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Beginning in a good way

Recognizing the uncededMusqueam territory 

& the original owners of 

Ontario lands

UBC Museum of Anthropology

Johnson, S. (2011). Wrap a star blanket around each one. Learning from the educational experiences of Indigenous former youth‐in‐care on Coast Salish territory. In K. Kufeldt & B. McKenzie (Eds.). Child welfare: Connecting research, policy and practice (pp. 339‐352). Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier Press.

Dr. Shelly Johnson University of British Columbia, School of Social Work

November 27, 2012

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SAULTEAUX STAR BLANKET

Symbol represents the first star of a new day

Symbol of a collective Indigenous creation

Metaphor for our vision for a new Indigenous learning journey

Framework

A star blanket is sometimes made from the remnants of prayer cloths used in ceremony that are brought into an ordered pattern that gives rise to profound beauty. Indigenous children in care, and we ourselves are remnants, in a way, of something that once was.

When we re-enter the ordered harmony of culture, when we stand in the circle again with all our relations, we take our place as a sacred and significant part of the ceremonial beauty of our own interrelated existence.

Dr. Lee Brown, personal communication, January 30, 2010.

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Overview• Why this topic?• Purpose • Research Questions• Theoretical Framework• Literature• Methodology and Methods• Key Findings• Strengths and Limitations• Implications and contributions to

practice and policy• Future Research

Social location

Why this topicStories from Indigenous experiences in the Canadian context

Socially sanctioned structural violenceSocial injustice, inequality, racism

PurposeTo learn from Urban Indigenous peoples about their Canadian child welfare and educational experiences within the Urban community contexts of Victoria and Vancouver, BC.

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Research Questions

What facilitated and hindered your educational success both during and after you lived in the BC child protection system?

What educational supports did you access both during and after you lived in the BC child protection system?

Hopes and / or recommendations for change

Indigenist Theoretical Framework

Indigenist Theoretical Principles:

• Resistancestruggle for self-determination and to be free from oppression,

• Politicallinks research to political Indigenous struggles to set our own agendas

• Privileges Indigenous voices.

Rigney, 1997, p. 118

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Indigenous / Feminist Theory - > Indigenist Theory

++

• Collaborative and non-Exploitive Relationships

+

• Positioning the researcher within the research process

+

• Interrogates power structures and practices

+• Emphasis on

transformative research

Patriarchal and

Colonial Power

SexismRacism

SocialEconomicPolitical

Historical

Differential impacts on Indigenous women and children

Praxis: theoretically informed, politically self-conscious activism (Green, 2007, p. 25).

Critical Theory – > Indigenist theory

Oppression/freedom in Canadian society

Historical, social, economic, racial, gender, structural contradictions

Conscientization: understanding contradictions and take action against inequities 

Praxis: offers strategies to exit from oppression, our ability to transform it through our own struggles to free ourselves

Friere, 2001; Mullaly, 2007; Frankfurt School; Hart, 2009

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Historical Trauma Theory - > Indigenist TheoryCumulative and collective psychological and emotional injury sustained over a lifetime

and across generations resulting from massive group trauma experiences. Yellow Horse Brave Heart (2003)

•Aboriginal Healing Foundation (2004); Duran & Duran (1995); Sotero (2006)

•Yellow Horse Braveheart & DeBruyn (1998). The American Indian holocaust: Healing historical unresolved grief. Am Indian AlkNat Menal Health Res 8(2); 56-78.

‐ • Historical Trauma Experience

‐ • Historical Trauma Response

‐ • Intergenerational Transmission

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Theory -> Indigenist Theory

Response flows from Historical Trauma

‐

• PSYCHOLOGICAL• PTSD, Depression, Panic/Anxiety• Results: Grief, withdrawal, numbness

‐

• SOCIAL• Substance misuse, suicide, domestic violence• Results: breakdown of family, separation, loss

‐

• PHYSICAL• Nutritional stress, compromised immune system• Results: Malnutrition, diabetes, heart disease,

hypertension, cancer

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Literature Review

BC RCY and PMHO (2007)

Canadian National Youth in Care Network (2001)

Snow (2009)

Joe Duquette - Haig-Brown, Hodgson-Smith, Regnier & Archibald (1997)

Wiingashk Urban Alternative Secondary School - Sadie Donovan (2011)

Methodology and Methods

Archibald (2008), Kovach (2009), Wilson (2008).

Ontology and epistemology are based upon a process of relationships that form a mutual reality. The axiology and methodology are based upon maintaining accountability to these relationships.                          Shawn Wilson, (2008, p. 70‐71).

Invitation to participateSnowball sampling – relationships

Talking circlesIndividual interviewsDocument review

Guided by Indigenous protocolsFIPC – No repercussionsConfidentiality  and safety

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13 Children of RS Survivors1 Child of former ICIC1 Did not have access to info

125 PlacementsLow of 1High of 50+Average 8.3

149 School PlacementsLow of 2

High of 20+Average 9.9

11 No Aboriginal Caregivers4 Had at least 1 Ab. Caregiver

12 No Ab SD Workers3 Had at least 1

Ab. teacher,counsellor

All 15 ICIC grew up in BC CP

system in Victoria &

Vancouver.Legal status CCO or PW

10 entered CP system <4 years old

4 entered CP system>5 <10 years old

118 Social Workers Low of 1

High of 25+Average 7.86

UrbanICIC

Biggest Barriers to Educational Success?

The BCCW and EducationSystems 40%<12

Board Member& Elder

Executive Director

Managers•Guardianship, •Community Svcs•FinanceFoster

ParentContractor

Team Leader

Social Workers•Guardianship•Resources•Protection

•Cultural Support Worker• C&Y Counsellor•Roots Worker•Teacher

AdminAssistant

Positions of 14

Urban Indigenous

Agency Participants

AgencyParticipants

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29 study participants 

claim ancestry in 52 

Nations

Beaver

Coast Salish

CowichanTribes

Carrier

Comox

Cree

Gitxsan

Haida

Kwakwakwakw

Metis

Mohawk

Nisga’a

Nlaka’pamux

Nuu Chah Nulth

Okanagan

MusqueamNuxalk

Saulteaux

Secwepemc

Sliammon

Stat’im’c

Sto:lo

Squamish

Tahltan

29 study participants

claim ancestry in 52

nations

Canadian

Nations

Key Findings Star Blanket Educational Organizational Model for Indigenous Children in BC’s child protection system

1. Advocacy and legislation

2. Indigenous governance & staff

3. Culture, languages, traditions & ceremonies in curriculum

4. Mentoring by former Indigenousyouth in care

5. Support services for current, historicaltrauma and PTSD

6. Specific targeted educationalfunding for ICIC

7. Educational assessment, planning,implementation and review (EPOC)

8. Service delivery protocols, political collaboration and coordination

1 23

45

76

8

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Urban Indigenous educational advocacy and legislation

• I would like to see an advocacy organization that has the authority to bring all the parties together, education and child welfare services to share information, provide early intervention with lots of targeted support and tutoring for our youth. They should have a mandate, an Urban Aboriginal educational, advocacy group for Urban Aboriginal children in care (ICIC, 2009).

• We also need to work the system from the outside as well. It’s two fold. In the rights of children in foster care, there is nothing about their right to a good education, and appropriate education, inclusive of their cultures or anything like that (Agency, 2009).

Support Services for Current, Historical Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorders

• I was really unhappy and keeping the sexual abuse by the foster father secret dominated everything I did. I couldn’t confide in anyone (ICIC, 2009).

• We sued the first foster home I was in. They called it vicarious abuse, because they had two older kids in the home and they were my abusers (ICIC, 2009).

• My brother and sister had passed away a month and a half apart and I was in grade 9. Most of the teachers I the school, they didn’t give me any grief but also didn’t assist me. They ignored it and didn’t really help. I was pretty much left on my own (ICIC, 2009).

• One of the things that has come up on a continual basis with my little girls that are 13 to 15 years old is serious depression…their life is horrible. They are in a quandryof who they are. They are having serious identity problems (Agency, 2009)

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Targeted Educational Funding for Urban ICIC

(elementary, secondary, post-secondary to age 30)• The schools get specific funding for Aboriginal students, but there are lots of loop holes

and the funding doesn’t follow the student if they are moved in foster care. It has to be changed to that it stays and supports Aboriginal children in foster care, wherever they attend (Agency, 2009).

• When I took the program, I didn’t know that there was a deadline. I didn’t know anything about my band. When I decided to take the program, I had a couple of months to get into the program and get funding. I contacted my band to see if I could get funding for school. They flat out said no to me because I was a couple of weeks late (ICIC, 2009).

• If people who are in care finally make it to a point where they actually make it through university, there should be some debt forgiveness because they don’t have a band funding them, or have parents that are going to bless them with debt forgiveness or help them buy their first home. I came into care when I was 3 and today I have $80,000 in student loan debt (ICIC, 2009).

Strengths and

Limitations

Strengths:

First Indigenist study in Canada to focus on the educational experiences of Urban ICICStrategic, holistic, transformative Indigenist educational organizational model

Limitations:

Ability to compel implementation

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Potential Application ofResearch Findings

Invest in, and implement, this Star Blanket transformational educational model

Develop and implement an educational rights workbook for ICIC and educational mentors

PAR at the direction of Urban Indigenous peoples

You cannot hope to raise student outcomes without increasing the resources required for this initiative.

Betty Lavallee, President of CAP, 2011

Closing in a good wayFinal words from an Elder & Youth

Over 50% of young people in care are Aboriginal and that’s huge. We need to listen to them and we need to give them power. If I’m Premier and I have all this power but I’m making decisions on behalf of them and it doesn’t seem to be working, why aren’t we giving them some of the power so they can make some of the decisions?

(ICIC, 2009)

Poem and Artistic Expression Star Blanket Dreamers

All my relations

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Hy’chka, Me’gweech, Thank you.

Dr. Shelly Johnson, Mukwa MusayettUniversity of British Columbia, School of Social Work

2080 West Mall, Vancouver, BCshelly.johnson@ubc.ca

604-822-9647