FNCARES - Featured Resources

Resources produced by FNCARES and others 

Publications

First Nations Child Poverty: A Literature Review and Analysis

by Melisa Brittain and Cindy Blackstock

 

This five-chapter literature review and analysis examines existing research on First Nations child poverty contextualized within the historical and contemporary manifestations of colonialism in Canada. 

 

Films

(Dis)placed: Indigenous Youth and the Child Welfare System

dir. Melisa Brittain, 2017, 42 min. Closed captioned.

 

Canada's colonial practice of forcibly removing Indigenous children from their families did not end with the closing of Indian residential schools. It continues today in the form of provincial and territorial child welfare systems, which remove Indigenous children and youth at unprecedented rates. This film features the voices of Indigenous youth as they reflect on their prior involvement with child welfare and share their multiple strategies of resistance to assimilation and state control. Adding to these insights, First Nations child advocate Cindy Blackstock traces the term 'neglect', the main rationale for child welfare removals, to its roots in the residential school system, and points to laws that codify structural discrimination as the leading cause of child welfare (dis)placements. 

Read more about the film at KingCrip Productions. This film is distributed by V Tape. There are special rates for community organizations, public libraries and high schools. 

 

We Can't Make the Same Mistake Twice

dir. Alanis Obomsawin, 2016, 163 min.

 

This stunning NFB documentary by legendary Abenaki filmmker Alanis Obomsawin follows the Human Rights case launched against the government of Canada for racially discriminating against First Nations children. Obomsawin guides us through the intricacies of the legal system while never losing sight of the real issues at stake: the welfare of children and the survival of First Nations cultures. 

Watch the Trailer  Community Organizations can hold free screenings of the film at no charge during 2017. Contact Donna Cowan at the NFB.

 

Watch the Q & A Session with Alanis Obomsawin and Cindy Blackstock following Edmonton screening Feb. 12, 2017

 

 

Cindy Blackstock - Canadian Human Rights Tribunal on First Nations Child Welfare

2015, 6:26 min. Closed Captioned.

 

In this short video, Cindy Blackstock explains the reasons behind the Human Rights complaint filed against the Canadian government for racially discriminating against First Nations children in 2007. Underfunding of child welfare and essential services undermines First Ntaions child well-being, but for 6 years, the federal government tried to keep the case from being heard. In 2013, the case finally went before the Tribunal. A ruling in favour of First Nations children was made in January 2016. 

Watch on YouTube

 

Books

  • Children of the Broken Treaty: Canada's Lost Promise and One Girl's Dream, by Charlie Angus, 2015
  • Walking this Path Together: Anti-Racist and Anti-Oppressive Child Welfare Practice (2nd ed), edited by Sohki Aski Esquao [Jeannine Carriere] & Susan Strega (2015)
  • Indigenous adolescent development: Psychological, social and historical contexts by L.B. Whitbeck, M. Walls and K. Hartshorn (2014).  This book is the result of an eight-year longitudinal diagnostic study of Indigenous adolescents and their families designed to address developmental, mental health and substance use issues and help communities design effective culturally-based prevention programs for adolescents in tribal communities. The study involved 746 tribally-enrolled adolescents from four American Indian tribes and four Canadian First Nations who were followed from early adolescence into early adulthood. In Chapter 10 (pages 116-125), the authors argue that every level of Indigenous adolescent development is permeated by the historical and current effects of ethnic cleansing, creating the unique historical, geographical and cultural contexts in which North American Indigenous adolescents grow up. They propose a distinct model of Indigenous adolescent development (see diagram on page 117) that can take into account the unique settings and cultural influences in which Indigenous adolescents are growing up, and they discuss each element in the model in the rest of the chapter.
 

Websites

 

Articles, Reports & Journals

Click here to search the Caring Society's Research Database and access annotated resources related to Aboriginal children and families in Canada and other settler-colonial nations. 

 

Audio and Video

 

Blogs

First Nations Child Poverty cover image