Guiding principles

Cultural sensitivity

Recommendation 6: Culture is an important element of a child’s development and all interventions must be culturally sensitive and appropriate.

Guiding principles

Importance of traditional Indigenous practices

Recommendation 7: When Indigenous children are involved, parents, extended family, Elders, and trusted community members must be involved in guiding service providers, caregivers, and foster parents in the customary laws of the community and traditional Indigenous child rearing practices (including adoption).

Recommendation 9: Cooperation among health and child welfare services, the police, correctional officials, officials with responsibility for protecting children and their rights, educational institutions, non-governmental organizations offering support to children and their families, faith-based groups, Indigenous councils, and municipal authorities is required. However, there is no need to “reinvent the wheel”. Communities should make the best use of existing resources and coordination mechanisms. They may need to expand participation in these mechanisms in order to include all those who can play a role in helping this particular group of children.

• Make good use of existing coordination mechanisms.
• As necessary, develop interagency protocols or agreements concerning information sharing and case referrals (with adequate protection for privacy and confidentiality).
• Review existing agreements to determine whether they are sufficient to address the situations of children of parents in conflict with the law.

Practical measures and strategies

Committing to a culturally sensitive approach, including respect for Indigenous values and traditions

Recommendation 24:

• Support the development of systems, standards and practices that respect and reflect the pivotal place that culture, tradition, values, language and identity play in the lives of children.
• Help children build connection to community, culture, group, clan, and extended family when those relationships have been damaged.
• Engage community resources without a formal mandate to support the children and their families.
• Help Indigenous children and heal families by helping children preserve their aboriginal identity.
• Keep Indigenous children connected to their land, languages and culture.
• Make use of Indigenous decision-making process.
• Work closely with Indigenous communities to identify ways to protect children of parents in conflict with the law without removing them from the family or the community, and find homes within the children’s extended family or community.