The Sixties Scoop in Canada

faultfinding Social manoeuvre School of Social micturate University of Windsor 401 old Avenue Windsor, Ont. Canada N9B 3P4 Email emailprotected ca Website http//www. uwindsor. ca/critical cordial croak/ Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information heap be found at http//uwindsor. ca/critical accessiblework The online version of this article can be found at at http//uwindsor. ca/critic in any casecialwork/the http//uwindsor. ca/criticalsocialwork/the-sixties-scoop-implications-for-social-workers workers-andsocial-work- reproduction full of life Social contrive, 2010 Vol. 11 o. 1 11, Online publication date May 2010 53 Alston-OConnor The sixties sack Implications for Social Workers and Social Work Education lively Social Work 11(1) Emily Alston-OConnor, BSW Abstract This paper examines issues concerning start-off Nations the great unwasheds and the sister welf ar system, and their implications for social work today. It explores the Si xties Scoop to illustrate the devastating impact such policies and practices had on primeval children, families and communities. Cultural genocide is part of this legacy.To deliver more than paganly remove services, sentiency about and ac associationment of these mis gestates can assist social workers to incorporate a social justice perspective into their practice with pristine clients. As well, implications for social work education regarding professional training, curriculum content and course delivery by Aboriginal dexterity members are highlighted The Sixties Scoop Implications for Social Workers and Social Work Education Religious leading and the government of Canada have apologized to commencement Nations peoples for the abusive experiences they endured in the residential school ystem. However, the closure of the residential schools did not end the tackle to assimilate Aboriginal children into mainstream Anglo-Canadian society through separation from their families. A sudden acceleration in child welfare workers removing Native children from their Aboriginal communities coincided with the dismantling of the perform run education system. As the next painful chapter in the history of the settlement of Canadas Aboriginal peoples, the Sixties Scoop quickly evolved into an aggressive putz for assimilation and ethnic genocide.Its legacy has implications for social work practice today. Origins of the Sixties Scoop Governments in the mid 20th century viewed Aboriginal people as child-like creatures in constant need of the paternal care of the government. With guidance, they would gradually abandon their superstitious beliefs and barbaric behaviour and adopt civilization (Titley, 1992, p. 36). Segregated day and residential schools had failed to meet the goals of assimilation most former students did not embrace the Euro-Canadian individualism.The Parliamentary committee examining the Indian Act between 1946 and 1948 rejected the existing policy an d proposed Critical Social Work, 2010 Vol. 11, No. 1 54 Alston-OConnor instead the integration of young Indians into public schools (Titley, 1992). Con on- waiverly, the Department of Indian Affairs created agreements with the provinces to take primary responsibility for childrens general welfare within their own provincial agencies (Armitage, 1995). As residential schools became discredited, the child welfare system became the new agent of assimilation and colonization (Johnson, 1983).Returning to their militia and bands, many residential school students tangle alienated and overwhelmed. Growing up in the residential school system, Aboriginal children were not given role models to depend up to. They were not shown yarn-dyeion nor taught how to love or care for others. They had few traditional child-rearing skills from their own parents and relatives to rely on (Armitage, 1995). This had detri mental effects on the families of survivors of the residential schools for the generat ions of children who followed (Fournier and Crey, 1997).During the era of the Sixties Scoop, Kulusic (2005) suggests that power, privilege and destitution are complexly connect to the disproportionate number of Aboriginal children who were removed from their own communities (p. 26). Unfamiliar with extended family child-rearing practices and common values, government social service workers attempted to rescue children from their Aboriginal families and communities, devastating childrens lives and furthering the destitution of many families.Culture and ethnicity were not taken into consideration as it was assume that the child, cosmos pliable, would take on the heritage and culture of the foster/adoptive parents (Armitage, 1995). The forced removal of children and youth from their Native communities has been linked with social problems such as high suicide rate, sexual exploitation, substance use and abuse, poverty, low educational achievement and chronic unemployment (Lavell-Ha rvard and Lavell, 2006, p. 144).Newly designated funds from the federal to the provincial governments were the primary catalysts for state interestingness in the well-being of Aboriginal childrenas Ottawa guaranteed payment for each child apprehended (Lavell-Harvard and Lavell, 2006, p. 145). Exporting Aboriginal children to the United States was common practice. Private American toleration agencies paid Canadian child welfare services $5,000 to $10,000 per child (LavellHarvard and Lavell, 2006). These agencies rarely went beyond confirming the applicants ability to pay, resulting in nominal screening and monitoring of foster or adoptive parents (Fournier and Crey, 1997).In 1959, only one percent of all children in care were of Native ancestry. By the late mid-sixties, 30 to 40 percent of all legal wards of the state in Canada were Aboriginal children, even though they formed less than 4 percent of the national community (Fournier and Crey, 1997, p. 83). At the height of the Sco op, one in four status Indian children were separated from his or her parents for all or part of their childhood for non-status and Metis children, one in three spent part of their childhood as a legal ward of the state (Fournier and Crey, 1997).Social welfare policies allowed government agencies to continue to remove Aboriginal children from their homes and communities and toll Aboriginal culture and traditions all the while claiming to act in the outflank interest of the child (Johnson, 1983, p. 24). The permanent removal of thousands of Aboriginal children during the Sixties Scoop situated the foundation for more complex, destructive effects on First Nations communities and culture with repercussions extending beyond their lifetimes. Critical Social Work, 2010 Vol. 1, No. 1 55 Alston-OConnor Cultural racial extermination and Loss of Identity The loss of their children caused irrevocable mental, emotional and spiritual harm to individuals, families and communities. Indian child ren were taken away like souvenirs by professionals who were supposed to be back up the full-page family (Fournier and Crey, 1997, p. 91). The actions of child welfare workers destabilized traditional First Nations culture, quickly stereotyping Aboriginal women as unfit mothers and living off the land as uncivilized.Welfare agencies played a very important role in defining, transmitting and shaping what were seen as legitimate or normal heathen expectations and practices (Ward, 1984, p. 22). The acceptable home criteria reflected a nuclear, spunk class lifestyle. Once an Aboriginal child was placed, social agencies did not offer support to the newly formed families even though research has shown that transracial adoption is more problematic because children lose their cultural heritage and their true identity (Kulusic, 2005).Permanent estrangement from ones roots was inherent in the Sixties Scoop adoption structure. Aboriginal names, like postal codes, signify which First Nation s their family belongs to (Cuthand, 2007). With legal adoptions, childrens birth family names disappeared as the adoptive surname was issued on all records. waterproofing their case files erased any past family history and made repatriation nearly impossible for the adopted child and their grieving families. Some reserves lost almost an complete generation of their children to the welfare system (Johnson, 1983).Many children were placed in distant communities, exported to other provinces or across the US border to the homes of middle class white families (Kulusic, 2005). dispersal children across the continent undermined identification with the close-knit traditional Aboriginal culture and destroyed its kinship network. The legal rights of Aboriginal children were forgotten. With the erasure of their ancestry, the knowledge of being a treaty Indian child was suppressed. Special privileges available as a result of their Native status were lost through the apprehension and adoption touch (Kimmelman, 1985).In accordance with treaty rights, one might expect that child welfare agencies would place the child in a culturally appropriate environment, focussinged on healthy development as an Aboriginal child. Such considerations were routinely ignored (Kimmelman, 1985). This large-scale removal of Aboriginal children to non-native families throughout the 1960s and 1970s damaged the cultural legacy of all First Nations peoples. The long-term implementation and destructive intergenerational impacts of Canadian government policies during the Sixties Scoop are consistent with the United Nations definition for cultural genocide.Article 2 of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as, any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such killing members of the group causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of th e group deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group ( place of the High Commissioner). Critical Social Work, 2010 Vol. 11, No. 1 56 Alston-OConnor Under the misguided goal of assimilation, Aboriginal children were forcibly relocated to non-Aboriginal communities. Placements with families who could not offer socialization within an Aboriginal framework of traditional knowledge and pride of heritage destroyed one of the most important intergenerational processes for cultural knowledge and continuity. Individual Suffering and the Plight of the Family Many of the legal adoptions throughout the 1960s and 1970s were unsuccessful.Alienated children became runaways, turned to street life for support and see an overwhelming sense of lost identity, a sense of social isolation greater t han that which they had experienced in the church-run schools (York, 1990, p. 205). Anxiety and culture shock were common after moving from remote, rural areas into suburban settings to live with strangers. Many children had difficulties developing attachments to their new parents, had an inability to assign and were distrustful (York, 1990). Some adults, adopted as children, reported physical, sexual and emotional abuses. Others were even treated as domestic servants (Fournier and Crey, 1997). Children are so highly determine in Aboriginal culture that those without children are considered disadvantaged (Johnson, 1983).Research confirms that Native families who nestleed child care agencies in search of help for funds to supply food and tax shelter ended up losing their children Often times they were only offered one option to relinquish custody of the child (Kimmelman, 1985, p. 196). Problems of alcoholism, emotional stress and low selfesteem were compounded with the change ma gnitude formal scrutiny and likelihood that other children would be removed from the family (Johnson, 1983). The actions of the social welfare agencies weakened the traditional family structure, and in doing so, weakened Aboriginal society as a whole (Johnson, 1983, p. 61). Implications for Social Work Practice Today Client Contexts The impact of the Sixties Scoop is multi-layered.Understanding the specific nature of this colonial oppression of Aboriginal peoples requires current social workers to incorporate a social justice perspective when addressing specific issues with Aboriginal clients. It provides insight into how the colonizing process has pressured people to detach from who they are notwithstanding left them with no means to alleviate the pressure (Hart, 2007, p. 27). In our role as counselors, this framework gives us the ability to reject assessment tools that merely label, modify and pathologize individual expression and relate these problems to the larger socio-politi cal reality (Hart, 2007). We are better prepared to commit how media stereotypes and social prejudices translate into everyday life for thousands of First Nations people.As Fournier and Crey (1997) note, the current generation is suffering the effects of hundreds of years of colonialist public policies. By situating the clients presenting problem in a societal context, we set the stage to identify strategies to offset the impoverishing effects of these social justice issues. As social workers, it is our ethical duty to look beyond individual risk factors and to change societys foundational inequalities and constraints (CASW, 2005). One of the ways to address the power imbalance between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal culture is to incorporate Critical Social Work, 2010 Vol. 11, No. 1 57 Alston-OConnor endemical knowledge.Battiste (2002) argues it can only be fully learned and understood when learned in context, taught through Indigenous teaching methods, including sharing circles, ex periential learning, meditation, prayer, ceremonies and story-telling. Thus social workers moldiness become familiar with and support traditional healing processes. Hart (2007) believes if the share professions respected Aboriginal perspectives, they would incorporate methodologies which directly address the effects of genocide, colonization and oppression. (p. 31). Native Elders have been speaking about kinds between individuals, families, communities and the world around them for generations. They can serve as role models for positive growth and well being (Hart, 2007).Their wisdom and knowledge can contribute support, direction and spiritual resources to aid both individual and collective problem solving and healing. Social workers moldiness take an active role in encouraging direct participation in rituals and ceremonies with First Nations clients. The blessing of an event, attending a sweat lodge or going to a sharing circle establish oneness within the group and have symb olic importance. Spirituality and connecting with ones roots play a powerful role in building a strong sense of Aboriginal identity and hope. These practices are not part of a theoretical approach designed by academics to help Indigenous Peoples.They are meaningful expressions of Aboriginal culture and need to be recognized as valid approaches within the helping process. Effective social work practice must support the self-determination of clients to choose traditional approaches and must not be limited by text theory or policy driven programs to resolve issues (Hart, 2007). Culturally Appropriate Practice Analysing the impacts of the Sixties Scoop is essential to changing the social realities for Aboriginal peoples today. Practicing from an anti-oppressive philosophy, our code includes identifying stereotyping and over generalizing. Misperceiving traditional practices can have a negative effect on the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal working relationship.To counteract the colonial m entality of our Anglo-Canadian society, social workers must become knowledgeable about Aboriginal perspectives and how they are reflected in traditional and urban Aboriginal culture. Past personal and generational experiences are important as well as present events that will affect future generations (Hart, 2007). Social workers who work with Aboriginal clients must respect and appreciate their worldview. Openness and sensitivity to nuances related to culture, education, and ways of communicating are essential skills. Individuals must be self aware and alert to the possibility that the social workers own life experiences will affect the way they view this population (Levin and Herbert, 2004).Positive cultural attributes such as intergenerational strength of spirit and collective resilience are qualities to celebrate and build upon when social workers participator in the journey toward Aboriginal healing and community renewal. The cultural view of the collective is a magnetic core Aboriginal belief that affects social work practice. First Nations culture and communities place an honourable emphasis on kin and its strengths and meaning. Immediate family often includes extended family members and distant relatives. The community is seen as another extension of the family and call for to be included in any healing process. It is crucial to be aware of this collective belief and its manifestations within the community as it affects the language, the terminology and the focus used by the social Critical Social Work, 2010 Vol. 11, No. 1 58 Alston-OConnor orker with the client and their relatives when discussing issues and communicating about programs and options. Trust issues may be a concern when working with First Nations peoples. Research findings by Levin and Herbert (2004) identified fear and a lack of trust in health care settings due to disparity and stigmatizing actions. They also reported that Aboriginal women, in particular, lacked trust in health care workers, be it doctors or social workers, due to the inexperience of workers, lack of colloquy with patients, cultural insensitivity, and absence of knowledge or understanding of Native healing practices (Levin and Herbert, 2004).Often service providers have inadequate information about the experiences of living in poverty or the needs, perspectives, cultures and traditions of First Nations clients. Mistrust has grown out of lived experiences such as the Sixties Scoop. Lack of understanding of this influencing factor creates substantial barriers to the establishment of a trust-based relationship between service providers and clients. This lack of trust has implications when trying to develop or implement community based initiatives as trust is vital to its success (Levin and Herbert, 2004). legacy Lessons The destructive effects of the Sixties Scoop have important lessons for social workers today.Past mistakes in terms of the cultural context of First Nations children in care must not be repeated. Social workers uphold the fundamental child welfare principle that children should not be removed from their families solely on the basis of poverty. However, this core principle has not been equitably applied in provincial child welfare practices towards First Nations parents and children. The overrepresentation of First Nations children in care continues to be placed in nonAboriginal families (MacDonald and MacDonald, 2007). Caucasian families without cultural supports for Aboriginal children in their care may be unaware of how to address issues such as racism, prejudice and loss.As noted by Sinclair (2007) some(prenominal) studies found that a positive parental attitude towards the childs ethnic group, as well as some form of social liaison with that ethnic group in the familys life is significantly correlated with a childs positive adjustment and positive sense of identity (p. 70). While pride in the childs Aboriginal heritage can be encouraged when specific cultural involvement plans are in place, many agencies and communities do not have the personnel to share these traditions and values. In some regions, cultural identity considerations have led to the development of policies that prioritize positioning with extended family members or with foster care providers within the same community when children are removed from their parental home (McKenzie and Morrissette, 2003).The ongoing development of culturally appropriate child welfare services needs to include provisions for personal involvement with Aboriginal heritage languages, cultural traditions and values if apprehended children are to subjugate the alienation and identity loss experienced by Aboriginal children from the Sixties Scoop. Professional Training It is clear that the social work profession and the Schools of Social Work have not been neutral in the education and training that produced past social workers (MacDonald and MacDonald, 2007). Social workers Euro-centric ass umptions sanctioned the destructive role of child welfare agencies in relationship to Aboriginal culture. The governments assimilation goals Critical Social Work, 2010 Vol. 11, No. 1 59 Alston-OConnor for First Nations peoples were congruent with the professional criteria for the best interests of the child during the Sixties Scoop.MacDonald and MacDonald (2007) note that social work education programs today play a key role within the colonizing mentality of child welfare agencies. with a social justice lens, the Schools of Social Work need to examine their role in the colonial processes that continue to impact on First Nations people in this country (MacDonald and MacDonald, 2007, p 43). Social workers can be pro-active in calling for changes in their professional faculties. It is important to consider the method in which social work students are receiving their education. Tensions and stereotypes must be discussed openly. While the Sixties Scoop may be a potential factor in many of our clients lives, it is also one in many of our social work students lives. There is a need for supports to reflect on the needs of all Aboriginal students including those who know their culture, and those who are new to their culture, as well as those who practice tradition and those who were raised within the church (Clark, Drolet, Arnouse, Walton, Rene Tamburro, & Mathews, 2009, p. 305). Culturally applicable education, training and curriculum development are critical to help inform empowering approaches. The inclusion of Elders in the field education programs, incorporation of spirituality and ceremony into all classrooms and an emphasis on Aboriginal leaders facilitating these practices can provide deeper insight into the Aboriginal culture and its rich history. In addition to First Nations child welfare agencies and National First Nations organizations, the schools of Social Work need to play an active role in the development of culturally appropriate social work educatio n (MacDonald and MacDonald, 2007).They need to ensure that Aboriginal faculty teach decolonizing practices to all social work students. Recommendations on how to make the curriculum and the Schools of Social Work more reflective of and relevant to First Nations students needs must be implemented. As well, social worker associations need to advocate for future social work graduates to be equipped to partner with the Aboriginal community in their work toward social justice. During the Sixties Scoop, the basic principles of intrinsic human value and the right to self-determination were erased by a government intent on cultural genocide. By forcibly reassigning First Nations children to non-Aboriginal families, kinship affiliations were obliterated.Its multi-generational legacy of grief and loss in relation to family, identity, culture, heritage and community profoundly is still being felt today. As agents of child apprehension, social workers must examine their role in this tragedy and in the colonization of Aboriginal peoples. A commitment to implementing culturally relevant social work practice with First Nations clients is essential for the profession. We have the opportunity to critically evaluate current issues and to partner with members of the Aboriginal community in identifying best practices to challenge the myriad of social, political and personal issues that resulted from the Sixties Scoop.As progressive agents for social justice, it is one of our responsibilities to create changes to ensure that Aboriginal peoples and their communities have the appropriate resources to flourish and grow. Critical Social Work, 2010 Vol. 11, No. 1 60 Alston-OConnor References Armitage, A. (1995). Comparing the Policy of Aboriginal Assimilation Australia, Canada and ew Zealand. Vancouver UBC Press. Battiste, M. (2002). Indigenous knowledge and pedagogy in First ations education A literature review with recommendations. Prepared for the National working group on education and the Minister of Indian Affairs, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC). Ottawa, ON. Retrieved edge 9, 2010, from http//www. ainc-inac. gc. ca/pr/pub/krw/ikp_e. html. CASW (2005). Social work code of ethics. Ottawa Canadian Association of Social Workers.Clark, N. , Drolet, J. , Arnouse, M. , Rene Tamburro, P. , Walton, P. , & Mathews, N. (2009). Melqilwiye Coming Together in An Intersectional Research squad Using Narratives and Cultural Safety to Transform Aboriginal Social Work and Human Service Field Education. Pimatisiwin A Journal of Aboriginal and Indigenous connection Health 7. 2, 291-315. Retrieved March 10, 2010 from http//www. pimatisiwin. com/online/wp-content/ uploads/2010/jan/08ClarkeDroletArnouseMathews. pdf. Cuthand, D. (2007). Askiwina A Cree World. Regina Couteau paroles. Fournier, S. & Crey, E. (1997). Stolen From Our Embrace. Vancouver Douglas & McIntrye. Hart, M. (2007).Seeking Mino-Pimatisiwin An Aboriginal Approach to Helping. Halifax Fernwood Publi shing. Johnson, P. (1983). ative Children and the Child Welfare System. Toronto Lorimer. Kimmelman, E. (1985). o Quiet Place Final Report to the Honourable Muriel Smith, Minister of participation Services/Review Committee on Indian and Metis Adoptions/Placements. Winnipeg Manitoba Community Services. Kulusic, T. (2005). The Ultimate Betrayal Claiming and Reclaiming Cultural Identity. Atlantis, 29. 2, 23-28. Lavell-Harvard, D. M. & Lavell, J. C. (Eds. ). (2006). Until Our Hearts Are On The Ground Aboriginal Mothering, Oppression, Resistance and Rebirth. Toronto Demeter Press. Levin, R. & Herbert, M. (2004). The Experience of Urban Aboriginals with Healt Care Services in Canada Implications for Social Work Practice. Social Work in Health Care, 39. 1, 165-179. MacDonald, N. & MacDonald, J. (2007) Reflections of a Mikmaq social worker on a quarter of a century work in First Nations Child Welfare. First Peoples Child & Family Review, 3. 1, 34-45. Critical Social Work, 2010 Vol. 11, No. 1 61 Alston-OConnor McKenzie, B. & Morrissette, V. (2003). Social Work Practice with Canadians of Aboriginal Background Guidelines for Respectful Social Work. Envision The Manitoba Journal of Child Welfare, 2, 13-39. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Retrieved May 13, 2009. http//www. unhchr. ch/html/menu3/b/p_genoci. htm Sinclair, R. (2007). Identity Lost and Found Lessons from the Sixties Scoop. First Peoples Child & Family Review. 3. 1, 65-82. Titley, E. B. (1992). A arrow Vision Duncan Campbell Scott and the Administration of Indian Affairs in Canada. Vancouver University of British Columbia Press. Ward, M. (1984). The Adoption of ative Canadian Children. Cobalt Highway Book Shop. York, G. (1990). The Dispossessed Life and Death in ative Canada. Toronto Little Brown. Critical Social Work, 2010 Vol. 11, No. 1