The road back from hell? : First Nations, self-government, and the universal goal of child protection in Canada ...
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...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
University of British Columbia
2009
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0077479 https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0077479 |
Summary: | 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 ... |
---|