Keeping Families Together: Reimagining Indigenous Child Welfare

The colonial practice of removing Indigenous children from their families and fostering them into non-Indigenous families continues at an alarming rate.   
  
Statistics from the Ministry of Children and Family Development show that Indigenous children accounted for 67.5% of all children in foster care in British Columbia, despite only representing around 5.9% of the child population (as of Census 2016).  

On June 15, 2022, YWCA Metro Vancouver hosted a panel event to discuss how the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the child welfare systems is not a parenting issue, but a colonization issue that continues to result in systemic racism and poverty. Four experts shared their perspectives and lived experiences.

Moderator: Viola Thomas, Indigenous Relations Manager, YWCA Metro Vancouver

Prayer and territorial acknowledgement: Elder Glida Morgan

Panelists:

- Cheyenne Stonechild, Founder, 4 the Generation Project

- Frances Rosner, Lawyer, Practicing primarily in family and child protection

- Grace Tait, Associate Director of YWCA Crabtree Corner Community Resource Centre, YWCA Metro Vancouver

- Mary Teegee, Executive Director of Child and Family Services, Carrier Sekani Family Services (CSFS)

[waysidewaco]

I’m 2% native nobody knows how to help me get my verification..Child welfare kidnapped my newborns while I was still laying in the hospital bed. Sickening.