Promises of prosperity : mining-involved Inuit mothers and culturally relevant child welfare ...

• Main Author: Johnston, Patricia
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2018
• Subjects: inuit; Nunavut
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0371257; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0371257

Research indicates extractive resource development, such as mining, can have negative impacts on women. This includes increased domestic violence and substance abuse among other things. Social and personal problems generated by the separation of families through fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) employment, as well as increased incomes, and other changes can occur. These problems can often bring families to the attention child welfare (state intervention for the protection of children), yet no studies have been undertaken that connect matters of child welfare to the employment of women and other family members in the mining industry. Through interviews with mothers directly affected by either/both involvement with child welfare and/or mining employment, this study documents and alters an understanding of these experiences. Where mining provides employment to an increasing number of Inuit in Nunavut, understanding how mothers perceive social workers and believe social workers to have responded to these problems is ...