COMMENT – The Relationship Between Child Welfare and Indigenous Communities
Posted under: Kate Gouveia Pereira, Toronto Metropolitan University – Toronto, Canada
COMMENT – The Relationship Between Child Welfare and Indigenous Communities
The social work profession has a contentious reputation in Indigenous communities. Many child welfare workers were historically complicit in the residential school system and the Sixties Scoop. Some continue to enforce deeply racist and colonial policies, and Indigenous children are overrepresented in Canada’s child welfare system. Yet it is important to recognize Indigenous participation in community engagement practices aimed at changing the involvement and treatment of Indigenous children in the foster care system. Meaningful changes are needed to rectify the abuses committed against Indigenous communities and children, which are deeply connected to Canada’s history of genocide.
The social work profession and the Canadian government have a contentious relationship with Indigenous peoples, especially related to their involvement in the mistreatment and misrecognition of Indigenous children. Canada’s Indian Act includes the “illegitimate female child rule,” for instance, which prevents Indigenous female children born out of wedlock to Indigenous men from claiming legal Indigenous status (Native Women’s Association of Canada, n.d.). The amended Indian Act of 1951 established the Indian Register to determine which Indigenous children would qualify for status (Native Women’s Association of Canada, n.d.). These laws create challenges for claiming indigeneity and the ensuing rights and protections afforded under the Indian Act. Yet even children who are supposedly protected by federal law have encountered rights abuses – including state social workers removing Indigenous children from their families and placing them into (often abusive) residential schools[1] and foster care systems (Auger, 2012). After residential schools closed and reconciliation efforts began, many social workers began to acknowledge that racist colonial practices were deeply embedded within child welfare practices and needed to be changed (DeGrace & McBain, 2019). New ideas and movements to Indigenize and improve the child welfare system have spread, impacting the social work profession broadly. Decolonization and the inclusion of Indigenous voices are key to this process, with careful attention to how the social work profession has caused harm to Indigenous communities and how modern-day social work can repair the historical trauma associated with that harm.
To understand the relationship between social work and Indigenous communities today, it is important to recognize Canada’s history of genocide against Indigenous peoples. Discriminatory policies such as the Indian Act fostered the forced assimilation and rights abuse of Indigenous peoples (Native Women’s Association of Canada, n.d.). The removal of Indigenous children from their families was a key genocidal tool against Indigenous communities, with social workers deployed to remove children from their homes and place them in residential schools and/or foster care. Many children were abused and forced to adopt European cultural practices, to the detriment of their Indigenous identity (Auger, 2012). Canada’s child welfare system was involved in the so-called “Sixties Scoop,” in which Indigenous children were forcibly taken from their families and put up for adoption (Salazar & Crowe-Salazar, 2020). Many of those children later developed mental health conditions as adults, as well as experienced incarceration and homelessness, in response to the trauma of family separation (Auger, 2012). Removal has not ended today, but it looks different; Indigenous children in Canada are overrepresented in the child welfare system (Waubanascum & Sarche, 2023). Given the history of social workers aiding in the removal of Indigenous children from their families, it is deeply concerning that so many Indigenous children today are still taken into the foster care system (Auger, 2012).
It is important to understand the embedded colonialism within the social work discipline, and how ignoring Indigenous perspectives has affected interactions between Canada’s child welfare system and Indigenous communities. Colonialist views are deeply entrenched within social work; beginning with Social Darwinism, false theories of the “fittest race” and so-called “racial science” were used to justify colonial practices and racism (Waubanascum & Sarche, 2023, p. 344). Child welfare continues to be mandated by provincial legislation; it is governed and controlled by the state rather than mandated by Indigenous leadership (DeGrace & McBain, 2019). There is a lack of Indigenous cultural knowledge within social work, and the colonial mindset that allowed residential schools to flourish has not disappeared (Auger, 2012). Factors that lead many Indigenous children to end up in the child welfare system are often closely connected to a history of genocide and colonialism, including increased rates of poverty in Indigenous communities, limited access to education and employment opportunities, lack of health care, and mental health issues related to historical trauma (Palmater, 2017).
The social work community needs to involve Indigenous perspectives to effectively help Indigenous children, and thankfully there are many initiatives to improve social work practices and facilitate community engagement. One such effort is the Touchstones of Hope reconciliation movement, which is based in British Columbia and facilitates interaction between social workers and the Indigenous communities (Auger, 2012). Sessions facilitate the sharing of viewpoints without attention to titles or honorifics, and Indigenous voices are valued to better understand the cultural practices and values of their communities (Auger, 2012). Touchstones of Hope meetings acknowledge the structural challenges created by colonialism and how they impact Indigenous children, highlighting the importance of Indigenous perspectives and the need to rewrite harmful policies (Auger, 2012). Yet despite these initiatives, there is still a lack of meaningful policy change; Indigenous children represented 53.7% of Canada’s children in foster care in 2021 (Hahmann et al., 2024). Substantial changes are needed to improve the welfare system and help (rather than harm) Indigenous children.
In conclusion, the social work profession has been working toward repairing its relationship with Indigenous communities, but far more action is required. The effects of colonialism are not limited to the past; the trauma of residential schools and the Sixties Scoop are still felt today, and many colonial practices remain in effect. Substantial changes are needed within the discipline of social work and its related laws to create a child welfare system that incorporates Indigenous practices and ensures the welfare of Indigenous children and their communities. It is important to address the broader social structures that lead to the overrepresentation of Indigenous children within the child welfare system, as that understanding can help ensure the safety and well-being of Indigenous children in the future.
References
Auger, A. (2012). Moving Toward Reconciliation in Indigenous Child Welfare. Child
Welfare, 91(3): 31-46.
DeGrace, L., & McBain, N. (2019). Indigenous-settler relations in social work practice:
reconciliation in education. Antistasis, 9(1): 33-42.
Hahmann, T., Lee, H., & Godin, S. (2024, April 18). Indigenous foster children living in private households: Rates and sociodemographic characteristics of foster children and their households. Statistics Canada. Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/41-20-0002/412000022024001-eng.htm.
National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. (n.d.). Residential School History. Retrieved from https://nctr.ca/education/teaching-resources/residential-school-history/.
Native Women’s Association of Canada. (n.d.). Indian Act. Retrieved from https://nwac.ca/policy/indian-act.
Palmater, P. (2017). Decolonization is taking back our power. In Whose Land is it Anyways? A Manual for Decolonization, edited by P. McFarlane & N. Schabus, pp. 73-78. Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC. Retrieved from https://fpse.ca/sites/default/files/news_files/Decolonization%20Handbook.pdf.
Salazar, A., & Crowe-Salazar, N. (2020). Connecting Myself to Indian Residential
Schools and the Sixties Scoop. First Peoples Child & Family Review 15(1): 5-11.
Waubanascum, C., & Sarche, M. (2023). “So, we’ve been taken away since forever”:
Indigenous Relative Caregivers’ Experiences as a Framework for Uncovering Coloniality in the Child Welfare System. Adversity and Resilience Science, 4(4): 343-361.
© Copyright 2025 Righting Wrongs: A Journal of Human Rights. All rights reserved.
Righting Wrongs: A Journal of Human Rights is an academic journal that provides space for undergraduate students to explore human rights issues, challenge current actions and frameworks, and engage in problem-solving aimed at tackling some of the world’s most pressing issues. This open-access journal is available online at www.webster.edu/rightingwrongs.
[1] The Canadian Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous children. The network was funded by the Canadian government’s Department of Indian Affairs and administered by various Christian churches. Residential schools were also utilized in the neighboring United States. These schools were often sites of severe physical, sexual, and mental abuse (see National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, n.d.).