill First Nation is an Anishinaabe (Ojibway) First Nation band government, approximately 120 km north of Red Lake near the Ontario-Manitoba border. The First Nation is accessible by air and winter road. In May 2016, the First Nation had a registered population of 473 people.

Deer Lake First Nation is an Oji-Cree First Nations band government in Northern Ontario, located north of Red Lake, Ontario Canada. It is one of the few First Nations in Ontario to have signed Treaty 5. It is part of the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Council and the Nishnawbe Aski Nation. As of December, 2007, the First Nation had 1,072 registered members, of which their on-reserve population was 868.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aboriginal title</span> Concept in common law of indigenous land rights persisting after colonization

Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, the content of aboriginal title, the methods of extinguishing aboriginal title, and the availability of compensation in the case of extinguishment vary significantly by jurisdiction. Nearly all jurisdictions are in agreement that aboriginal title is inalienable, and that it may be held either individually or collectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nishnawbe Aski Nation</span>

Nishnawbe Aski Nation is a political organization representing 51 First Nation communities across Treaty 9 and Treaty 5 areas of Northern Ontario, Canada. Re-organized to its present form in 1981, NAN's original objective was "to represent the social and economic aspirations of our people at all levels of government in Canada and Ontario until such time as real effective action is taken to remedy our problems."

Marten Falls First Nation is an Anishinaabe First Nation reserve located in northern Ontario. The First Nation occupies communities on both sides of the Albany River in Northern Ontario, including Ogoki Post in the Cochrane District and Marten Falls in the Kenora District. As of December 2013, the First Nation had a total registered population of 728 people, of which their on-reserve population was 328 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort William First Nation</span> Indian reserve in Ontario, Canada

Fort William First Nation is an Ojibwa First Nation reserve in Ontario, Canada. The administrative headquarters for this band government is south of Thunder Bay. As of January 2008, the First Nation had a registered population of 1,798 people, of which their on-Reserve population was 832 people.

Grand Council of Treaty 3 (GCT3) is a political organization representing 24 First Nation communities across Treaty 3 areas of northern Ontario and southeastern Manitoba, Canada, and four additional First Nations, specifically in regard to their Treaty rights.

Pimicikamak is the name of one of the Cree-speaking aboriginal peoples of Canada. Pimicikamak is "a people of rivers and lakes. The traditional territory of Pimicikamak is around Sipiwesk Lake in the heart of the boreal forest, five hundred kilometres north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Flowing through their land is Kichi Sipi, the Great River." Pimicikamak's traditional territory also is known as Pimicikamak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pimicikamak government</span>

Pimicikamak is an indigenous people in Canada. Pimicikamak is related to, but constitutionally, legally, historically and administratively distinct from, the Cross Lake First Nation which is a statutory creation that provides services on behalf of the Canadian Government. Pimicikamak government is based on self-determination and has a unique form.

Aboriginal child protection describes services designed specifically for protection of the children of "aboriginal" or indigenous peoples, particularly where these peoples are a minority within a country. They may differ at international, national, legal, cultural, social, professional and program levels from general or mainstream child protection services. Fundamental human rights are a source of many of the differences. Aboriginal child protection may be an integral or a distinct aspect of mainstream services or it may be exercised formally or informally by an aboriginal people itself. There has been controversy about systemic genocide in child protection systems enforced with aboriginal children in post-colonial societies.

The Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty No. 3 is a sovereign Anishinaabe Nation in Canada. It has existed as a self-governing people with its own laws and government institutions since time immemorial, before the arrival of European settlers. "America, separated from Europe by a wide ocean, was inhabited by ... separate nations, independent of each other and of the rest of the world, having institutions of their own, and governing themselves by their own laws." "The territory included in Treaty #3 in 1873 was governed by a Grand Council of Anishinaabe Chiefs. ... This civil leadership was responding to other political ranks and ultimately to the constituent families." The Nation is, by constitutional definition, the Anishinaabe people that entered into Treaty 3 with the Crown in 1873.

The Sixties Scoop was a period in which a series of policies were enacted in Canada that enabled child welfare authorities to take, or "scoop up," Indigenous children from their families and communities for placement in foster homes, from which they would be adopted by white families. Despite its name referencing the 1960s, the Sixties Scoop began in the mid-to-late 1950s and persisted into the 1980s.

Cindy Blackstock is a Canadian Gitxsan activist for child welfare and executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada. She is also a professor for the School of Social Work at McGill University.

In Canada, the duty to consult and accommodate with Aboriginal peoples arises when the Crown contemplates actions or decisions that may affect Aboriginal or Treaty rights. This duty arises most often in the context of natural resource extraction such as mining, forestry, oil, and gas.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.