Indigenous child welfare

Canada has a decentralized child welfare system that consists of 13 Canadian provincial and territorial child welfare systems. In addition, there exists Métis, First Nations and urban Indigenous child and family service agencies that are to varying degrees affected by federal policies and funding models.

Most commonly, Indigenous child welfare agencies have signed agreements with either the federal or both the federal and provincial governments that authorizes them to provide the full range of child protection services and receive federal funding to do so.

For more information about First Nations child welfare, see Denouncing the Continued Overrepresentation of First Nations Children in Canadian Child Welfare.

For information on the First Nations human rights complaint case against the federal government for under-funding child welfare services on-reserve: I am a witness.

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Title Authors Year
Ethno-racial Categories and Child Welfare Decisions: Exploring the Relationship with Poverty

Antwi-Boasiako, Kofi
King, Bryn
Black, Tara
Fallon, Barbara
Trocmé, Nico
Goodman, Deborah

2016
Expressions of culture in American Indian/Alaska Native tribal child welfare work: A qualitative meta-synthesis

Lucero, Nancy M.
Leake, Robin

2016
Indigenous Resilience, Connectedness and Reunification - From Root Causes to Root Solutions: A Report on Indigenous Child Welfare in British Columbia

Grand Chief Ed John

2016
Living Arrangements of Aboriginal Children Aged 14 and Under

Turner, Annie

2016
Ministerial Mandate Letters: Relevance to Indigenous Child Welfare and Well-Being

Churchill, Molly
Sinha, Vandna

2016
Nistawatsiman: Rethinking assessment of Aboriginal parents for child welfare following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Lindstom, Gabrielle
Choate, Peter W.

2016
Nistawatsimin: Exploring First Nations Parenting: A Literature Review and Expert Consultation with Blackfoot Elders

Lindstrom, Gabrielle
Choate, Peter
Bastien, Leonard
Weasal Traveller, Audrey
Breaker, Stewart
Breaker, Kathy
Good Striker, Wilton
Good Striker, Evelyn

2016
Profile of Children and Youth in the Downtown Eastside Report

British Columbia Ministry of Children and Family Development

2016
Report of the Auditor General of Alberta: Human Services - Systems to Deliver Child and Family Services to Indigenous Children in Alberta

Auditor General of Alberta

2016
Shameful Neglect: Indigenous Child Poverty in Canada

Macdonald, David
Wilson, Daniel

2016