tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/indigenous-children-29461/articlesIndigenous children – The Conversation2023-10-17T18:01:05Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2134352023-10-17T18:01:05Z2023-10-17T18:01:05ZWe fact-checked residential school denialists and debunked their ‘mass grave hoax’ theory<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/we-fact-checked-residential-school-denialists-and-debunked-their-mass-grave-hoax-theory" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Recently a politician from a village in Prince Edward Island <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-murray-harbour-sign-1.6986901">displayed an offensive sign on his property in which he proclaimed there is a “mass grave hoax”</a> regarding the former Indian Residential Schools in Canada. Although <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10007201/murray-harbour-councillor-calls-for-resignation-mass-graves-sign-pei/">many</a> have called for him to resign, he is just one of many people who subscribe to this false theory.</p>
<p>A hoax is an <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hoax">act intended to trick people into believing</a> something that isn’t true. Commentary that a “hoax” exists began circulating in 2021 around the time of public announcements from First Nations across the country that — <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/chooutla-residential-school-gravesite-investigation-anomalies-1.6978801">through the use of ground penetrating radar and other means</a> — the remains of Indigenous children are suspected to be in unmarked graves at or near some former residential schools.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go6Fpp03Voc">Commentators circulating allegations of a “hoax”</a> contend journalists have misrepresented news of the potential unmarked graves, circulating sensational, attention-grabbing headlines and using the term “mass grave” to do so. They also contend some First Nations, activists or politicians used this language for political gain — to shock and guilt Canadians into caring about Indigenous Peoples and reconciliation.</p>
<p>Like the councillor in P.E.I., many people — <a href="https://www.rebelnews.com/tags/buried_truth">in Canada</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egbXE18omy0">internationally</a>, fuelled partly by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKeagTWr7_M">misinformation from the far-right</a> — <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ5qHwxDM50">are accepting and promoting</a> the “mass grave hoax” narrative and casting doubt on the searches for missing children and unmarked burials being undertaken by First Nations across Canada.</p>
<h2>There is no media conspiracy</h2>
<p>As two settler academic researchers, we decided to investigate the claims of a media conspiracy and fact-check them against evidence. </p>
<p>What did Canadian news outlets actually report after the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation made <a href="https://tkemlups.ca/wp-content/uploads/05-May-27-2021-TteS-MEDIA-RELEASE.pdf">their public announcements</a> about their search for missing children? </p>
<p>To find out, we analyzed 386 news articles across five Canadian media outlets (CBC, <em>National Post</em>, the <em>Globe and Mail</em>, <em>Toronto Star</em> and <em>The Canadian Press</em>) released between May 27 and Oct. 15, 2021. </p>
<p><a href="https://chrr.info/other-resources/debunking-residential-school-denialism-in-canada">What we found, according to our evidence from 2021</a>, is that most mainstream media did not use the terminology “mass graves.” Therefore, we argue that the “mass grave hoax” needs to be understood as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2021.1935574">residential school denialism</a>. </p>
<h2>‘Preliminary findings’ of ‘unmarked burials’</h2>
<p>After some public confusion over the specific details of the May 2021 Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announcement, which named “preliminary findings” regarding “the remains of 215 children,” the First Nation <a href="https://tkemlups.ca/t%e1%b8%b1emlups-te-secwepemc-fully-supports-the-appointment-of-the-special-interlocutor/">clarified the findings</a> as the confirmation of “the likely presence of children, L’Estcwicwéý (the Missing) on the Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds” in “unmarked burials.” </p>
<p>The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation had already <a href="https://nctr.ca/residential-schools/british-columbia/kamloops-st-louis/">identified 51 student deaths</a> at the Kamloops school using church and state records. </p>
<p><a href="https://rsc-src.ca/en/voices/%E2%80%98every-child-matters%E2%80%99-one-year-after-unmarked-graves-215-indigenous-children-were-found-in">A National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Memorial Register</a> has to date confirmed the <a href="https://nctr.ca/memorial/national-student-memorial/memorial-register/">deaths of more than 4,000 Indigenous children</a> associated with residential schools. </p>
<p>But the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) noted its register of missing children <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-names-of-2800-children-who-died-in-residential-schools-documented-in/">was incomplete</a>, partly due to a large volume of yet-to-be-examined and destroyed records. The TRC’s <a href="https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Executive_Summary_English_Web.pdf">Calls to Action 71-76 refer to</a> missing children and burials.</p>
<p>The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation — responding to these calls — initiated further research to learn the full truth to facilitate community healing. </p>
<h2>Countering harmful misinformation</h2>
<p>In the two years since, a number of commentators, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/archdiocese-apologizes-after-priest-accuses-residential-school-survivors-of-lying-1.5528472">priests</a> and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/alberta/comments/y4f731/danielle_smith_the_premier_of_alberta_claims/">politicians,</a> including the P.E.I councillor with his sign, have downplayed the harms of residential schooling — or questioned the validity, gravity and significance of the the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation’s announcement.</p>
<p>One <em>National Post</em> commentator wrote that the account of a “mass grave” was reported “<a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/the-year-of-the-graves-how-the-worlds-media-got-it-wrong-on-residential-school-graves">almost universally</a>” adding that this narrative, and subsequent “discoveries” preceded a descent into “shame, guilt and rage …”</p>
<p>Despite the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation’s announcement never mentioning a “mass grave,” and Chief Rosanne Casimir saying in a news conference, <a href="https://www.squamishchief.com/bc-news/casimir-says-tkemlups-find-is-series-of-unmarked-graves-not-a-mass-burial-3848382">“this is not a mass grave, but rather unmarked burial sites that are, to our knowledge, also undocumented,”</a> some have even wrongly suggested the First Nation “<a href="https://nypost.com/2022/05/27/kamloops-mass-grave-debunked-biggest-fake-news-in-canada">announced the discovery of a mass grave</a>” and this was a “fake news story.” </p>
<p>In response, the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-justice/news/2022/06/independent-special-interlocutor-to-work-with-indigenous-communities-on-protection-of-unmarked-graves-and-burial-sites-near-former-residential-schools.html">independent special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves and burial sites associated with Indian Residential Schools</a> has amplified <a href="https://osi-bis.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/OSI_InterimReport_June-2023_WEB.pdf">calls for</a> Canadians to take responsibility for countering such harmful misinformation. </p>
<p>We hope that our research can contribute to this work and that <a href="https://chrr.info/other-resources/debunking-residential-school-denialism-in-canada/">our report</a> helps to debunk the “mass grave hoax” narrative specifically. </p>
<h2>Cherry-picked ‘evidence’</h2>
<p>Our report reveals that most Canadian news outlets did not use the language, “mass grave.” The idea that a “mass grave hoax” exists is a myth.</p>
<p>Myths, however, <a href="https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/N/National-Dreams">are not pure fiction</a>; they often contain a kernel of truth that is <a href="https://arpbooks.org/product/storying-violence/">exaggerated or misrepresented</a>. </p>
<p>This selective representation of evidence is commonly referred to as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03086534.2023.2209947">cherry-picking</a>, and it’s easy to see how those spreading the “mass grave hoax” narrative rely on cherry-picked evidence.</p>
<p>Of the 386 articles reviewed in our study, the majority of the articles (65 per cent, or 251) accurately reported on stories related to the location of potential unmarked graves in Canada.</p>
<p>A minority (35 per cent or 135 articles), contained some inaccurate or misleading reporting; however, many of the detected inaccuracies are easily understood as mistakes and most were corrected over time as is common practice in breaking news within the journalism industry. </p>
<p>Of the 386 total articles, only 25 — just 6.5 per cent of total articles — referred to the findings as “mass graves,” with most of the articles appearing in a short window of time and some actually using the term correctly in the hypothetical sense (that mass graves may still be found). </p>
<p>That means that 93.5 per cent of the Canadian articles released in the spring, summer and fall of 2021 that we examined did not report the findings as being “mass graves.” </p>
<p>It appears that some journalists and commentators misunderstood a large number of potential or likely unmarked graves for mass graves in late May/June 2021. By September, denialists were misrepresenting the extent of media errors to push the conspiratorial <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go6Fpp03Voc">“mass grave hoax” narrative</a> online. </p>
<p>Our research shows that the “mass grave hoax” narrative hinges on a misrepresentation of how Canadian journalists reported on the identification of potential unmarked graves at former residential school sites in 2021.
And we hope our report sparks a national conversation about how important language is when covering this issue. </p>
<p>Media needs to be precise with language and also acknowledge its errors (and avoid future ones), or clarify details in a way that feeds truth, empathy and more accurate reporting — not denialism, hate and conspiracy.</p>
<h2>Challenging Residential School denialism</h2>
<p>The “mass grave hoax” narrative cannot be reasonably seen as just skepticism. Rather, it should be understood as an expression of residential school denialism. </p>
<p>According to Daniel Heath Justice and Sean Carleton (one of the authors of this story), <a href="https://theconversation.com/truth-before-reconciliation-8-ways-to-identify-and-confront-residential-school-denialism-164692">residential school denialism</a> is not the denial of the residential school system’s existence. Nor do denialists, for the most part, deny that abuses happened. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/truth-before-reconciliation-8-ways-to-identify-and-confront-residential-school-denialism-164692">Truth before reconciliation: 8 ways to identify and confront Residential School denialism</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>Residential school denialism, like climate <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-thinking-error-that-makes-people-susceptible-to-climate-change-denial-204607">change denialism</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/science-denial-why-it-happens-and-5-things-you-can-do-about-it-161713">science denialism</a>, cherry-picks evidence to fit a conspiratorial counter-narrative. This distorts basic facts and the overall legacy of the Indian Residential School System (IRSS) to <a href="https://thewalrus.ca/residential-school-denialism/">alleviate settler guilt</a> and block important truth and reconciliation efforts.</p>
<h2>Truth before reconciliation</h2>
<p>Our research shows how detailed analysis can be an effective tool in confronting the growing threat of residential school denialism and other kinds of misinformation and disinformation, as called for recently by many <a href="https://osi-bis.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/OSI_InterimReport_June-2023_WEB.pdf">Indigenous communities</a>. </p>
<p>Instead of directing ridicule and outrage at denialists — which can give them a larger platform — what is needed is deep and reasoned analysis of their discourse to show why they are wrong or misleading. </p>
<p>This is the strategy of disempowering and discrediting residential school denialism advocated by former TRC Chair <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/residential-school-deniers-white-supremacists-biggest-barrier-to-reconciliation-says-murray-sinclair/">Murray Sinclair</a>. </p>
<p>We hope others will join us in this type of research to help Canadians learn how to identify and confront residential school denialism and support meaningful reconciliation. </p>
<p>Our full findings can be <a href="https://chrr.info/other-resources/debunking-residential-school-denialism-in-canada/">read in our new report</a> for the Centre for Human Rights Research at the University of Manitoba. </p>
<p>As the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said in its final report, without truth there can be no genuine reconciliation. </p>
<p><em>For those who may be experiencing trauma or seeking support, here are some resources:</em></p>
<p><em>— The Indian Residential School Survivors Society’s 24/7 Crisis Support line: 1-800-721-0066</em></p>
<p><em>— The 24-hour National Indian Residential School Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419</em> </p>
<p><em>The Conversation used the term “mass graves” in <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-longer-the-disappeared-mourning-the-215-children-found-in-graves-at-kamloops-indian-residential-school-161782">a story</a> published in the days following the announcement by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation. The article has since been updated to use the term “unmarked graves.”</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213435/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Carleton receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Centre for Human Rights Research at the University of Manitoba.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Reid Gerbrandt receives funding from The Centre for Human Rights Research at the University of Manitoba. </span></em></p>Contrary to what some ‘denialists’ believe, research shows that Canadian media outlets did not help circulate a ‘mass grave hoax’ regarding unmarked graves at former Indian Residential Schools.Sean Carleton, Assistant Professor, Departments of History and Indigenous Studies, University of ManitobaReid Gerbrandt, MA Student, Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of ManitobaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2079802023-09-28T14:46:34Z2023-09-28T14:46:34ZResidential school deaths are significantly higher than previously reported<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550747/original/file-20230927-17-igok60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C30%2C1435%2C867&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ceremonial tipis sit in front of the former residential school, Blue Quills, now the home to Blue Quills university run by seven First Nations. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Terri Cardinal)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/residential-school-deaths-are-significantly-higher-than-previously-reported" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Over the past year I have worked at <a href="http://www.bluequills.ca/">University nuhelot’įne thaiyots’į nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills</a> (UnBQ) as the Indian Residential School Coordinator. There, I spent time speaking with survivors of Indian Residential Schools and I also helped conduct a search for grave sites of missing children.</p>
<p>Listening to the truths of residential school survivors was a stark reminder that we need to continue educating people about what happened at these schools, both for Indigenous and non-Indigenous folks. I also learned and reflected on the mortality at <a href="https://nctr.ca/education/teaching-resources/residential-school-history/">Indian Residential Schools</a> across Canada. </p>
<p>Over 150,000 First Nation, Métis and Inuit children attended Indian Residential Schools and although the official records are incomplete, it is estimated that thousands of <a href="https://nctr.ca/memorial/">children died</a> at those schools. </p>
<p>Between 1931 and 1996, there were <a href="https://rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100015606/1581724359507">139</a> Indian Residential Schools operating in Canada. In 2019, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation shared the names of <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/national-student-memorial-register-full-list-of-names-1.4618058">2,800 children</a> who had died in those schools. At that time, it was believed that there were still an <a href="https://news.umanitoba.ca/4037-indigenous-children-listed-in-memorial-register/">additional 1,600 unnamed children</a>.</p>
<p>As communities have continued to push for searches across the country, the numbers have kept growing. The most recent collective findings from community searches across the country (versus the official numbers of recorded deaths) suggest that the number of deaths may be much greater than those originally reported. </p>
<p>These new findings support the accounts residential school survivors have been sharing for decades and provides context into the severity of the genocide enacted on Indigenous Peoples in Canada. </p>
<p>In July 2022, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9778899/unmarked-graves-trespassing-residential-school-bc-report/">Pope Francis affirmed these accounts and called the Indian Residential Schools an act of genocide</a>.</p>
<p>However, in the midst of uncovering the truths through these searches, we are experiencing <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/denialists-tried-to-access-unmarked-gravesite-tkemlups-report-1.6879980">denialism</a>. Despite the irrefutable evidence, there are still those who deny or refuse to acknowledge the abuse and deaths of Indigenous children in residential schools.</p>
<h2>Survivor testimonies help lead the search</h2>
<p>Last summer, UnBQ collaborated with the University of Alberta Indigenous-led team, to conduct a <a href="http://www.bluequills.ca/Documents/IRL_Releases/2023_IRL_Phase1_Infographic.pdf">Phase 1</a> search of the former Blue Quills Indian Residential School near St. Paul, Alberta. Our <a href="https://www.bluequills.ca/Documents/IRL_Releases/Phase1_UnBQ_Summary.pdf">initial findings</a> released publicly on April 19 identified 19 “reflections of interest” on 1.29 acres of land. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="https://archives.nctr.ca/05b-c005501-d0001-001" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535655/original/file-20230704-19-9ocssx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=42%2C92%2C970%2C715&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535655/original/file-20230704-19-9ocssx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535655/original/file-20230704-19-9ocssx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535655/original/file-20230704-19-9ocssx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535655/original/file-20230704-19-9ocssx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535655/original/file-20230704-19-9ocssx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535655/original/file-20230704-19-9ocssx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A photo of the former Blue Quills Indian Residential School near St. Paul, Alta. The school operated from 1898 to 1990 and was run by the Catholic Church.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The term “reflections of interest” is used to describe traits that are similar in <a href="https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/how-ground-penetrating-radar-is-used-to-detect-possible-unmarked-graves-at-residential-schools">ground penetrating radar data (GPR)</a>. The reason this term was used at UnBQ was because prior to the release of the report they had not done GPR scans of nearby cemetery sites that would give them a more clear comparison. Once that process has been completed the terminology will likely change in the Phase 2 report.</p>
<p>Over the course of the year, survivors have also shared areas of interest that will need further investigating. This is only the start of the search process as UnBQ is located on 240 acres of land. </p>
<h2>Addressing residential school denialism</h2>
<p>In-depth measuring of the deaths of residential school students is critical to research and communities to help provide clearer understandings of the lives of these children across Canada. </p>
<p>It is also a potential way to address denialists who may question whether the number of deaths is excessive. </p>
<p>Denialists may argue that uncovering a certain number of graves is not indicative of problematic conditions in the schools. And that data, based on counts, is subject to distortion. </p>
<p>For example, it could be argued that mortality occurs in all populations and that schools with large populations in operation over long periods would encounter deaths and therefore, the occurrence of a number of deaths is not problematic.</p>
<p>However, there are quantitative methods that can help address these issues. </p>
<p>A good example is the <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/subjects-start/health/life_expectancy_and_deaths">standardized mortality ratio (SMR)</a>. This ratio involves calculating the number of expected deaths in residential schools based on reported death rates in the Canadian population during the same time period among children of the same ages based on <a href="http://www.bdlc.umontreal.ca/chmd/">historical data</a>. </p>
<p>Although we currently have no public data that details the full scope of mortality rates for Indigenous children in residential schools, calculations such as the standardized mortality ratio can help us fully document how many Indigenous children died.</p>
<p>Indigenous scholars, leaders and survivors have long known that the number of deaths of children in residential schools was substantial. Now, as new research and data is produced, we will continue to see the official numbers grow. </p>
<h2>Compassion as we mourn</h2>
<p>As the daughter of a residential school survivor and a relative to many who attended Blue Quills Indian Residential School, it’s horrible to have to address denialism during this time of mourning and healing in our communities. </p>
<p>Shortly after unmarked graves were uncovered at the <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/timeline-of-events-since-finding-of-unmarked-graves-in-kamloops-1.5908292">Kamloops residential school</a>, my father, Joe Cardinal, from <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/saddle-lake-cree-nation">Saddle Lake Cree Nation</a> shared with me his wish that we continue to educate people on the beauty of our culture. </p>
<p>My father survived so I can live and experience love. I honour his wish by learning, unlearning and educating in systems that were not made for me. Education is healing and it offers people an opportunity to understand, unlearn and relearn the truths of this country.</p>
<p>My father once told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We are here to show the next generation what our ancestors were taught, the values of respecting one another, loving one another, helping one another. That’s what we need, we need to come back to that.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/blog/2021/11/healing-trauma-federal-residential-indian-boarding-schools#:%7E:text=By%20investigating%20the%20loss%20of%20life%20and%20the,to%20beginning%20the%20healing%20process%20and%20providing%20resources.">findings across this country</a> create opportunity for healing and addressing unresolved grief. The <a href="https://werepstem.com/2021/05/31/a-brief-and-horrific-history-of-systemic-harm-inflicted-on-canadas-indigenous-communities/">intergenerational trauma</a> of residential schools has interrupted and challenged our Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. </p>
<p>In listening to the stories shared throughout this process, I have come to recognize that this work has created opportunities for healing in a trauma-informed and culturally appropriate way. </p>
<p>Indigenous communities hold the knowledge required to heal. We don’t need to be researched and rescued. We need to be more compassionate with one another, as people, but also as practitioners working with Indigenous families.</p>
<p>The stories that Indigenous Peoples tell are sacred. The accounts residential school survivors and their families share are sacred. Those who listen to them all carry responsibilities. Once you have been told, you know. Once you know, you are responsible. We are all responsible.</p>
<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/8425ab44-1a38-4281-aef2-01e6e9bd26c6?dark=true"></iframe>
<p><em>If you are experiencing trauma or feeling triggered, help is available 24/7 for survivors and their families through the Indian Residential School Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419. Mental health support is available through the Hope for Wellness chatline at 1-855-242-3310 or using the chat box at <a href="https://www.hopeforwellness.ca/">hopeforwellness.ca</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207980/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terri Cardinal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The author led a search for unmarked graves at the site of Blue Quills, a former residential school. She found more areas of interest (potential graves) than the official record shows.Terri Cardinal, Director, Indigenous Initiatives, MacEwan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2131372023-09-25T21:23:02Z2023-09-25T21:23:02ZNational Day for Truth and Reconciliation: Exhibit features stolen Kainai children’s stories of resilience on Treaty 7 lands<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/national-day-for-truth-and-reconciliation-exhibit-features-stolen-kainai-childrens-stories-of-resilience-on-treaty-7-lands" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>In Canada, when we talk about truth and reconciliation we have a tendency to focus on the Indian residential school system (IRS). </p>
<p>While engaging with knowledge about <a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1450124405592/1529106060525">residential schools and their legacies is an important facet of truth and reconciliation</a>, there are other colonial school systems that we also need to acknowledge, consider and remember. </p>
<p>In addition to Survivors of the IRS, we have Survivors of other colonial school systems the Canadian government initiated and implemented for over a century and a half.</p>
<p>As a member of the Kainai (Blood Tribe) of the Blackfoot Confederacy <a href="https://www.treaty7.org/">in Treaty 7 territory</a> in Alberta, part of my research has analyzed the educational policies behind the IRS and other colonial schooling models, and how these policies have influenced my own Blood People. As my chapter in the collection <a href="https://www.diopress.com/product-page/brave-work-in-indigenous-education"><em>Brave Work in Indigenous Education</em></a> examines, multiple school models existed at the same time. </p>
<h2>Multiple colonial schooling models</h2>
<p>The Canadian government initiated and implemented multiple colonial schooling models for over a century and a half beyond the IRS, such as: </p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://data2.archives.ca/rcap/pdf/rcap-126.pdf">the industrial school system</a> and <a href="https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Volume_1_History_Part_1_English_Web.pdf">boarding schools</a>, the precursor for residential schools; </p></li>
<li><p>the residency system: some residential schools became places where students lived while bussed off-reserve to attend public school. For example, <a href="https://nctr.ca/residential-schools/alberta/st-pauls-blood/">St. Paul’s on the Blood Reserve</a> became a residency or hostel while Blood children were bussed to the nearest public school; </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/indian-day-schools-in-canada#">the day school system</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/reckoning-with-the-history-of-public-schooling-and-settler-colonialism-190386">the public school system</a>. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Where one system failed, the government designed a new school system based on the failure of the previous school model to try and assimilate Indigenous children.</p>
<h2>Survivors from many school models</h2>
<p>Murray Sinclair, former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) said, “<a href="https://macleans.ca/politics/for-the-record-justice-murray-sinclair-on-residential-schools/">The Survivors need to know before they leave this Earth that people understand what happened and what the schools did to them</a>.” </p>
<p>As a society, it is important that we remember Survivors from each school model and their many impacts on Survivors, their descendants and society as a whole. </p>
<p>As I have worked in this area, and spoken to Survivors across Canada, I have learned that educational policy was never explained to children and their families in these systems. Addressing this gap in knowledge is imperative for Survivors, their descendants and Canadians. People need to know and understand the truth about what happened to Survivors and why this happened to them in order to heal and walk the path of reconciliation.</p>
<h2>Addressing gaps in knowledge</h2>
<p>When the <a href="https://www.galtmuseum.com/">Galt Museum & Archives</a> in Lethbridge, Alta. (also known as Akaisamitohkanao’pa, or gathering place) approached me to be a guest curator and create a traveling museum exhibit based on my TRC research, I decided to use the opportunity to rectify the gap of knowledge so many of us have about educational policy. </p>
<p>The exhibit is called <a href="https://www.galtmuseum.com/events/b68m7o1etf098f1a0alhdvqs9zllhc"><em>Stolen Kainai Children: Stories of Survival</em></a>. It presents photographs and stories from Survivors, the Canadian government, the Christian religions and their missionaries, the Indian Agents and Indian school inspectors. </p>
<p>The exhibit shows the evolution of the colonial school system from mission schools to band-controlled education, and a timeline examining the difference between the school models, with photographs of each model and educational policy accompanying it. Most importantly, the exhibit is filled with stories from Survivors. </p>
<h2>Right to know the truth</h2>
<p>The exhibit is motivated by the TRC’s 2015 Calls to Action, <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/indigenous-people/aboriginal-peoples-documents/calls_to_action_english2.pdf">specifically number 69, which called for museums and archives to</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“i.) fully adopt and implement the … United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles, as related to Aboriginal peoples’ inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why,” and “iii.) Commit more resources to its public education materials and programming on residential schools.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pMIPaYpx1po?wmode=transparent&start=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Kainai Stolen Children Era: Lecture with author Tiffany Dionne Prete.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Multiple Christian churches</h2>
<p>The exhibit introduces the different Christian churches who created missions on the Blood Reserve, and shows Survivor experiences of missions’ different characteristics. For example, as Survivor Jim Young Pine shares about attending <a href="https://nctr.ca/residential-schools/alberta/st-marys-blood/">St. Mary’s School</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The nuns at the school were French and always spoke French. As a result, I didn’t learn English very well. The St. Paul’s Anglican Residential School students spoke better English than we did. Their teachers and supervisors spoke only English all the time. It was while working outside Kainaisskahoyi that I learned English from non-Natives.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Young Pine’s account is from a collection of 1995 interviews from my community documented in the collection, <a href="https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Kitomahkitapiiminnooniksi/D4fRtwAACAAJ?hl=en"><em>Stories from our Elders</em></a>. </p>
<p>Churches opened several of the different schools the Canadian government devised to try and assimilate Indigenous children. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-donors-from-canada-and-europe-helped-fund-indian-residential-schools-164028">How donors from Canada and Europe helped fund Indian Residential Schools</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Stories from Survivors of institutions</h2>
<p>The stories allow viewers to glimpse what it was like to attend these schools. The stories are also a testament to the survival of the Blood People. </p>
<p>Despite all of the acts, legislation and educational policy that was created with the intention to assimilate us into a Eurocentric way of life, we are still here. We are still Indigenous. We continue to retain our identities as Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot People). </p>
<p>We have <a href="https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/ari/index.php/ari/article/view/29419/21591">resisted the governments’ call to assimilate us. We have persevered and fought back to retain our identities</a>. We continue today to practice and live our ways of knowing, being and doing as Siksikaitsitapi. </p>
<p>The exhibit concludes on a note of hope by highlighting the resiliency of the Kainai People. </p>
<h2>Maintaining our identities as Siksikaitsitapi</h2>
<p>In 1988, the Blood Tribe took control of tribal education. Today, the Blood Tribe runs its own education programs from early childhood education to post-secondary education. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.kainaied.ca/">Kainai Board of Education</a> operates five schools (Saipoyi Community School, Aahsaopi Elementary School, Tatsikiisaapo’p Middle School, Kainai High School and Kainai Alternate Academy). </p>
<p><a href="https://www.redcrowcollege.com/">Mi’kai’sto (Red Crow Community College)</a> has been operating since 1986 and has a satellite campus in Lethbridge, Alta. Originally, Mi’kai’sto opened in the St. Mary’s IRS that burned down in 2015. <a href="https://entro.com/project/mikaisto-red-crow-community-college/">Mi’kai’sto was rebuilt in Standoff</a>, Alta., and opened in 2022. </p>
<p>The Blood Reserve has worked hard to create education that works towards maintaining our identities as Siksikaitsitapi. Kainai values are taught and Elders and knowledge holders are a regular part of a student’s learning journey. </p>
<h2>Education as ‘new buffalo’</h2>
<p>To many Indigenous Peoples across plains regions in Canada, <a href="https://uofmpress.ca/books/detail/the-new-buffalo">education has become the “new buffalo</a>.” This means just as the buffalo once sustained us for our needs, Indigenous Peoples are adapting education to meet our needs today. </p>
<p>To observe the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and all year,
let us be reminded of Survivors’ voices from the past century and a half, and as Sinclair said, re-commit our reconciliation efforts to “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-april-4-mmiwg-ottawa-public-forum-1.4053431/how-senator-murray-sinclair-responds-to-why-don-t-residential-school-survivors-just-get-over-it-1.4053522">act to ensure the repair of damages done</a>.”
As the former TRC chair also said, until people show they have learned from this, we will never forget.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213137/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tiffany Dionne Prete does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Survivors of multiple colonial school systems need their voices to be heard. An exhibit examines how colonial schooling policies over a century and a half influenced the Blood People.Tiffany Dionne Prete, Assistant Professor, Sociology Department, University of LethbridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1873422022-07-26T01:23:38Z2022-07-26T01:23:38ZPope’s long-awaited apology for Indian Residential Schools in Canada is a ‘first step’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475924/original/file-20220725-15-yj20w6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C23%2C3641%2C2276&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Francis receives a traditional headdress after apologizing near the site of the former Ermineskin Residential School, in Maskwacis, Alta.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis fulfilled the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/indigenous-people/aboriginal-peoples-documents/calls_to_action_english2.pdf">Call to Action No. 58</a> by <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2022/july/documents/20220725-popolazioniindigene-canada.pdf">offering an apology, in Canada</a>, to the survivors of Indian Residential Schools, their families and communities. He said, “I am sorry,” and asked forgiveness for the participation of church members in “projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation.”</p>
<p>This was on the first day of a <a href="https://www.papalvisit.ca/">five-day visit in Canada</a> — what the Pope has called a “<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-pope-francis-canada-visit-edmonton">penitential pilgrimage</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475925/original/file-20220725-14-g1vzpj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A hand holds up a bundle of sage that is burning." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475925/original/file-20220725-14-g1vzpj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475925/original/file-20220725-14-g1vzpj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475925/original/file-20220725-14-g1vzpj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475925/original/file-20220725-14-g1vzpj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475925/original/file-20220725-14-g1vzpj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475925/original/file-20220725-14-g1vzpj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475925/original/file-20220725-14-g1vzpj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Indigenous person smudges before the gathering to see Pope Francis on his visit to Maskwacis, Alta., during his visit to Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Pope spoke at Maskwacis, near the site of <a href="https://collections.irshdc.ubc.ca/index.php/Detail/entities/1080">the former Ermineskin Residential School</a> in Alberta. However, the apology came seven years after the call was issued by the TRC — and did not definitively acknowledge the role of the church itself in the residential school system.</p>
<p>After the Pope had spoken, <a href="https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/pope-francis-apologizes-for-evil-committed-by-christians-against-indigenous-peoples">Chief Judy Wilson of Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs</a> called out for the Pope to <a href="https://twitter.com/Pam_Palmater/status/1551532404631797761">repeal the Doctrine of Discovery</a>. Such a response reveals one of many gaps in the Pope’s statement. The Doctrine of Discovery provided <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-pope-visit-doctrine-of-discovery/">theological and legal justification for the dispossession of Indigenous lands</a> by European colonizers and has been the basis for the Crown’s assertion of sovereignty.</p>
<h2>Meaning of an apology</h2>
<p>My reflection and analysis are rooted in my perspective as a white settler and a scholar of church apologies for historical wrongs. They also reflect very initial impressions. It is not for me to say what the apology means to survivors. In reality, the meaning of an apology is not fully determined by the words that are said but by the actions that follow. </p>
<p>Whether this apology has truly advanced the goal of healing may become evident only in years and decades to come. It is also possible that the Pope will make additional statements, with further nuance, throughout his visit.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The Pope, in a white skullcap and robes, is seen seated, flanked by two men in regalia including headdresses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475931/original/file-20220725-19-meaybl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475931/original/file-20220725-19-meaybl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475931/original/file-20220725-19-meaybl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475931/original/file-20220725-19-meaybl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475931/original/file-20220725-19-meaybl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475931/original/file-20220725-19-meaybl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475931/original/file-20220725-19-meaybl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pope Francis delivers his apology to Indigenous people for the church’s role in residential schools during a ceremony in Maskwacis, Alta., as part of his papal visit across Canada on July 25, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Deplorable evil’</h2>
<p>Like Pope Francis’s <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2022/april/documents/20220401-popoli-indigeni-canada.html">statement in Rome on April 1</a>, this apology acknowledged the suffering experienced by those in Indian Residential Schools, including loss of culture, language and spirituality, and “physical, verbal, psychological and spiritual abuse.” Despite acknowledging that he had heard the painful testimony of survivors, the Pope did not <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/pope-address-maskwacis-alberta-1.6531231">name sexual abuse</a>, which was specified in Call to Action No. 58.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/catholic-church-response-to-sexual-abuse-must-centre-on-survivor-well-being-not-defensiveness-162417">Catholic Church response to sexual abuse must centre on survivor well-being, not defensiveness</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>“In the face of this deplorable evil, the church kneels before God and implores his forgiveness for the sins of her children,” he said. “I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous Peoples.” </p>
<h2>‘Create a culture’</h2>
<p>The Pope emphasized that his apology is only “a first step, the starting point,” and that any such words will always be deeply inadequate. He said the long path of healing will require many actions and must penetrate the hearts of Catholics. </p>
<p>The Pope expressed a commitment to a path that respects the identities and experiences of Indigenous people. When he spoke about the need to “create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening,” this appears to suggest that the church will need to change some of its own institutional cultures and practices.</p>
<p>Unlike his apology at the Vatican, the Pope was very much a guest in Indigenous space. He was welcomed by local chiefs, drummers and singers, and by those who spoke the very Indigenous languages that residential schools tried to extinguish. In these ways, the ceremony of the event can be a microcosm of a renewed and more respectful relationship. The presence of the Pope who has had to reduce his travel for health reasons may be received as a sign of his personal commitment. </p>
<h2>Project of dispossession</h2>
<p>The apology acknowledged the church’s destruction of Indigenous cultures, but this destruction was in service to Canada’s dispossession of Indigenous lands, <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-land-defenders-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-6-156632">and these cultures are inextricably tied to particular lands</a>. The Pope did not make these connections.</p>
<p>Nor did the Pope explicitly acknowledge the complicity and responsibility of the church as an institution running the schools. As he did in his April apology, the Pope maintained a distinction between what individual Catholics did — adding, this time, that individuals advanced the policy of assimilation underlying the schools — and what the church did. </p>
<p>Parts of the speech seemed to place the church and Indigenous people on the same side, as though they were all victims grieving the same evils. For example, speaking of “interiorizing our pain,” sounds as though Pope Francis wished to identify a common pain he experienced with survivors. Such a view could suggest inadequate recognition that memories of past traumas are very different for victims than for perpetrators.</p>
<p>As is the case <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/ecclesial-repentance-9780567523686/">in most church apologies for historical wrongs</a>, the Pope was addressing two audiences.</p>
<p>The first audience comprises those harmed by the residential schools. The second audience consists of those in the church who, as settlers, are called to specific actions of healing and repair. Some may not believe they bear responsibility for this past.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/truth-before-reconciliation-8-ways-to-identify-and-confront-residential-school-denialism-164692">Truth before reconciliation: 8 ways to identify and confront Residential School denialism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some may not believe things were that bad in the schools. Will the Pope’s statement persuade them to engage more deeply with this history?</p>
<p>Pope Francis called for a “serious investigation into the facts of what took place and to assist the survivors of the residential schools to experience healing from the traumas they suffered.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People holding a red banner with filled with many names in small font." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475933/original/file-20220725-15-pwoxng.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475933/original/file-20220725-15-pwoxng.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475933/original/file-20220725-15-pwoxng.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475933/original/file-20220725-15-pwoxng.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475933/original/file-20220725-15-pwoxng.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475933/original/file-20220725-15-pwoxng.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475933/original/file-20220725-15-pwoxng.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A group holds a banner with names of children on it, after Pope Francis’s address in Maskwacis, Alta., on July 25, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While this remains vague, the Pope appears to suggest a process of reckoning within the church. Might this open up more church records? Might this lead to a recognition of the church’s institutional complicity? Might this lead to more specific actions called for by survivors, such as the return of artifacts from the Vatican? </p>
<p>All of these may be possible but they also might not happen. </p>
<p>The fulfilment of one of the TRC Calls to Action is not an end in itself. It is one act of truth-telling that must be in service to the other Calls to Action, which together implicates all Canadians in the long path ahead. </p>
<p>It is important to recall that Prime Minister <a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100015644/1571589171655">Stephen Harper apologized in 2008</a> on behalf of the Government of Canada and asserted that the burden on this history should be borne by the entire country. The apology in Maskwacis by the Pope, long overdue, should not really be about the Pope or even just the Catholic Church. </p>
<p>Rather, it should be about acknowledging the suffering and the human dignity of survivors. It should also be received as an occasion for all Canadians to reckon with a painful past, and engage in the long and difficult and costly work of repair.</p>
<p><em>If you are an Indian Residential School survivor, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187342/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy M. Bergen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Whether this apology has truly advanced the goal of healing may become evident only in years and decades to come.Jeremy M. Bergen, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Theological Studies, Conrad Grebel University College, University of WaterlooLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1848162022-06-29T12:11:35Z2022-06-29T12:11:35ZThis Canada Day, settler Canadians should think about ‘land back’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472334/original/file-20220704-14-u28g1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C3583%2C2392&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A bus blocks Argyle Street South in Caledonia, Ont., as a group of labour councils and unions delivered food and support to land defenders at a land reclamation camp known as 1492 Land Back Lane in October 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Carlos Osorio</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/this-canada-day--settler-canadians-should-think-about--land-back-" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Last Canada Day, Parliament Hill teemed with orange as thousands marched in response to the <a href="https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/shame-on-canada-thousands-attend-cancel-canada-day-rally-on-parliament-hill-1.5493234">unmarked graves of Indigenous children being found at</a> former residential school sites. #CancelCanadaDay <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/cancel-canada-day-canadian-voices-1.6076022">trended on social media</a> while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau <a href="https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/shame-on-canada-thousands-attend-cancel-canada-day-rally-on-parliament-hill-1.5493234">urged Canadians</a> to reflect on the country’s failures.</p>
<p>As in-person festivities return to Ottawa for the first time since 2019, it appears to be <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/canada-day.html">business as usual</a>. But should it be?</p>
<p>For most settler Canadians — myself included — July 1 is a day to celebrate the rights, freedoms and privileges that come with being Canadian. Privileges, however, come with responsibilities. A crucial one for settler Canadians is to build meaningful relationships with Indigenous people and nations.</p>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/27/what-makes-me-canadian-settler/">Canadians dislike</a> being labelled “settlers.” The term refers to <a href="https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/beyondlecture/chapter/imagining-a-better-future-an-introduction-to-teaching-and-learning-about-settler-colonialism-in-canada/">non-Indigenous people who, or whose ancestors, settled on Indigenous land</a>, although recent debates question the inclusion of <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/gyajj4/who-is-a-settler-according-to-indigenous-and-black-scholars">descendants of slaves</a> and <a href="https://www.academia.edu/424977/Are_People_of_Colour_Settlers_Too">non-white immigrants</a>.</p>
<p>As a white scholar studying territorial rights, I see my status as a settler as part of being Canadian. It is not an accusation, but a reality of living on <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/24/analysis/what-we-mean-when-we-say-indigenous-land-unceded">unceded Indigenous lands</a>. It is a recognition that the benefits Canadians enjoy are built on the denial of <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aboriginal-rights">Indigenous Peoples’ rights</a> to self-determination of their land according to their laws. </p>
<p>Settler Canadians have a responsibility to build respectful, reciprocal relationships with Indigenous nations on our shared geographic space. This relationship starts with land restitution. </p>
<h2>What is land restitution?</h2>
<p>For many settler Canadians, “land back” discussions generate anxiety and discomfort. Contrary to people’s perceptions, however, land back does not mean the removal of all non-Indigenous people from North America. Instead, as many <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/wolastoqey-name-forestry-companies-in-land-claim-1.6267718">Indigenous leaders have argued</a>, it is about restitution: the return of jurisdictional control to Indigenous nations.</p>
<p>In legal and political philosophy, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/territorial-rights/">jurisdiction</a> is the right to make and enforce laws over a geographic area. It also often includes control over the extraction and development of natural resources. </p>
<p>When we talk about restitution in Canada, we are talking about <a href="https://breachmedia.ca/land-back/">Crown land</a> — land owned by federal and provincial governments. <a href="https://redpaper.yellowheadinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/red-paper-report-final.pdf">Eighty-nine per cent of Canada’s land</a> is Crown land, while the other 11 per cent is privately owned. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two women kayak in a blue and yellow kayak on a lake with trees in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471186/original/file-20220627-23-2u3y8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471186/original/file-20220627-23-2u3y8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471186/original/file-20220627-23-2u3y8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471186/original/file-20220627-23-2u3y8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471186/original/file-20220627-23-2u3y8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471186/original/file-20220627-23-2u3y8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471186/original/file-20220627-23-2u3y8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two women kayak on a waterway called the sanctuary located on Crown land north of Bobcaygeon, Ont.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Thornhill</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indigenous land rights in Canada are protected under Section 35 of the Constitution as <a href="https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/aboriginal_title/">Aboriginal title</a>. These are special rights that flow from Indigenous nations’ political sovereignty. </p>
<p>Aboriginal title, however, is not the same as restitution. This is because Canada has ultimate legal authority — or “<a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/1569/index.do">Crown sovereignty</a>” — over all land within its borders.</p>
<h2>Why does restitution matter?</h2>
<p>Indigenous nations’ jurisdictional rights are recognized in the <a href="https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/royal_proclamation_1763/">Royal Proclamation of 1763</a> and the United Nations’ <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf">Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples</a>. They are also <a href="https://www.queensu.ca/iigr/sites/webpublish.queensu.ca.iigrwww/files/files/pub/SOTF%202017/AAPrelim%20of%20SOTF%202017.pdf">recognized in treaties</a>.</p>
<p>Canada has <a href="https://www.ubcic.bc.ca/canadafailingindigenouspeoples">ignored many of its treaty obligations</a>, but treaties are integral to land restitution. They recognize Indigenous nations as “separate but equal” with <a href="https://www.queensu.ca/iigr/sites/webpublish.queensu.ca.iigrwww/files/files/pub/SOTF%202017/AAPrelim%20of%20SOTF%202017.pdf">their own constitutional orders and governance structures</a> who share land with the Canadian state. </p>
<p>Land restitution also has larger, positive implications. A 2019 <a href="https://ipbes.net/global-assessment">United Nations Report on biodiversity</a> found that Indigenous jurisdictions can mitigate biodiversity loss. This is because Indigenous practices emphasize land restoration and sustainability. Land restitution, then, is also crucial in stopping the climate crisis. </p>
<p>It is important to note that Indigenous nations do not need settler consent to exercise their jurisdiction over land, and many do so, <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/ourstories/cirg/">despite violent resistance from the Canadian state</a>. Ending this violence requires settlers to recognize their responsibility to support restitution.</p>
<h2>How are settlers responsible?</h2>
<p>Colonialism is perceived as a “<a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100015644/1571589171655">sad chapter</a>” in Canada’s history, for which settlers must make amends. But <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-in-the-past-colonialism-is-rooted-in-the-present-157395">colonialism is not in the past: it continues in the present</a> through government policies and institutions and the denial of Indigenous Peoples’ rights.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman holds a sign that reads 'I stand on stolen land'." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471185/original/file-20220627-14-6sk75e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471185/original/file-20220627-14-6sk75e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471185/original/file-20220627-14-6sk75e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471185/original/file-20220627-14-6sk75e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471185/original/file-20220627-14-6sk75e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471185/original/file-20220627-14-6sk75e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471185/original/file-20220627-14-6sk75e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s important to acknowledge Canada is on stolen land.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We often think of responsibility in terms of liability — someone is responsible when they cause or fail to prevent harm. Responsibility, however, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195392388.001.0001">can also be political</a>: people can be responsible because they benefit from unjust institutions. They can also be responsible by virtue of their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199548439.003.0028">membership in a political collective</a>, like the Canadian state. </p>
<p>So settler Canadians have a collective responsibility as Canadians to support land restitution — regardless of our individual actions. This is because land restitution is required for building <a href="https://redpaper.yellowheadinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/red-paper-report-final.pdf">just relations with Indigenous people and nations</a>. </p>
<p>The first step is to critically engage with the meaning of being settler Canadian. One way to do this is to learn about <a href="https://native-land.ca">whose land you live on</a> and the history of that land. If you live on treaty land, what are your responsibilities? Another is to hold your elected representatives accountable: How are they advancing justice for Indigenous Peoples? Are they working to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s <a href="https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf">94 Calls to Action</a> or the <a href="https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/">Calls for Justice</a> from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls?</p>
<p>Canada Day can be a day to celebrate the privileges we enjoy as Canadians. However, we must also acknowledge that we enjoy these privileges as settlers. This Canada Day, settler Canadians should take time to reflect on our responsibilities to build a better future: one that all sovereign nations on this land can celebrate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184816/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kaitie Jourdeuil receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>Settler Canadians have a responsibility to build respectful, reciprocal relationships with Indigenous nations on our shared geographic space. This relationship starts with land restitution.Kaitie Jourdeuil, PhD Candidate in Political Theory, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1827282022-05-18T16:20:43Z2022-05-18T16:20:43ZUnmarked graves of 215 Indigenous children were found in Kamloops a year ago: What’s happened since? — Podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463073/original/file-20220513-24-zqvv0c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4575%2C2695&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Two people embrace in front of the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa at a memorial for the 215 children whose remains were found at the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.cpimages.com/CS.aspx?VP3=DamView&VBID=2RLQ2JT3Y1MDG&SMLS=1&RW=1324&RH=686#/DamView&VBID=2RLQ2JTIWH209&PN=1&WS=SearchResults">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</a></span></figcaption></figure><iframe height="480px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/fb609e39-d729-4a54-860a-8a411be157ae?dark=false&show=true"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-572" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/572/661898416fdc21fc4fdef6a5379efd7cac19d9d5/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><strong><em>Warning: This article contains details that some readers may find distressing</em></strong></p>
<p>It’s been a year since the unmarked graves of 215 Indigenous children — some of them as young as three years old — were found on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. Since then, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60395242">hundreds more have also been found</a>. Across Canada and the United States, communities reeled as more information was uncovered. </p>
<p>Many felt pain and outrage. Some also experienced relief that their family members who had disappeared from residential schools were finally found. </p>
<p>The Canadian government responded immediately making promises to address historical wrongs and <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/pm-says-cabinet-discussing-further-actions-in-response-to-mass-grave-uncovered-at-residential-school-1.5449637">commitments to reconciliation</a>.</p>
<p>In the month following the findings, three of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action <a href="https://yellowheadinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/trc-2021-accountability-update-yellowhead-institute-special-report.pdf">were completed</a>: to
establish a statutory holiday for Truth and Reconciliation; to put in place an Indigenous Languages Commissioner; to amend the Oath of Citizenship. </p>
<p>But one year later, advocates say these initial actions and promises were mostly symbolic. For example, the most recent provincial budget in B.C. <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2022/02/25/stone-not-much-in-bc-budget-for-kamloops.html">“doesn’t have Kamloops high on its priority list.”</a> </p>
<p>And the most recent announcement that Pope Francis will visit Canada this summer <a href="https://kamloops.me/2022/05/13/the-popersquos-visit-must-be-more-than-a-symbolic-gesture/">raises questions from communities about more empty gestures</a>.</p>
<p>In today’s episode of <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/"><em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a>, we’re taking a look back at what happened, the immediate political response, the widespread grief and outcry but also, how none of that lasted — despite <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/george-gordon-first-nation-announce-results-geophysical-investigation-1.6424122">communities continuing to find bodies</a>. </p>
<p>An estimated 150,000 First Nation, Inuit, and Métis children attended residential schools — which were put in place by colonial governments — with the goal of exterminating Indigenous histories, cultures and languages. </p>
<p>The last residential school <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-residential-schools-kamloops-faq-1.6051632">closed in 1997 in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut</a>. </p>
<p>When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its <a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1450124405592/1529106060525#chp2">final report in 2015</a>, it provided a conservative estimate that between 4,000 and 6,000 children died while in attendance.</p>
<p>Are changes and conciliation on the horizon? Has the government kept its promise? </p>
<p>Our guest today is Veldon Coburn, assistant professor at the Institute of Indigenous Research and Studies at the University of Ottawa. Coburn is Anishinaabe from Pikwàkanagàn and authored <em>The Conversation</em>’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-longer-the-disappeared-mourning-the-215-children-found-in-graves-at-kamloops-indian-residential-school-161782">first article following the Kamloops findings</a>. Joining Vinita and Veldon on the episode is Haley Lewis, <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> producer and <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/team">culture and society editor</a> at <em>The Conversation Canada</em>. Lewis is mixed Kanyen'keha:ká from Tyendinaga and led our coverage of the findings last year. </p>
<h2>Transcript</h2>
<p>An unedited transcript of the episode is available <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/unmarked-graves-of-215-indigenous-children-were-found-in-kamloops-a-year-ago-whats-happened-since-podcast/transcript">here.</a></p>
<h2>ICYMI — Articles published in <em>The Conversation</em></h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/no-longer-the-disappeared-mourning-the-215-children-found-in-graves-at-kamloops-indian-residential-school-161782">No longer ‘the disappeared’: Mourning the 215 children found in graves at Kamloops Indian Residential School</a> by Veldon Coburn</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/stolen-identities-what-does-it-mean-to-be-indigenous-dont-call-me-resilient-podcast-ep-8-166248">Podcast: Stolen identities: What does it mean to be Indigenous? Don’t Call Me Resilient EP 8</a> Interviewed: Veldon Coburn and Celeste Pedri-Spade</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-hypocrisy-recognizing-genocide-except-its-own-against-indigenous-peoples-162128">Canada’s hypocrisy: Recognizing genocide except its own against Indigenous Peoples</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-lawyer-investigate-discovery-of-215-childrens-graves-in-kamloops-as-a-crime-against-humanity-161941">Indigenous lawyer: Investigate discovery of 215 children’s graves in Kamloops as a crime against humanity</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-many-canadians-dont-seem-to-care-about-the-lasting-effects-of-residential-schools-161968">Why many Canadians don’t seem to care about the lasting effects of residential schools</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-canada-committed-genocide-against-indigenous-peoples-explained-by-the-lawyer-central-to-the-determination-162582">How Canada committed genocide against Indigenous Peoples, explained by the lawyer central to the determination</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/when-good-intentions-dont-matter-the-indian-residential-school-system-165045">When ‘good intentions’ don’t matter: The Indian Residential School system</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/indian-residential-schools-acts-of-genocide-deceit-and-control-by-church-and-state-162145">Indian Residential Schools: Acts of genocide, deceit and control by church and state</a></p>
<h2>Additional Reading + Listening</h2>
<p><a href="https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/capitalism-and-dispossession"><em>Capitalism and Dispossession</em></a> by Veldon Coburn</p>
<p><a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2021/06/10505350/canada-mistreatment-indigenous-people">It’s Time Settlers Own Up To Canada’s Mistreatment of Indigenous People</a> in <em>Refinery29</em> by Haley Lewis</p>
<p><a href="https://thebigstorypodcast.ca/2021/06/08/if-canadas-residential-schools-reckoning-is-real-this-time-what-happens-next/">Podcast: If Canada’s residential schools reckoning is real this time, what happens next?</a> — The Big Story Podcast</p>
<p><a href="https://mediaindigena.libsyn.com/the-rot-of-reconciliation-in-canada-ep-279">Podcast: The Rot of Reconciliation in Canada</a> — Media Indigena</p>
<p><a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/603503">‘Killing the Indian in the Child’: Death, Cruelty, and Subject-formation in the Canadian Indian Residential School System</a></p>
<p><a href="https://fns.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/AdministeringSocialScience.mosby_.pdf">Administering Colonial Science: Nutrition Research and Human Biomedical Experimentation in Aboriginal Communities and Residential Schools, 1942–1952</a></p>
<p><a href="https://nasjournal.org/index.php/NASJ/article/view/672">Unmarked Graves: Yet another Legacy of Canada’s Residential School System</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exz4CugbawA">Slavoj Zizek: Will today’s chaos lead to change for the better? | The Stream</a> </p>
<p><em>Support is available for anyone affected by their or their family’s experience at residential schools. Access to emotional and crisis referral services is available through the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.</em></p>
<h2>Follow and listen</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9qZFg0Ql9DOA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a> or <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com">wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts</a>. <a href="mailto:theculturedesk@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join <em>The Conversation</em> on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheConversationCanada"> Facebook</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">Instagram</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient. </p>
<p><em>Don’t Call Me Resilient is a production of The Conversation Canada. This podcast was produced with a grant for Journalism Innovation from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The series is produced and hosted by Vinita Srivastava. The producer on this episode is Haley Lewis. Our associate producer is: Vaishnavi Dandekar. Our sound producer is Lygia Navarro. Reza Dahya is our sound designer. Jennifer Moroz is our consulting producer. Lisa Varano is our audience development editor and Scott White is the CEO of the Conversation Canada.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182728/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
In today’s episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, we take a look at what has happened since the unmarked graves of 215 Indigenous children were found in Kamloops B.C.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientHaley Lewis, Culture + Society Editor | Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1759172022-02-14T01:05:56Z2022-02-14T01:05:56ZInvisible language learners: what educators need to know about many First Nations children<p>Of the original <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/academic-professional/linguistics/Australias-Original-Languages-R-M-W-Dixon-9781760875237">250-plus languages and over 750 dialects</a> spoken by First Nations peoples before 1788, <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2020-08/apo-nid307493.pdf">only 12</a> are being learned by children today.</p>
<p>However, widely spoken contact languages – creoles and dialects – have emerged. One example is <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-ways-aboriginal-australians-made-english-their-own-128219">Aboriginal English</a>, which is a broad term used to describe the many varieties of English spoken by Aboriginal people across Australia. Another example is <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-largest-language-spoken-exclusively-in-australia-kriol-56286">Kriol</a>, which is a creole language spoken across northern Australia.</p>
<p>These contact languages are not always recognised as the full languages they are by <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-22/calls-for-teachers-to-understand-aboriginal-english/11780094">some educators</a> and society generally.</p>
<p>Because of this, many First Nations children are not treated as second language learners. Their languages are sometimes viewed as deficient forms of Standard Australian English and can be “<a href="https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/aral.36.3.02sel">invisible</a>” to teachers and education systems.</p>
<p>To improve educational outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who do not speak Standard Australian English as their first language, their language backgrounds must be recognised and valued.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-state-of-australias-indigenous-languages-and-how-we-can-help-people-speak-them-more-often-109662">The state of Australia's Indigenous languages – and how we can help people speak them more often</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>What are contact languages?</h2>
<p>Contact languages form when communication is essential between speakers of two or more languages. In Australia, this occurred between the speakers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and English speakers after the British invasion in 1788. </p>
<p>A variety of contact languages developed which are both similar to, and different from, each other. Some languages are more closely related to English, while others have more features of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. Many of these contact languages are not officially named. </p>
<p>The features of contact languages often reflect the impacts of colonisation for communities across Australia. These factors contribute to their lack of recognition in Australian society, including school systems. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-aboriginal-languages-course-should-count-towards-atars-52138">New Aboriginal languages course should count towards ATARs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Our study</h2>
<p>Little is known about contact languages, but many First Nations children all over Australia come to school speaking them as their first language.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09500782.2021.2020811?src=">Our research</a> was conducted at three primary school sites in Far North Queensland. One group was made up of monolingual Standard Australia English speaking children. The other two groups were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who spoke Indigenous contact languages. The First Nations groups were located near each other, but despite their proximity, they differed. </p>
<p>One of the two First Nations groups was in a rural town where Standard Australian English is widely spoken and the children had a diverse range of language backgrounds. The other was in an Aboriginal community where one contact language was primarily spoken and exposure to Standard Australian English was limited.</p>
<p>Our research is intended to make the Standard Australian English language learning needs of many First Nations children more “visible” to educators. We identified some of the linguistic differences between Standard Australian English and the contact languages these First Nation children speak for testing. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young child does homework with their parent." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445555/original/file-20220210-28511-1qb8eyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445555/original/file-20220210-28511-1qb8eyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445555/original/file-20220210-28511-1qb8eyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445555/original/file-20220210-28511-1qb8eyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445555/original/file-20220210-28511-1qb8eyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445555/original/file-20220210-28511-1qb8eyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445555/original/file-20220210-28511-1qb8eyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Because of language differences, First Nations students’ achievements as Standard Australian English speakers may not be recognised in the classroom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/photo/father-and-son-working-on-homework-at-the-dining-royalty-free-image/1130189395?adppopup=true">GettyImages</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>First, we compared the short-term memory capacities of the three groups. The short-term memory capacities of all groups were the same, demonstrating all the children had the ability to store language in their short-term memories for immediate use.</p>
<p>Next, these students were asked to orally reproduce a range of simple sentences given to them in Standard Australian English to gauge their proficiency. There were 18 simple sentences of different syllable lengths – six, nine and 12. </p>
<p>Sample sentences included: </p>
<p>• The dog barks at the cats (six syllables)</p>
<p>• In the bush, they built houses from sticks (nine syllables)</p>
<p>• He always eats mangoes in the park with his friends (12 syllables).</p>
<p>Each sentence was marked for grammatical accuracy in Standard Australian English. The speaking ability of all three groups differed significantly. On average, the Standard Australian English-speaking group recorded 71.1% accuracy, the group of First Nations children with diverse language backgrounds scored 45.1% and the others who spoke the same contact language and lived in an Aboriginal community scored 29.6%.</p>
<p>We also examined students’ knowledge of four Standard Australian English grammatical features: </p>
<p>• the prepositions “at”, “in” and “on”</p>
<p>• plural “s” on nouns, for example <strong>cats</strong></p>
<p>• simple present tense with a third-person singular “s”, for example, <strong>she runs</strong></p>
<p>• simple irregular past tense, for example, they <strong>ate</strong>.</p>
<p>The Standard Australian English-speaking group and the speakers of contact languages differed significantly in all aspects except for the prepositions “at”, “in”, and “on” where there was no difference. </p>
<p>For the other grammatical features, the difference of accuracy between the Standard Australian English speakers and second group ranged from 12.1% to 20.8%, and for the third from 20.1% to 45%. Simple present tense with the third-person singular “s” was the most difficult feature for the speakers of Indigenous contact languages, and plurals the easiest.</p>
<p>These findings highlight the close relationship that exists between Indigenous contact languages and Standard Australian English, as well as the significant differences. </p>
<p>Speakers of Indigenous contact languages may be proficient in some aspects of Standard Australian English, as demonstrated by their use of prepositions but not others. The findings also showed significant differences between the two groups of First Nations children, which probably reflect their diverse language backgrounds and their differing levels of exposure to Standard Australian English.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A teacher in a classroom with children you have their hands raised." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445559/original/file-20220210-18418-1oi4u1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445559/original/file-20220210-18418-1oi4u1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445559/original/file-20220210-18418-1oi4u1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445559/original/file-20220210-18418-1oi4u1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445559/original/file-20220210-18418-1oi4u1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445559/original/file-20220210-18418-1oi4u1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445559/original/file-20220210-18418-1oi4u1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Language backgrounds of First Nations children need to be recognised and valued in Australian classrooms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/photo/aboriginal-elementary-school-teacher-with-the-class-royalty-free-image/909795530?adppopup=true">GettyImages</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-the-remote-indigenous-community-where-a-few-thousand-people-use-15-different-languages-107716">Meet the remote Indigenous community where a few thousand people use 15 different languages</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why does it matter?</h2>
<p>Our findings showed the Standard Australian English speaking ability of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students improved over their primary school years. However, it never reached the levels of their monolingual Standard Australian English speaking peers.</p>
<p>As children progress through school, the Standard Australian English language and literacy demands increase at such a rate that language gains are unlikely to be identified in either classroom-based or standardised assessments. Consequently, students’ achievements may not be visible or recognised in the classroom. </p>
<p>The impact of this can be seen in continued <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-6300-761-0_10">narratives of deficiency</a> surrounding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners. The <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=/atsia/languages2/report.htm#chapters">educational and social implications</a> of this are considerable, and the educational outcomes for First Nations children who speak contact languages are a national disgrace. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-caring-for-children-can-help-aboriginal-elders-during-lockdown-164628">How caring for children can help Aboriginal Elders during lockdown</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>To meet the Standard Australian English learning needs of First Nations students who speak contact languages, their languages must be recognised and valued in the classroom. Contact languages need to be treated with respect and understanding, and not viewed as incorrect forms of Standard Australian English. </p>
<p>To show respect and promote learning, we encourage teachers to learn about students’ first language/s and include them in the classroom. Students should feel free to express themselves in whichever language they choose, recognising their first language/s play an <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1362168820938822">important role</a> in learning.</p>
<p>All teachers need to understand how language is learned and should be supported to effectively teach Standard Australian English alongside curriculum content. Language skills are the cornerstone of literacy and educational development. Teachers should <a href="https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/tesol/article/view/1421">explicitly teach Standard Australian English</a> and provide students with the opportunity to practise their language skills. </p>
<p>Targeted training needs to be delivered in initial teacher education courses and through professional development for those already teaching. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://theconversation.com/only-1-in-3-teachers-use-research-evidence-in-the-classroom-this-is-largely-due-to-lack-of-time-175517">current climate</a> of heavy responsibilities on time-poor teachers, sufficient funding and time must be given for teachers to gain the skills required.</p>
<p>To provide a fair and equitable education for all, the language backgrounds of First Nations children should be embraced in their education settings and the broader systems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carly Steele received funding from the Australian Government Research Training Program and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language to conduct this research as part of her PhD at the University of Melbourne.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gillian Wigglesworth receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) as a Chief Investigator on the Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (CE140100041) and also holds two Discovery Projects funded by the ARC related to her work with Indigenous children whose first language is not English.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Graeme Gower does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Contact languages are widely spoken by many First Nations children. These languages must be recognised and valued in the classroom to better meet students’ learning needs.Carly Steele, Lecturer, Curtin UniversityGillian Wigglesworth, Professor of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, The University of MelbourneGraeme Gower, Associate professor, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1744422022-01-05T21:53:18Z2022-01-05T21:53:18ZAs a lawyer who’s helped fight for the rights of First Nations children, here’s what you need to know about the $40B child welfare agreements<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439531/original/file-20220105-17-kuesf8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C0%2C7638%2C4973&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">AFN Regional Chief Cindy Woodhouse and Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu listen to Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller as he responds to a question during a news conference on Jan. 4, 2022, in Ottawa. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld </span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/as-a-lawyer-who-s-helped-fight-for-the-rights-of-first-nations-children--here-s-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-40b-child-welfare-agreements" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The government of Canada announced it had reached agreements-in-principle this week to <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-ottawa-to-announce-40-billion-for-indigenous-child-welfare/">compensate First Nations victims of its discriminatory child welfare system</a> and to fund long-term reform of both the First Nations Child and Family Services and <a href="https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1568396042341/1568396159824">Jordan’s Principle</a> — a legal rule aiming to ensure equitable access to public services for First Nations children. </p>
<p>The agreements-in-principle were reached following nearly two months of negotiations between the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, the Assembly of First Nations, the Chiefs of Ontario, the Nishnawbe Aski Nation and counsels for two class action cases — <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/lawsuit-first-nations-child-welfare-funding-1.5043795">Xavier Moushoom</a> and <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/zach-trout-watched-two-of-his-children-die-now-hes-fighting-canada-for-justice/">Zach Trout</a>. </p>
<p>As a researcher in public interest litigation and human rights, and one of the lawyers who represented the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society in its human rights case — which <a href="https://fncaringsociety.com/sites/default/files/2016_chrt_2_access_0.pdf">led to a historic victory in 2016 before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal</a> and affirmed the right to equality for more than 165,000 First Nations children — here’s what you need to know about the agreements.</p>
<h2>What’s in the agreements?</h2>
<p>The agreements represent a commitment of the concerned parties to work together to agree on the details to compensate First Nations children and their caregivers who were harmed by Canada’s discriminatory conduct. They also include a commitment to develop and put in place long-term reforms to end ongoing racial discrimination. </p>
<p>One agreement includes $20 billion in compensation for First Nations children on-reserve and in the Yukon who were removed from their homes by child and family services agencies between April 1, 1991, and March 31, 2022. </p>
<p>It includes compensation for those who were impacted by the government’s narrow definition of Jordan’s Principle between Dec. 12, 2007, and Nov. 2, 2017, and for children who did not receive or were delayed receiving an essential public service or product between April 1, 1991, and Dec. 11, 2007. </p>
<p>The other agreement includes approximately $20 billion for long-term reform of the <a href="https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1100100035204/1533307858805">First Nations Child and Family Services Program</a>. These reforms include additional resources to develop and implement prevention initiatives that will help children and families stay together, and could be implemented as early as April of this year.</p>
<h2>Legal basis for the agreements-in-principle</h2>
<p>The compensation and the long-term reform in the agreements aim to address a historic decision made by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT), which found that <a href="https://cwrp.ca/canadian-human-rights-tribunal-first-nations-child-welfare">Canada was racially discriminating against First Nations children and their families</a> on the basis of their race, ethnic and/or national origin, contrary to <a href="https://cwrp.ca/sites/default/files/publications/What%20Are%20The%20Canadian%20Human%20Rights%20Commission%E2%80%99s%20Main%20Arguments%20Before%20The%20Tribunal.pdf">Sec. 5 of the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA)</a>. </p>
<p>In particular, the CHRT found that Canada’s funding and provision of welfare services create incentives for taking children into state care, and perpetuate disadvantages historically suffered by First Nations Peoples in Canada. </p>
<p>The CHRT also found that Canada was applying Jordan’s Principle too narrowly and in a manner that caused First Nations children to be denied equitable public services. Shockingly, Canada chose not to comply with the legally binding decision and the tribunal was required <a href="https://fncaringsociety.com/fr/non-compliance-orders">to issue more than a dozen non-compliance orders</a> that detailed the precise measures the government must take to reduce the harmful impacts of discrimination against First Nations children and their families. </p>
<p>In one of the non-compliance orders, the CHRT described Canada’s discrimination against First Nations children as a “<a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/canada-first-nations-reveal-details-of-40b-draft-deals-to-settle-child-welfare-claims/">worst-case scenario</a>” under the CHRA and found its conduct to be wilful and reckless. </p>
<p>The Federal Court of Canada agreed with the CHRT and found its conclusions to be reasonable. In dismissing Canada’s judicial reviews, the Federal Court also urged Canada to act now to remedy this unprecedented discrimination in order to fix its damaged relationships with Indigenous Peoples in Canada.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three women stand together holding signs that read 'show your support' and 'love first nations youth'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439530/original/file-20220105-23-145c3um.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439530/original/file-20220105-23-145c3um.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439530/original/file-20220105-23-145c3um.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439530/original/file-20220105-23-145c3um.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439530/original/file-20220105-23-145c3um.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439530/original/file-20220105-23-145c3um.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439530/original/file-20220105-23-145c3um.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cindy Blackstock, executive director of First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, attends the 2017 National Day of Action on First Nations Child Welfare on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why compensation, long-term reform are key</h2>
<p>While no amount of money can remedy the harm suffered by First Nations children as a result of Canada’s discrimination, compensation is an essential element to recognizing the human rights violations they have experienced. </p>
<p>As emphasized by the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/truthjusticereparation/pages/index.aspx">UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence</a>, compensation allows “<a href="https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/42/45">victims to gain trust in the State, to be acknowledged as rights holders, and, potentially, to be empowered</a>.” </p>
<p>The compensation is also important for the government of Canada — the perpetrator — because it demonstrates that it understands its conduct was wrong. The compensation helps promote accountability. </p>
<p>Most importantly, the long-term reform of child welfare services for First Nations children and the implementation of Jordan’s Principle is required to put an end to Canada’s ongoing discrimination. </p>
<p>As affirmed to Marie Wilson (one of the three commissioners for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada) during the course of litigation, the harms experienced by children today when removed from their families, homes and communities <a href="https://fncaringsociety.com/sites/default/files/honouring_infosheet_june_7_2021_en_accessible.pdf">are comparable to the experiences of those who attended residential schools</a>. </p>
<p>All of this is necessary to ensure that no other generation of First Nations children will be harmed by Canada’s discriminatory conduct.</p>
<h2>What still needs to be done?</h2>
<p>As <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa-reaches-40-billion-agreement-to-reform-indigenous-child-welfare/">emphasized by Cindy Blackstock</a>, executive director of First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, the agreements are for now non-binding, and important discussions still need to occur in 2022. Success must be measured by the actual impact on the lives of First Nations children. </p>
<p>While the agreements were reached in response to a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/first-nations-child-welfare-agreements-in-principle-1.6302636">15-year legal battle against Canada</a>, these legal victories would not have been possible without the support of Canadians. After the <a href="https://theconversation.com/honour-those-found-at-residential-schools-by-respecting-the-human-rights-of-first-nations-children-today-163643">graves of children who died in Indian Residential Schools were found</a>, countless Canadians stood in solidarity with Indigenous communities and demanded the government not repeat mistakes of the past. </p>
<p>This year, public support will be needed more than ever to ensure that the spirit of the agreement is respected and translated into meaningful change for First Nations children. <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fct/doc/2011/2011fc810/2011fc810.html?searchUrlHash=AAAAAQAOIGxldmVzcXVlIGFwdG4AAAAAAQ&resultIndex=1">As stated by a survivor of Canada’s discriminatory child welfare system</a>, there will be a brighter future for First Nations children if the injustices they experienced will no longer be ignored and their stories are heard.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174442/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Levesque is one of the pro bono lawyers representing the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society in its ongoing litigation against Canada before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. She also provided assistance to Sarah Clarke and David Taylor, the Caring Society's lawyers in the negotiations leading to the agreement. </span></em></p>In the next year, public support will be needed more than ever to ensure that the spirit of the agreement is respected and translated into meaningful change for First Nations children.Anne Levesque, Assistant professor, Faculty of Law, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1716662021-11-18T02:55:15Z2021-11-18T02:55:15ZFirst Nations kids make up about 20% of missing children, but get a fraction of the media coverage<p>In Australia, on average, 48 young people under the age of 18 <a href="https://www.afp.gov.au/what-we-do/campaigns/international-missing-childrens-day-campaign">go missing every day</a>. </p>
<p>While First Nations young people make up <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/australias-children/contents/background/australian-children-and-their-families">less than 6%</a> of the Australian population under the age of 18, they comprise around <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-07/time-to-talk-about-missing-indigenous-children-after-cleo-smith/100598810">20% of missing children</a>. </p>
<p>In reality, this rate is likely higher, with information on cultural identity often missing in national <a href="https://www.missingpersons.gov.au/sites/default/files/Children__Youth_Missing_From_OOHC%20%28002%29.pdf">missing persons data</a>.</p>
<p>Despite this over-representation in missing person cases, these cases rarely make national, let alone international, headlines.</p>
<p>News coverage of police and community coming together to solve the disappearances and deaths of white children, however, frequently make the front pages and capture the nation. We have been reminded of this again in recent weeks.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-discovery-of-indigenous-childrens-bodies-in-canada-is-horrific-but-australia-has-similar-tragedies-its-yet-to-reckon-with-164706">The discovery of Indigenous children's bodies in Canada is horrific, but Australia has similar tragedies it's yet to reckon with</a>
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<h2>The silence on missing First Nations children</h2>
<p>The disappearance of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_William_Tyrrell">William Tyrrell</a> garnered national attention in 2014, and is dominating <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=william+tyrrell+latest&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwigi_HanKD0AhXJldgFHV3UBocQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1920&bih=969&dpr=1">the news</a> once again at the moment. </p>
<p>The recent <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-03/cleo-smith-case-defies-child-abduction-patterns-stuns-experts/100591894">disappearance of Cleo Smith</a> in Western Australia also dominated news coverage for weeks. Cleo was <a href="https://inqld.com.au/news/2021/11/03/all-our-own-work-wa-police-hailed-for-stunning-rescue-of-cleo-smith/">found alive</a> after 18 days of dedicated police work and media coverage, the offering of a $1 million reward and over a thousand community calls to Crime Stoppers. These are ideal responses to missing children reports. </p>
<p>Eight years earlier, 10-month-old First Nations boy Charles Mullaley was abducted and killed in Western Australia. He is affectionately known as “Baby Charlie”. His abduction and his family’s journey for justice have received very little <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/western-australia/enormous-support-for-inquest-into-charlie-mullaleys-brutal-murder/news-story/013df03a769386cb5beb1c4120d870a4">police commitment</a>. The family is <a href="https://thewest.com.au/news/crime/family-of-baby-charlie-still-waiting-for-inquest-eight-years-after-he-was-raped-and-murdered-by-mervyn-bell-ng-b881868947z">still waiting</a> for the government’s commitment to a public inquest.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2021/09/23/not-forgotten-ongoing-fight-solve-bowraville-murders">Bowraville murders</a> of three First Nations children received the same lack of urgency in media coverage and police response. The Bowraville case has remained unsolved since 1991. </p>
<p>This raises the question, has anything changed in the last 30 years? </p>
<p>It should not be the responsibility of a grieving family to seek justice and answers when law enforcement fails. It is a community and government responsibility to award the same attention, empathy and mobilisation of resources to bring home <em>all</em> missing children, or at the very least bring closure to their families, regardless of their cultural identity.</p>
<p>First Nations children are also <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/3b3a1719-bd84-46c8-9065-39b6228c097a/17194.pdf.aspx?inline=true">over-represented</a> in assault and homicide cases in Australia, along with suicides. Yet, these also rarely make headlines or generate public outcry.</p>
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<h2>Missing women also receive little attention</h2>
<p>Like children, First Nations women are far more likely to experience <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-qanda-are-indigenous-women-34-80-times-more-likely-than-average-to-experience-violence-61809">violence-related injuries and deaths</a> than non-Indigenous women.</p>
<p>First Nations women are also over-represented in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-08/australian-indigenous-women-are-overrepresented-missing-persons/11699974?nw=0&r=Video">missing persons statistics</a>, yet their disappearances receive little media attention compared to the disappearances and deaths of white women. This discrepancy was coined the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/29/the-missing-white-woman-syndrome-still-plagues-america">missing white woman syndrome</a>” by American journalist Gwen Ifill in 2004. </p>
<p>This phenomenon has repeatedly been raised as an issue requiring national attention in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-09/linda-burney-wants-senate-inquiry-into-missing-indigenous-women/11773992">Australia</a>, <a href="http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/IndigLawB/2017/27.pdf">Canada</a>, and the <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/11/06/gabby-petito-brian-laundrie/">United States</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-just-black-matter-australias-indifference-to-aboriginal-lives-and-land-85168">We just Black matter: Australia's indifference to Aboriginal lives and land</a>
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<h2>A bigger social problem at hand</h2>
<p>All of this points to a persistent, broader societal problem of who is perceived to be an <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0269758021993339">ideal victim</a>.</p>
<p>Police, media and community responses frequently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/16/how-the-media-fails-aboriginal-aspirations">reinforce</a> <a href="https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/iipj/vol5/iss1/5/">negative stereotypes</a> of First Nations peoples. </p>
<p>For example, the media occasionally cover <a href="https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wa/kalgoorlie-riot-city-tense-after-day-of-riots-mourning-elijah-doughty-14-ng-0be29de05a2fbcbfad389cff289d5a91">community unrest</a> arising from lack of justice for missing or killed First Nations children. This further fuels negative stereotypes of Indigenous people as unruly. However, there remains a lack of coverage about the missing children themselves, which would provide context for why community unrest happens to begin with. </p>
<p>The stereotypical representation of First Nations people as the “ideal offender”, rather than the “ideal victim”, also creates a lack of empathy for victims of violence. This is particularly true for those with <a href="https://oxfordre.com/criminology/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264079-e-666">complex issues</a>, including mental health problems, being intoxicated at the time of police contact, or being known to authorities for past police or child protection contact. </p>
<p>As a result, their experiences are “<a href="https://junkee.com/inquiry-murdered-indigenous-women/312611">othered</a>” and their credibility as a victim or family worthy of empathy and support is <a href="https://www.deathscapes.org/case-studies/indigenous-femicide-and-the-killing-state-in-progress/">diminished</a>. </p>
<p>Their interactions with police are frequently met with <a href="https://womenslegal.org.au/files/file/WLSV%20Policy%20Brief%201%20MisID%20July%202018.pdf">disbelief or blame for causing the situation</a>, such as when seeking help for family violence and other welfare concerns. </p>
<p>This means their calls for help to police are at times dismissed, as was experienced first-hand by <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/western-australia/enormous-support-for-inquest-into-charlie-mullaleys-brutal-murder/news-story/013df03a769386cb5beb1c4120d870a4">Baby Charlie’s family</a> when WA police did not assist with ensuring his safety. Advocates have raised other <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/06/cleo-smith-search-ends-in-joy-but-what-of-australias-other-missing-children">examples</a> of missing First Nations children being dismissed by police or police refusing to intervene</p>
<p>Instead, First Nations communities often have to be the ones to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/06/cleo-smith-search-ends-in-joy-but-what-of-australias-other-missing-children">call for justice</a>, as has been done with <a href="https://www.change.org/p/justiceforbabycharlie-our-little-angel-deserved-better">this petition</a> calling for an inquest and investigation into Baby Charlie’s death. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cleo-smith-has-been-gone-almost-a-week-why-missing-children-cases-grip-the-nation-170363">Cleo Smith has been gone almost a week. Why missing children cases grip the nation</a>
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<h2>What needs to happen?</h2>
<p>It is time for an independent national inquiry similar to the one launched into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in <a href="http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/IndigLawB/2017/27.pdf">Canada</a>. </p>
<p>It is time for Australia to treat the disappearances and deaths of First Nations children (and adults) with the same priority and urgency we see for cases involving white children.</p>
<p>The first step towards greater equality and humanity in the treatment of First Nations deaths and disappearances – by the media, police and general public - is to address our subconscious and actual biases around who is an ideal victim worthy of our attention. </p>
<p>We need to stop othering the experiences of First Nations people and families. Only then will we ensure that Black lives matter – not just the lives of those who manage to present well during times of crises.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171666/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Silke Meyer currently receives funding from Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS), the Australian Institute of Criminology, the Victorian Law Foundation and the Department of Social Services. She is a former non-government member of the Queensland Domestic ad Family Violence Death Review and Advisory Board. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samantha Wild receives funding from Department of Justice and Attorney General. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wynetta Dewis receives government funding for Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service (QIFVLS).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eugene Hyman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>First Nations young people make up around 20% of missing children in Australia. However, these cases rarely make national, let alone international headlines.Silke Meyer, Associate Professor in Crimninology; Deputy Dircetor Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre, Monash UniversityEugene Hyman, Adjunct professor, Santa Clara UniversitySamantha Wild, Director for consultancy business Awakening - Cultural Ways, Indigenous KnowledgeWynetta Dewis, CEO at Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service, Indigenous KnowledgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1647062021-07-30T02:29:26Z2021-07-30T02:29:26ZThe discovery of Indigenous children’s bodies in Canada is horrific, but Australia has similar tragedies it’s yet to reckon with<p><em><strong>Content warning: This article contains distressing information on Stolen Generations and residential schools.</strong></em></p>
<p>When I read that the bodies of 215 children had been found in unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan, Turtle Island (Canada), my heart ached for these children and the First Nation’s communities they belong to. </p>
<p>Weeks later, the Cowessess First Nation announced they had also found the remains of 751 people, mostly children, at the former Marieval Indian Residential School using ground-penetrating radar. </p>
<p>The residential school system in Canada was a tool of cultural genocide that worked explicitly through the forced removal of children and young people from their families. The impact of policies that enabled this to happen have been felt by generations of Métis, Inuit and First Nations peoples. The last school closed in 1996.</p>
<p>As the tally of bodies found in unmarked graves continues to grow, residential school survivors warn this is just the beginning. </p>
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<p>The experiences of Indigenous children and communities in Canada are resonant with those of young First Peoples and children in Australia. These experiences also include the separation of children from their families in an attempt to assimilate and erase us as Aboriginal peoples.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/honour-those-found-at-residential-schools-by-respecting-the-human-rights-of-first-nations-children-today-163643">Honour those found at residential schools by respecting the human rights of First Nations children today</a>
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<h2>Residential schools: a tool of cultural genocide</h2>
<p>In 1920, Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Minister of [Indigenous] Affairs, <a href="https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Volume_1_History_Part_1_English_Web.pdf">stated</a>:</p>
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<p>I want to get rid of the Indian problem […] our object is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed.</p>
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<p>Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) scholar Dr Beverley Jacobs, in calling for the deaths of these children to be investigated as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-lawyer-investigate-discovery-of-215-childrens-graves-in-kamloops-as-a-crime-against-humanity-161941">crime against humanity</a>, says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What happened to Indigenous children is genocide, and the legacy of that continues through denial and inaction.</p>
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<p>It’s estimated over <a href="http://www.trc.ca/assets/pdf/Honouring_the_Truth_Reconciling_for_the_Future_July_23_2015.pdf">150,000 Indigenous children across Canada were forcibly taken</a> from their families and interned in residential schools. These schools were established in an attempt to “civilise” and assimilate Indigenous peoples. </p>
<p>This process saw children taken from their families and often punished for speaking language and practising culture. </p>
<p>As I held my own daughter close, the uncovering of the remains of these precious children on Turtle Island prompted me to reflect on the survival of First Peoples in the face of ongoing legacies of colonial violence back here in Australia.</p>
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<h2>Indigenous child removal in Australia</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/bringing-them-home-report-1997">Bringing Them Home</a> report tabled in parliament in 1997 presented a national investigation into these removals and concluded:</p>
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<p>between one in three and one in ten Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities in the period from approximately 1910 until 1970.</p>
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<p>Drawing on the testimonies of Stolen Generation survivors, the Report also found:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Subsequent generations continue to suffer the effects of parents and grandparents having been forcibly removed, institutionalised, denied contact with their Aboriginality and in some cases traumatised and abused.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This trauma and abuse occurred at <a href="https://healingfoundation.org.au/map-stolen-generations-institutions/">places</a> like the former <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-back-to-moore-river-and-finding-family-107522">Moore River Native Settlement</a> north of Perth, Western Australia which became a Methodist Mission in 1951.</p>
<p>Research revealed in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-26/moore-river-aboriginal-settlement-journey-into-hell-on-earth/9790658?nw=0">2018</a> 374 people buried in largely unmarked graves at the site, a majority of which were children, had died of treatable respiratory and infectious diseases. </p>
<p>Moore River settlement was the subject of the Australian film <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/movie/rabbit-proof-fence/84673091819">Rabbit Proof Fence</a> which depicted the true story of three girls who escaped the deplorable conditions at Moore River, despite the real possibility of tortuous punishment, and walked almost 2,500 kilometres north in search of their family.</p>
<p>While the story of Molly, Daisy and Gracie’s escape and survival in this film is exceptional, their experience of violence and removal under policies of assimilation is not. It is but one example of the way many Indigenous children and young people were, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/17/the-stolen-generations-never-ended-they-just-morphed-into-child-protection">continue to be</a>, treated.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-children-are-leaving-out-of-home-care-to-uncertain-futures-this-is-the-support-they-need-143906">Indigenous children are leaving out-of-home care to uncertain futures. This is the support they need</a>
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<h2>Seeking truth and justice</h2>
<p>The recently inaugurated Victorian <a href="https://www.firstpeoplesvic.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Letters-Patent-Yoo-rrook-Justice-Commission_0.pdf">Yoo-rrook Justice Commission</a> will shepherd Australia’s first ever formal truth telling process. </p>
<p>Part of Yoo-rrook’s mandate is to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>investigate both historical and ongoing injustices committed against Aboriginal Victorians since colonisation by the State and non-State entities, across all areas of social, political and economic life.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This mandate also extends to establishing “an official public record based on First Peoples’ experiences of Systemic Injustice since the start of Colonisation.”</p>
<p>Given the focus of Yoo-rrook, it’s only a matter of time before, as Melbourne-based Ballardong/Nyoongar artist Dianne Jones’ stated in her 2013 exhibition – <a href="https://www.lindenarts.org/exhibitions/linden-new-art/what-lies-buried-rises/">what lies buried rises</a>. In making these artworks, Jones asked: </p>
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<p>Whose crimes are subject to investigation? Whose grief constructs memorials? Whose deaths matter?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In repeating Jones’ questions here, I do not ask them of First Peoples. Rather, I share Jones’ words as a prompt for non-Indigenous, and particularly white, settler Australians. These people may not yet have an informed understanding of the violent past of this continent and how this violence continues to reverberate in the present.</p>
<p>These reverberations have been endured by First Peoples for centuries now. </p>
<p>As Yoo-rrook begins it’s important work, and First Peoples in other States and Territories continue to demand truth and justice, like in Turtle Island, what’s buried will continue to rise and demand justice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164706/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lilly Brown does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The recent discovery of the bodies of Indigenous children being found in Canada reminds us of the dark history of Australia’s treatment of young First Peoples and children here in Australia.Lilly Brown, Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1636432021-07-11T12:28:52Z2021-07-11T12:28:52ZHonour those found at residential schools by respecting the human rights of First Nations children today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409973/original/file-20210706-17-l4r0l4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5419%2C3349&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Margot King, age four, touches an orange flag, representing children who died at Indian Residential Schools in Canada, placed in the grass at Major's Hill Park in Ottawa, on July 1, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The discovery of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57325653">more than 1,000 Indigenous children’s bodies</a> in unmarked graves at the site of former Indian Residential Schools has shocked Canada’s national conscience. And the tragic news has left many asking what can be done to honour the memories of the children.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/amid-more-shocking-residential-schools-discoveries-non-indigenous-people-must-take-action-161965">Amid more shocking residential schools discoveries, non-Indigenous people must take action</a>
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<p>When widespread human rights abuses occur — like those experienced by Indigenous children <a href="https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_residential_school_system/">in the Indian Residential School system</a> — states must at a minimum guarantee they will not happen again. </p>
<p>In this regard, the decisions of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal relating to <a href="https://fncaringsociety.com/sites/default/files/caring_society_afn_hr_complaint_2007.pdf">a complaint</a> lodged by the <a href="https://www.afn.ca/">Assembly of First Nations</a> and the <a href="https://fncaringsociety.com/welcome">First Nations Child and Family Caring Society</a> provide a roadmap for Canada to put an end to the ongoing cycle of discrimination that continues to harm First Nations children today. </p>
<p>Canadians who wish to pay tribute to the children who died at Indian Residential Schools should demand the government stop <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/06/14/this-fight-over-compensation-for-first-nation-kids-has-been-raging-for-14-years-on-monday-its-back-in-court-amid-calls-for-canada-to-just-do-the-right-thing.html">fighting First Nations children in court</a> and fully comply with the <a href="https://fncaringsociety.com/chrt-orders">huan rights tribunal decisions</a> aimed at not repeating the harms of the past. </p>
<h2>How ongoing litigation against First Nations children relates to those recently found</h2>
<p>Despite its obligation to ensure non-recurrence of human rights violations, Canada’s pattern of inequitably funding services to First Nations children continues today. </p>
<p>In 2016, <a href="https://fncaringsociety.com/sites/default/files/2016_chrt_2_access_0.pdf">the human rights tribunal found that Canada was racially discriminating against 165,000 First Nations children</a> by providing them with inequitable services. </p>
<p>Failing to act on this decision, <a href="https://fncaringsociety.com/chrt-orders">19 other non-compliance orders by the tribunal</a> and <a href="http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf">the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action</a> pertaining to child welfare services, Canada’s discriminatory conduct towards First Nations children is ongoing. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the government of Canada’s discrimination incentivizes the removal of First Nations children from their families, homes and communities rather than providing support for preventive, early intervention and minimally intrusive measures.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7983112/indigenous-family-separations-advocate/">more Indigenous children in state care today than there were at any time during the residential school era</a>. According to Marie Wilson, <a href="http://www.trc.ca/about-us/meet-the-commissioners.html">one of the three TRC commissioners</a>, the harms experienced by children today when removed from their families, homes and communities are <a href="https://fncaringsociety.com/sites/default/files/affidavit_1_of_marie_wilson_affirmed_december_18_2016.pdf">comparable to the experiences of those who attended residential schools</a>. </p>
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<img alt="People stand in front of parliament hill holding signs 'Show your support' and 'Love First Nations Youth'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409970/original/file-20210706-25-d6du6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409970/original/file-20210706-25-d6du6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409970/original/file-20210706-25-d6du6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409970/original/file-20210706-25-d6du6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409970/original/file-20210706-25-d6du6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409970/original/file-20210706-25-d6du6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409970/original/file-20210706-25-d6du6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Cindy Blackstock, executive director of First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, middle, attends the National Day of Action on First Nations Child Welfare on Parliament Hill in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
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<p>Canada’s discrimination against First Nations children continues to have fatal consequences. </p>
<p>In 2017, Wapekeka First Nation <a href="https://fncaringsociety.com/sites/default/files/affidavit_of_dr._michael_kirlew._final._sworn_january_27_2017reduced.pdf">wrote to Health Canada seeking funds to provide mental health services</a> when it learned about a suicide pact amongst children in the community. Health Canada <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/wapekeka-suicides-health-canada-1.3941439">ignored the request saying that it “came at an awkward time in the funding cycle</a>.” </p>
<p>That year, three 12-year-old girls from the community died by suicide. And according to the family physician for Wapekeka First Nation, these deaths could have been prevented had the girls received the mental health services they needed. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mental-health-impact-of-coronavirus-pandemic-hits-marginalized-groups-hardest-142127">Mental health impact of coronavirus pandemic hits marginalized groups hardest</a>
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<p>Since issuing its 2016 decision, the human rights tribunal has closely monitored Canada’s response to the various findings of discrimination against against First Nations children. </p>
<p>When Canada has shown itself to be either unable or unwilling to comply with the orders, the tribunal issued <a href="https://fncaringsociety.com/fr/non-compliance-orders">non-compliance orders</a> that detail the precise measures the government must take to reduce the harmful impacts of discrimination against First Nations children and their families. </p>
<p>Canada has contested most of these orders before the tribunal and <a href="https://fncaringsociety.com/sites/default/files/t-1621-19_t-1559-20_-_applicants_memorandum_of_fact_and_law_dated_march_12_2021.pdf">is now seeking to quash two of them before the Federal Court of Canada</a>. </p>
<p>The federal government has spent <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/indigenous-child-welfare-battle-heads-to-court-despite-calls-for-ottawa-to-drop-cases-1.5468405">millions of taxpayer dollars fighting First Nations children</a>, some of whom are the children and grandchildren of residential school survivors.</p>
<h2>Why is it important for Canada to compensate?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/chrt/doc/2019/2019chrt39/2019chrt39.html?searchUrlHash=AAAAAQANY29tcGVuc2F0aW9uIAAAAAAB&resultIndex=5">One of the decisions Canada is currently challenging</a> before the Federal Court requires Canada to compensate some of the First Nations children and their parents who were harmed by Canada’s discrimination - including those who were unnecessarily removed from their families and homes. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-lawyer-investigate-discovery-of-215-childrens-graves-in-kamloops-as-a-crime-against-humanity-161941">Indigenous lawyer: Investigate discovery of 215 children's graves in Kamloops as a crime against humanity</a>
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<p>The compensation order is one of the most important of the <a href="https://fncaringsociety.com/chrt-orders">20 decisions the human rights tribunal has issued</a> during this lengthy litigation. Why? </p>
<p>Though the tribunal properly noted no amount of money can ever recover what the victims have lost, the compensation aims to symbolically acknowledge the infringement of dignity that has occurred as a result. This is also an essential first step to restoring trust in the federal government — a vital element to reconciliation. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People hang a banner that says 'bring our children home'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409974/original/file-20210706-15-1ykezvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409974/original/file-20210706-15-1ykezvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409974/original/file-20210706-15-1ykezvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409974/original/file-20210706-15-1ykezvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409974/original/file-20210706-15-1ykezvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409974/original/file-20210706-15-1ykezvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409974/original/file-20210706-15-1ykezvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">People attach a banner where the statue of John A. MacDonald once stood during a gathering and march to honour Indigenous children in Montréal on July 1.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
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<p>A report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-reocurrence, emphasized that <a href="https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/30/42">compensating victims of human rights violations helps perpetrators understand what they did was wrong</a>. It also encourages Canada to cease its discriminatory behaviour. </p>
<p>The litigation process revealed that <a href="https://canlii.ca/t/j3n9j">Canada knew that it was under funding services for First Nations children</a> and was aware of its harmful impacts. Despite this, <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/chrt/doc/2016/2016chrt2/2016chrt2.html?searchUrlHash=AAAAAQAEMjAxNgAAAAAB&resultIndex=26">it intentionally chose to continue its behaviour</a> because it considered ceasing to do so was too expensive. </p>
<p>And even after Canada was found to be in breach of the Canadian Human Rights Act, <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/chrt/doc/2017/2017chrt14/2017chrt14.html?searchUrlHash=AAAAAQAZam9yZGFuJ3MgcHJpbmNpcGxlIG9wdGlvbgAAAAAB&resultIndex=2">internal documents reveal that it deliberately chose to disregard the human rights tribunal’s legally binding orders</a> because the cost of complying would have “far reaching resource implications.” </p>
<p>Simply put, Canada thinks respecting the human rights of First Nations children is not worth the money. </p>
<h2>What can be done today to honour the memories of those who died?</h2>
<p>The survivors of <a href="https://ctvnews.ca/canada/residential-school-survivors-share-their-stories-1.2403561">IRS shared their stories to the TRC</a> in hopes that their children and grandchildren would not experience the harms they did. </p>
<p>Canadians who wish to stand in solidarity with Indigenous communities that are mourning the loss of their children must demand the government not repeat the mistakes of the past. </p>
<p>This starts with urging the federal government to fully comply with all of the legally binding orders of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and demand the government stop fighting First Nations children in court.</p>
<p><em>If you are an Indian Residential School survivor, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163643/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Along with David Taylor, Sarah Clarke and David Wilson, Anne Levesque is one of the lawyers representing the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society on a pro bono basis in its litigation against the Government of Canada regarding its ongoing discrimination against 165,000 First Nations children and their families. </span></em></p>Canadians who wish to pay tribute to the children who died at Indian Residential Schools should demand the government stop fighting First Nations children in court.Anne Levesque, Assistant professor, Faculty of Law, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1619682021-06-04T19:00:28Z2021-06-04T19:00:28ZWhy many Canadians don’t seem to care about the lasting effects of residential schools<p>Shock swept across the country as many Canadians learned that the remains of an estimated 215 children were found at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. </p>
<p>For Indigenous people, the tragic discovery didn’t come as a surprise — thousands of Indigenous children never came home from residential schools and their <a href="http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2015/trc/IR4-9-4-2015-eng.pdf">whereabouts remain unknown</a>. </p>
<p>As a settler researcher who studies how we acknowledge the past and build ties between communities, what I find surprising is that many of us continue to be shocked. </p>
<h2>Tip of the iceberg</h2>
<p>The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) concluded <a href="http://www.trc.ca/events-and-projects/missing-children-project.html">that more than 4,100 children</a> died while attending a residential school, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-survivors-of-residential-schools-share-their-stories-call-on-the">but that figure</a> is <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/up-to-6-000-children-may-have-died-at-canada-s-residential-schools-1.2399586">a conservative estimate</a>. </p>
<p>We may never know the true figures.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijs034">The violence of residential schools is like a slice across the spectrum</a> of the Indigenous–settler relationship,” writes transitional justice scholar Rosemary Nagy. By taking children from their families, and in the physical and psychological abuses carried out there, residential schools were an integral aspect of broader policies that enacted violences and harms — many of which meet the legal definition of genocide — that were carried out and continue to be carried out against Indigenous people every day. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-hypocrisy-recognizing-genocide-except-its-own-against-indigenous-peoples-162128">Canada's hypocrisy: Recognizing genocide except its own against Indigenous peoples</a>
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<p>But the residential school system was also <em>one among many</em> systems of violences and harms. Residential schools represent the tip of the iceberg. Seeing the iceberg <a href="https://troymedia.com/viewpoint/indigenous-apartheid-system-canada/#.YLl9b_lKjIU">has been made deliberately difficult</a> because our society has been <a href="https://btlbooks.com/book/race-space-and-the-law">planned, designed and legislated</a> to make those abuses and their effects invisible, and render Indigenous lives inconsequential to settlers’ lives.</p>
<p>In this context, the broad picture of how residential schools relate to larger colonial violence has never been adequately explained to us. Only very recently, since the TRC, have provinces and territories begun to include the history of residential schools in curriculum. But CBC reports that “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/indigenous-content-school-curriculums-trc-1.5300580">not all of it is mandatory, nor is it extensive</a>.”</p>
<p>Also, in part, it’s that <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/01/28/opinion/lynn-beyak-retired-residential-school-denial-barrier-reconciliation">many of us (settlers) choose not to see it</a>. Because it makes us uncomfortable.</p>
<h2>Connect the dots</h2>
<p>Many people living across what we now call Canada know a little bit about residential schools, or problems like <a href="https://theconversation.com/tip-of-the-iceberg-the-true-state-of-drinking-water-advisories-in-first-nations-156190">persistent unclean drinking water</a> in Indigenous communities. </p>
<p>But Canadians remain unable or unwilling to connect the dots — the unifying factor <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/21-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-indian-act-1.3533613">being the Indian Act</a>, a piece of federal legislation designed to <a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/733435?ln=en">control every aspect of the lives</a> of Indigenous people living in Canada. </p>
<p>The Indian Act determines whether and if funding is allocated to Indigenous communities for water systems, housing, health care, and so on, and has the power to deny those communities even the basics.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dear-white-people-wake-up-canada-is-racist-83124">Dear white people, wake up: Canada is racist</a>
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<p>But many people remain unaware that the physical, sexual and psychological abuse that many Indigenous children suffered at the <a href="https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/4407/">state-mandated</a> and <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools">church-run</a> Indian Residential Schools left deep scars that still have not been healed. </p>
<p>Unless and until people connect those realities, so that the links between harms are joined, it is hard to see the wide and dangerous scope of those harms as a whole.</p>
<h2>Recognize harms</h2>
<p>My recent book, <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/16236.html"><em>Thin Sympathy: A Strategy to Thicken Transitional Justice</em></a> examines the failure of deeply divided societies to acknowledge the past. Based on my research that looks at how Uganda has failed to come to terms with its own horrific past, it is clear that the path to reconciliation must be paved with a recognition of harm and abuse. That work demonstrates Canadians too need help to build an understanding of the basic facts about specific harms in Canada. </p>
<p>Settler people across Canada need to change the broader social ethos to allow the work of coming to terms with the past, and our role in all of it, to start. </p>
<p>As a country, we need to embark on a process to understand what has happened. And despite the best efforts of the TRC and the <a href="https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/">Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls</a>, across the country, people en masse have largely failed to take up these efforts. </p>
<p>Because we fail to admit to what has taken place, and consequently feel no urgency to address these harms, the calls made by both the TRC and MMIWG Inquiry <a href="https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform-single/beyond-94?&cta=1">have overwhelmingly not yet been implemented</a>.</p>
<h2>Legal obligation, moral imperative</h2>
<p>Here’s the thing: My research suggests people across the country only need to understand the <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/16236.html">basics</a> of what happened and the consequences of those harms. </p>
<p>That knowledge should be enough to allow non-Indigenous people in Canada to take stock of their own particular circumstances and realities, support the hard work that needs to be done and encourage them to take part in building new relationships. </p>
<p>Indigenous communities <a href="https://yellowheadinstitute.org/resources/transitioning-from-the-indian-act-to-the-rights-framework-2/">have put a lot of time and thought into re-thinking the Indian Act</a>, and proposing solutions for the way forward. The rest of the country needs to catch up. </p>
<p>In consultation with Indigenous communities, Canada needs <a href="https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_white_paper_1969">to listen to what communities say</a> and make needed changes. </p>
<p>Real equality and respect for Indigenous people and their rights are <a href="https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/constitution_act_1982_section_35">legal obligations</a> and moral imperatives. </p>
<p>Making them a reality is what will lead to reconciliation, and that can only come once our country takes the time to understand the <a href="https://btlbooks.com/book/unsettling-canada">harms that continue</a> to <a href="https://twitter.com/CBCTheNational/status/1399870197620785152">affect Indigenous communities</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-road-to-reconciliation-starts-with-the-un-declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples-122305">The road to reconciliation starts with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples</a>
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<p>The benefit of an increased awareness of what has taken place will make Canadians more open to participate in the change-making that is needed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People stand outside at a memorial wearing face masks with a range of sad, stunned and exhausted emotion on their faces." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404553/original/file-20210604-10042-ked8cl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C545%2C5350%2C2896&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404553/original/file-20210604-10042-ked8cl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404553/original/file-20210604-10042-ked8cl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404553/original/file-20210604-10042-ked8cl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404553/original/file-20210604-10042-ked8cl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404553/original/file-20210604-10042-ked8cl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404553/original/file-20210604-10042-ked8cl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">People gather in Edmonton in recognition of the discovery of children’s remains at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson</span></span>
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<h2>Start now</h2>
<p>Campaigns to do this need to start now. </p>
<p>These efforts can be undertaken by government and community groups, non-governmental organizations and individuals.</p>
<p>At the government level, it could involve changing the curriculum in schools, establishing a commission of inquiry and openly implementing the TRC’s <a href="http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf">Calls to Action</a>.</p>
<p>At the “informal” or non-government level, it could involve expert panels established by scholarly organizations like the Royal Society of Canada. It could mean dramas <a href="https://www.nfb.ca/film/nipawistamasowin-we-will-stand-up/">or films</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055409990128">TV and radio programs</a>, and newspaper and digital media campaigns that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/105960117700200317">spell out the total scope and effects of these damaging systems plainly</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://activehistory.ca/2017/08/150-acts-of-reconciliation-for-the-last-150-days-of-canadas-150">Individuals could</a> make <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/un-calls-canada-prompt-exhaustive-investigations-1.6049912">a difference in</a> many ways.</p>
<p><em>The Globe and Mail</em> recently ran the headline, “<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-indigenous-leaders-call-for-national-reckoning-after-childrens-remains/">Indigenous leaders say discovery of children’s remains at Kamloops residential school is beginning of national reckoning</a>.”</p>
<p>And while I would like to hope so, it’s going to take a lot of conversations to make that happen. <a href="https://activehistory.ca/2017/08/150-acts-of-reconciliation-for-the-last-150-days-of-canadas-150">Non-Indigenous people here in Canada need to roll up our sleeves</a> and <a href="http://www.trc.ca/about-us/trc-findings.html">get down to work to consciously understand the harms and violences</a> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/mmiwg-action-plan-nfsc-1.6050824">that continue to hurt</a> Indigenous people across the country — and do something to rectify it.</p>
<p><em>If you are an Indian Residential School survivor, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161968/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanna R. Quinn receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. In the past, she has received funding from the United States Institute of Peace.</span></em></p>Canadians need to understand the basic harms and violences that continue to be experienced by Indigenous people across the land we call Canada.Joanna R. Quinn, Associate Professor, Political Science and Director of the Centre for Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1617822021-06-01T23:17:48Z2021-06-01T23:17:48ZNo longer ‘the disappeared’: Mourning the 215 children found in graves at Kamloops Indian Residential School<p><strong><em>Content warning: This piece contains distressing details about Indian Residential Schools</em></strong></p>
<p>A macabre part of Canada’s hidden history made headlines last week after <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/tk-eml%C3%BAps-te-secw%C3%A9pemc-215-children-former-kamloops-indian-residential-school-1.6043778">ground-penetrating radar located the remains of 215 First Nations children</a> in unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. </p>
<p>Like <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/what-we-know-about-how-many-children-died-at-canada-s-residential-schools-1.5450277">150,000 Indigenous children that were taken from their families and nations and placed in residential schools</a>, the 215 bodies of children, some as young as three, located in Tk’emlúps were part of a larger colonial program to liquidate Indigenous nations of their histories, culture and foreclose on any future. To do this, Canada put into motion a system to “<a href="https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_residential_school_system/">kill the Indian in the child</a>.” </p>
<p>This system often killed the child. </p>
<p>While we currently have no evidence to determine the cause of death for each child, we know that they died a political death — these children were <em>the disappeared</em>.</p>
<h2>Colonial population management projects</h2>
<p><a href="https://tkemlups.ca/wp-content/uploads/05-May-27-2021-TteS-MEDIA-RELEASE.pdf">The chilling discovery in Tk’emlúps</a> reminds us of the larger project of aggressive assimilation. </p>
<p>Indian Residential Schools <a href="https://nctr.ca/">were centres for state-directed violence against Indigenous nations</a>, where the children — the heirs of Indigenous nations — were programmatically stripped of their <em>Indianness</em>. </p>
<p>Indigenous lives were broken down, sterilized of any trace of the gifts inherited from their parents and ancestors and re-packaged into Canadian bodies.</p>
<p>The brute nation-making scheme of the Canadian state looked to the existing <a href="https://www.facinghistory.org/stolen-lives-indigenous-peoples-canada-and-indian-residential-schools/chapter-3/role-churches">infrastructure laid down by the prominent Christian churches</a>. The churches were involved in population management almost from the moment of contact between European Crowns and Indigenous nations. The Catholic Church, <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/look-canadas-indian-residential-schools-numbers/">which would go on to operate about 60 per cent of these schools</a>, was a hawkish occupier. </p>
<p>Like branch plants in a vast production scheme, the state made good use of the extensive church network to co-ordinate the extraction of raw material—Indigenous children.</p>
<p>But the revelation of a disposal site for children — unrecorded and hidden — on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School tells us that the regulation of Indigenous life extended into death. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white photo of dozens of Indigenous boys and girls lined up in front of the school while a row of church and school officials sit in the front of the picture." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403862/original/file-20210601-17-75978.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403862/original/file-20210601-17-75978.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403862/original/file-20210601-17-75978.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403862/original/file-20210601-17-75978.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403862/original/file-20210601-17-75978.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403862/original/file-20210601-17-75978.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403862/original/file-20210601-17-75978.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1937 photograph of the Kamloops Indian Residential School.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Archdiocese of Vancouver Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The politics of death and mourning</h2>
<p>A fact many Indigenous people understand is that life’s benefits and burdens are <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-in-the-past-colonialism-is-rooted-in-the-present-157395">shot through the colonial prism</a>. As we go through life, we quickly learn that the weight of history’s finger is pressing firmly on the scale. </p>
<p>What is often overlooked is how that uneven distribution in life carries on through death.</p>
<p>Just as in life, <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/june-2019/why-are-the-deaths-of-indigenous-women-and-girls-ungrievable/">how Indigenous death is mourned and remembered has been a matter of political control</a>. The Canadian state, in partnership with the churches, has long unilaterally assumed sovereignty over Indigenous mortality and bereavement. </p>
<p>Nowhere is this more apparent than <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/laurenstrapagiel/indigenous-residential-schools-canada-graves">the atrocity at Tk’emlúps which has sharpened this for many Indigenous nations</a>, as we see how the Catholic church not only denied these children the capacity to shape the means of and choose the ends of their life, but also they denied their communities control over their death.</p>
<p>In Tk’emlúps, the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/survivors-faith-leaders-call-on-catholic-church-to-take-responsibility-for-residential-schools-1.6048077">Catholic church decided that neither their lives nor their deaths were worthy of being known</a>, remembered and commemorated.</p>
<p>One of the more appalling acts by the Catholic church in Tk’emlúps was how the children were deliberately forgotten; they were <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/feds-stopped-keeping-track-of-children-who-died-in-residential-schools-probably-because-rates-were-so-high">omitted from the official records that would verify their passing</a>. </p>
<p>Documentation of death may seem clinical and lacking the human touch, but for some it has become <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/understanding-grief/201709/ambiguous-loss">crucial to contemporary remembrance</a>. It is one way, of many culturally divergent methods, of confirming death and allowing the dead to have a social afterlife with the living. The painful void that lingers is what researcher Pauline Boss called <em>ambiguous loss</em>, “<a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/ec2f44692d0bfd26dd01c9f2013b88a2/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41036">a loss that remains unclear because there is no death certificate or official verification of loss; there is no resolution, no closure</a>.”</p>
<p>The memory of the person and their remains may strike us as two separate matters, but they are intimately connected in many cultures. </p>
<p>Not unlike Catholicism, the material <a href="https://www.cpd.utoronto.ca/endoflife/Slides/PPT%20Indigenous%20Perspectives.pdf">body figures centrally amongst many Indigenous rites and ceremonies</a> that cultivate social continuity with the dead.
Matthew Engelke, who studies the anthropology of death, tells us that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“(W)hat commemoration often involves is much more than remembering the dead. It requires a serious engagement with the things that ghosts and ancestors want: a proper burial, a pot of beer, a feast, money, a fitting grave-stone, the blood of a reindeer, the blood of kin.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The truth about <em>the disappeared</em></h2>
<p>The truth about the atrocity at Tk’emlúps escaped examination during the <a href="http://www.trc.ca/">Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)</a>. In the weeks before the TRC launched in 2008, the Catholic church was confronted with the allegations of a mass grave. Back then, <a href="https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/news/claims-of-mass-grave-at-tk-emlups-go-back-years-1.24324160">the church denied any knowledge</a>. </p>
<p>Until their remains were recently located, the Catholic church was content to leave 215 children as ‘disappeared.’ </p>
<p><em>The disappeared</em> — those that have been secretly disposed — produce a unique grieving. They leave families and communities in a state of suspended mourning, never sure whether their loved one is alive or dead, or where their remains have been left. </p>
<p>It is life abandoned to death with no chance of the living to intervene.</p>
<p>Now that they have been located, the surviving families, communities and Nations can begin to think about custodianship of the remains, mourning and memorialization. That much is up to them and every support and resource ought to be provided.</p>
<p><em>If you are an Indian Residential School survivor, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation used the term “mass graves” in this story published in the days following the announcement by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation. This article has since been updated to use the term “unmarked graves.”</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Veldon Coburn receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>Ground-penetrating radar located the remains of 215 First Nations children in a mass unmarked grave, revealing a macabre part of Canada’s hidden history.Veldon Coburn, Associate professor, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1528752021-02-02T22:37:47Z2021-02-02T22:37:47ZIndigenous child welfare is grounded in community and children’s needs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381794/original/file-20210201-15-16ixzgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C11%2C3843%2C2573&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Posters protesting Canada's sesquicentennial celebrations in Toronto on July 31, 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/PDF/2019_24.pdf">recent enactment of Bill C-92, an act “respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families,”</a> will shift Indigenous child welfare to Indigenous-operated organizations, and is expected to come with many positives for the families and communities it focuses on: First Nations, Inuit and Métis. </p>
<p>The impacts of Bill C-92 are not expected to be a panacea, given it comes after the many decades of the tragedies of <a href="http://www.netnewsledger.com/2012/01/27/the-sixties-scoop-was-a-continuation-of-the-assimilation-policies-waboose/">the Sixties Scoop</a> and <a href="http://nctr.ca/reports.php">residential schools</a>. These have been well documented by Gitksan researcher and activist Cindy Blackstock, the <a href="https://fncaringsociety.com/about-us">First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada</a>, <a href="https://www.afn.ca/">the Assembly of First Nations</a>, the <a href="http://www.trc.ca/">Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada</a> and many others. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_nmd6HXKXYU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A CBC News overview of the Sixties Scoop.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the bill is not expected to immediately turn things around, there were already positive changes afoot across Canada that should be highlighted and celebrated.</p>
<p>Indeed, as stressed by Kenn Richard, a founder of Native Child and Family Services of Toronto, “Indigenous approaches emphasize the importance of family and collectivity as a place for safety, and healing. The learning opportunities from this project and others happening now in Indigenous child welfare services can be instrumental in informing improved practices throughout the wider sector.”</p>
<h2>Where children belong</h2>
<p>One recently concluded pilot program in Manitoba, focused on strengthening belonging for children, is notable for its many successes. </p>
<p>A few years ago, the Toronto-based charity <a href="https://untilthelastchild.com/">Until the Last Child</a> launched and funded an innovative “co-created model” called Bringing Families Together (BFT). This two-year multi-stakeholder project was undertaken in partnership with the Government of Manitoba, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/kids-in-care-counts-manitoba-1.4982711">the four child welfare authorities representing about 11,000 kids in government care</a>, representatives from Indigenous communities, the University of Manitoba and Deloitte Canada.</p>
<p>We both worked in different capacities on the project. Verla, who is First Nation from the Pimicikamak Cree Nation (Cross Lake, Man.) and speaks her Cree language fluently, was a BFT family finder team member over the course of the two-year pilot. Philip was a member of the evaluation advisory committee for the project. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, much research has shown that without a strong sense of family, community connection and belonging, children in care often experience poor outcomes that may impact their whole lives.</p>
<p>The Bringing Families Together project had a lofty goal: to achieve a success rate of at least 75 per cent of permanent belonging solutions for 150 children and their families over the two-year period. It achieved <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15548732.2020.1835784">76 per cent over the pilot period</a>. That is laudable given that the BFT team of committed and trained staff received referrals only for children and youth (and their families) for whom child welfare authorities had encountered the most difficulty in building a strong sense of belonging and lifetime family support commitments. For example, at referral to the pilot staff, none of the children were living in family-related placements.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="a diagram showing a medicine wheel model of child belonging and development" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378430/original/file-20210112-19-7mgn5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378430/original/file-20210112-19-7mgn5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378430/original/file-20210112-19-7mgn5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378430/original/file-20210112-19-7mgn5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378430/original/file-20210112-19-7mgn5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378430/original/file-20210112-19-7mgn5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378430/original/file-20210112-19-7mgn5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Placing the child at the centre of ideas of belonging helped keep the focus on the child’s needs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15548732.2020.1835784">(Journal of Public Child Welfare, Nov. 2020/Taylor & Francis)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The team developed a four-part definition of belonging and permanency. It encapsulated several important components that placed the child at the centre of the project work. </p>
<p>Each of the components in the medicine wheel quadrants represent a crucial and interconnected requirement of belonging and depicted in a culturally accessible and positive fashion. Each part was deemed by the partners to best ensure any child is supported and experiences a sense of belonging. While the project has concluded and the staff team have moved on to other roles, a couple of other similar pilot projects have followed. </p>
<h2>Success stories</h2>
<p>A detailed evaluation of the program confirmed that <a href="https://untilthelastchild.com/who-we-are/#ourpilots">the high belonging and well-being target of 75 per cent was achieved and slightly surpassed for children and youth served by the BFT staff team</a>. And significantly, 62 per cent of these children were now being cared for by family members. </p>
<p>The importance of this project was not lost on the many engaged parents and community members. In the words of one of the participating foster parents: “You must know where you come from — it gives you a sense of belonging and culture.” </p>
<p>The general findings of the project have served to underpin and launch several additional pilots in Canada and other countries. There is confidence from the evaluation conducted that the trajectory of children’s lives was positively affected. Those children and youth helped by the project staff, versus a comparison group receiving regular child welfare services, experienced fewer breakdowns in placement and higher rates of long-term commitment from family members and foster parents. In many instances children left care altogether.</p>
<p>And so, as Bill C-92 rolls out and begins to change the face of child welfare in many parts of Canada, let’s not ignore opportunities to learn about recent
innovations and successes that can positively change lives for children and youth as well.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152875/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Focusing on the needs of Indigenous children means that foster care must be community-based and emphasize the importance of family and connections.Philip Burge, Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Queen's University, OntarioVerla Umpherville, Child and Family Services Worker, Pimicikamak Cree NationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1410382020-07-23T04:41:41Z2020-07-23T04:41:41ZCollaborating with communities delivers better oral health for Indigenous kids in rural Australia<p>Aboriginal children in rural Australia have up to <a href="https://doi.org/10.22605/RRH4453">three times</a> the rate of tooth decay compared to other Australian children.</p>
<p>Tooth decay can affect a person’s overall health and nutrition because it can affect how they chew and swallow. Tooth decay can also reduce self esteem because of its effect on <a href="https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/mouth/tooth-decay">appearance and breath</a>. And importantly, poor oral health increases the risk of <a href="https://www.agd.org/docs/default-source/self-instruction-(gendent)/gendent_nd17_aafp_kane.pdf">chronic disease</a> such as heart disease.</p>
<p>Yet tooth decay is both <a href="https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/tooth-decay">preventable and treatable</a>.</p>
<p>Broadly speaking, improving oral health is critical to closing the gap in health outcomes between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and Australians overall. Tackling this gap requires customised, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29335090/">community-led solutions</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bulging-ear-drums-and-hearing-loss-aboriginal-kids-have-the-highest-otitis-media-rates-in-the-world-64165">Bulging ear drums and hearing loss: Aboriginal kids have the highest otitis media rates in the world</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32212435/">research</a> demonstrates <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/608838">co-design</a> — that is, engaging communities to design and deliver services for their own communities — is associated with significantly improved oral health among Aboriginal primary school children. </p>
<p>This approach may also hold the answer for closing the gap in other areas of health care.</p>
<h2>Oral health among Aboriginal children</h2>
<p>In the middle of last century, Aboriginal children actually had <a href="https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2008/188/10/oral-health-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-australians">significantly better oral health</a> than other Australian children.
But today, Aboriginal children have <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/dental-oral-health/oral-health-and-dental-care-in-australia/contents/healthy-teeth">roughly double</a> the rate of tooth decay compared to other Australian children.</p>
<p>A range of factors have contributed to this recent problem, starting with colonisation — the effects of which have been compounded over time — and the shift to a highly processed Westernised diet.</p>
<p>Where interventions to prevent common oral diseases like tooth decay have become available to <a href="https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2008/188/10/oral-health-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-australians">most Australian children</a> in recent decades, Aboriginal children in rural Australia have historically had limited access to public dental services. </p>
<p>The disparity is compounded by the cost of basic supplies like toothpaste and toothbrushes, which may be unattainable for some families, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/getting-clean-drinking-water-into-remote-indigenous-communities-means-overcoming-city-thinking-106701">poor availability</a> of cool filtered drinking water in remote communities.</p>
<h2>What we did</h2>
<p>We began our research in 2013 at primary schools in three rural communities in New South Wales.</p>
<p>We sought to reduce consumption of sugary drinks by installing refrigerated and filtered water fountains in schools and communities. We also engaged teachers to encourage students to fill up their water bottles and drink from them throughout the school day. </p>
<p>As well as this, we sought to increase fluoride intake (a naturally occurring mineral that helps to prevent tooth decay) by establishing daily in-school tooth brushing programs, supplying toothbrushes and toothpaste for school and home, and applying fluoride varnish to the children’s teeth once each term.</p>
<p>We also provided treatment for existing tooth decay and gum disease. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/antibiotic-resistance-is-an-even-greater-challenge-in-remote-indigenous-communities-121696">Antibiotic resistance is an even greater challenge in remote Indigenous communities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In 2018, we looked at the oral health and oral hygiene behaviours of children from the participating schools. Our findings have recently been <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32212435/">published</a> and show the project is working well.</p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>In just four years we found a reduction in tooth decay, plaque and gingivitis (gum disease).</p>
<p>The average number of teeth with tooth decay per child in 2018 was 4.13, compared to 5.31 in 2014. Notably, the proportion of children with no tooth decay increased from 12.5% in 2014 to 20.3% in 2018.</p>
<p>There was also a dramatic reduction in the proportion of children with severe gingivitis from 43% in 2014 to 3% in 2018.</p>
<p>We also saw an increase in positive oral hygiene behaviour including tooth brushing, consumption of drinking water and reduced consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.</p>
<p>In 2014, 13% of children reported brushing their teeth on the morning they took the survey. This increased to 36% in 2018. </p>
<h2>Collaborating with communities</h2>
<p>Co-design means working alongside communities to establish the most effective ways to implement evidence-based strategies, and sustain these. It’s about sharing knowledge to enable long-term, positive change to complex problems.</p>
<p>In our project, the co-design process has been central to these outcomes:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>local Aboriginal staff coordinate the programs and dental treatment services</p></li>
<li><p>clinical staff <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ajr.12343">live and work</a> locally</p></li>
<li><p>we’ve established <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/ah/AH18051">scholarships for locals</a> to obtain qualifications as dental assistants, allied health assistants and oral health therapists</p></li>
<li><p>we’ve implemented daily in-school tooth brushing, regular fluoride varnish application and drinking water programs</p></li>
<li><p>the community decided on the location and installation of water fountains</p></li>
<li><p>we’ve set up highly <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/adj.12496">cost-effective</a> oral health services for the communities.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dental-report-card-fail-half-of-adults-and-one-third-of-kids-dont-brush-twice-a-day-93288">Dental report card fail: half of adults and one-third of kids don't brush twice a day</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Co-design and closing the gap</h2>
<p>We’ve now moved through all phases of implementing our co-designed programs, and are focusing on maintaining them with the support of school staff and the local Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service.</p>
<p>Our research shows engaging communities to design and deliver oral health services was associated with reduced tooth decay and increased healthy behaviours.</p>
<p>The following elements of co-design in our project could readily be incorporated into the design and delivery of health-care services for Aboriginal Australians:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>improved cultural safety</strong> — Aboriginal people feel safe and welcome</p></li>
<li><p><strong>co-design and shared ownership</strong> — local Aboriginal people shape the service model</p></li>
<li><p><strong>local employment</strong> — Aboriginal people work in the service and lead local delivery</p></li>
<li><p><strong>skills development</strong> — Aboriginal people complete qualifications that are nationally recognised</p></li>
<li><p><strong>long-term commitment</strong> — programs are designed and delivered with sustainable and reliable funding.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The gap in health outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians remains stubbornly wide. Co-design enables much needed health-care services to be delivered in ways that strengthen communities, respect culture and build capacity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141038/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kylie Gwynne receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the MRFF and NSW Ministry of Health. The authors of this article wish to acknowledge Boe Rambaldini, Bundjalung Elder and Director of the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, The University of Sydney, for his contribution to this article, as well as the Armajun Aboriginal Health Service. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Skinner has received and currently holds funding from Colgate Palmolive and the MRFF in the area of oral health. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yvonne Dimitropoulos does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Indigenous children have poor oral health compared to Australian kids overall. Our research shows involving local Aboriginal people in designing and providing services can make a difference.Kylie Gwynne, Senior Lecturer, Health Leadership, Macquarie UniversityJohn Skinner, Senior research fellow, University of SydneyYvonne Dimitropoulos, Research Associate, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1238962019-10-01T22:11:47Z2019-10-01T22:11:47ZBritish Columbia’s ban on ‘birth alerts:’ A guiding light on the road to reconciliation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294469/original/file-20190926-51463-qwzw7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C197%2C2649%2C1796&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The system of 'birth alerts' across Canada perpetuates the removal of children from Indigenous families begun by residential schools. Pictured here: a historical report on residential schools released by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Government of British Columbia has <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-ending-birth-alerts-1.5285929">put an end to “birth alerts”</a> — a practice that allows hospital staff to alert child welfare workers that a newborn may be at risk for harm, without informing expectant parents. </p>
<p>This practice, which can lead to traumatic child apprehensions soon after delivery, disproportionately impacts Indigenous women. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296574/original/file-20191010-188819-17iz6s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296574/original/file-20191010-188819-17iz6s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296574/original/file-20191010-188819-17iz6s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296574/original/file-20191010-188819-17iz6s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296574/original/file-20191010-188819-17iz6s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296574/original/file-20191010-188819-17iz6s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296574/original/file-20191010-188819-17iz6s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/ca/topics/focus-truth-and-reconciliation-in-canada-77341">Click here for more articles in our ongoing series about the TRC Calls to Action.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By ending this practice, B.C.’s action marks progress towards delivering on the <a href="http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf">Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action on child welfare</a>, and specifically the first Call to Action — to reduce the number of Indigenous children in care. </p>
<p>To continue making meaningful progress in this era of Truth and Reconciliation, all provinces and territories should promptly follow suit where similar practices exist.</p>
<h2>Cycles of inter-generational trauma</h2>
<p>The practice of birth alerts is harmful for a number of reasons. Driven by fears of having a birth alert issued, it can <a href="https://www.todaysparent.com/family/parenting/when-you-have-to-give-birth-in-secret/">deter at-risk women from accessing prenatal care</a> or, for example, from seeking treatment for a substance use disorder while pregnant. </p>
<p>The practice can also make it difficult for women and their partners to turn their lives around as new birth alerts can be informed by remote events. For example, if a woman had a child apprehended years earlier, she can be flagged as being high-risk in a future pregnancy even if her life has changed considerably. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f83FfHy3My0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An APTN News interview explains what a birth alert is, and what it means for families.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the context of Indigenous families, the practice contributes to ongoing cycles of inter-generational trauma as many women for whom birth alerts are issued were themselves apprehended at birth. </p>
<p>The TRC called upon federal, provincial, territorial, and Indigenous governments to commit to reducing the number of Indigenous children in care. This was written into the <a href="http://nctr.ca/reports.php">Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada</a> released in December 2014, and reemphasized in the recent release of the <a href="https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/">Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls</a>.</p>
<p>As a means to achieving this call to action and to ensure an end to discriminatory practices, policies and processes within all provincial jurisdictions that relate to reporting newborns at risk for harm should be thoroughly scrutinized and revised, or drafted where none exists.</p>
<h2>Ending birth alerts is just the beginning</h2>
<p>Though a step in the right direction, ending birth alerts alone will not be enough to create a meaningful shift in child welfare systems across the country that disproportionately impact Indigenous families. </p>
<p>For instance, in the province of Alberta where I work as an obstetric general internist, birth alerts are not practised. Despite this, government statistics show that in 2015-16, <a href="http://www.humanservices.alberta.ca/abuse-bullying/cidata/">12,715 initial assessments were conducted by Child and Family Services</a> on children up to the age of three. </p>
<p>Of these assessments, 30 per cent (3,794) involved Indigenous families, despite their comprising only <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/fogs-spg/Facts-PR-Eng.cfm?TOPIC=9&LANG=Eng&GK=PR&GC=48#targetText=Total%20population%20by%20Aboriginal%20identity,Indian%20status%2C%20Alberta%2C%202016%20Census&targetText=In%202016%2C%20there%20were%20258%2C640,M%C3%A9tis%20or%20Inuk%20(Inuit).">6.5 per cent of Alberta’s population</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1068207743713058817"}"></div></p>
<p>This highlights that even in the absence of birth alerts, other discriminatory practices remain in place that require close scrutiny to ensure less Indigenous children end up in care.</p>
<h2>Fostering trusting relationships</h2>
<p>In a recent statement, Katrine Conroy, <a href="https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2019CFD0090-001775#">B.C. Minister of Child and Family Development</a> emphasized that the focus of all child welfare practices should shift from nontransparent “red-flagging” of expectant parents to voluntary engagement and early intervention starting at the outset of pregnancy.</p>
<p>This approach would foster more trusting relationships with service providers and support women and their families in planning for and safely parenting their babies if that is their goal.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294471/original/file-20190926-51429-wkorek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294471/original/file-20190926-51429-wkorek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294471/original/file-20190926-51429-wkorek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294471/original/file-20190926-51429-wkorek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294471/original/file-20190926-51429-wkorek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294471/original/file-20190926-51429-wkorek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294471/original/file-20190926-51429-wkorek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People take part in the planting of a heart garden during the closing ceremony of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on June 3, 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A shift in culture is coming. This is exemplified by many promising initiatives underway across the country that focus on upstream prevention of child apprehensions at birth. Examples, amongst many, include:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>In Calgary, a portfolio program, led by the <a href="https://calgarycac.ca/prevention/">Prenatal Outreach Support Team</a>, was developed through collaboration between community organizations caring for at-risk pregnant women. The portfolio serves as a repository of documents compiled by women and their care providers throughout pregnancy highlighting the work a woman has done to prepare for her parenting role. Examples includes certificates of completion of parenting programs, proof of engagement with substance-use treatment programs and documentation of prenatal appointments. Serving as a form of pregnancy curriculum vitae, the portfolio aims to help women and their care providers advocate for their right to parent upon delivery of a newborn.</p></li>
<li><p>In B.C.’s Cowichan Valley, the <a href="https://thetyee.ca/News/2018/11/27/Campaign-End-Indigenous-Child-Apprehensions/">Butterfly Plan</a>, created by the Red Willow Womyn’s Society, is a three-step response to child apprehensions that focuses on keeping parent and child together. This approach is being piloted through partnership with the Cowichan branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association, operating a transitional housing project that offers wrap-around supports for at-risk parents with young children.</p></li>
<li><p>In Manitoba, the government has launched a two-year pilot project called <a href="https://news.gov.mb.ca/news/index.html?item=44895&posted=2019-01-07">Restoring the Sacred Bond</a>, in partnership with the Southern First Nations Network of Care (SFNNC). It matches doulas with Indigenous mothers at risk of having their baby apprehended, providing them with support for up to one year post-delivery with the goal of reducing the number of Indigenous babies that end up in care in Manitoba. </p></li>
</ol>
<h2>All provinces and territories must follow</h2>
<p>Examples like these fly in the face of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/sask-birth-alerts-1.5289154">comments made by Saskatchewan’s Social Services Minister Paul Merriman</a> in response to B.C.’s action — that his province won’t consider ending birth alerts without a viable alternative in place. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294466/original/file-20190926-51429-1xt5zb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294466/original/file-20190926-51429-1xt5zb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294466/original/file-20190926-51429-1xt5zb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294466/original/file-20190926-51429-1xt5zb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294466/original/file-20190926-51429-1xt5zb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294466/original/file-20190926-51429-1xt5zb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294466/original/file-20190926-51429-1xt5zb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Justice of Our Stolen Children camp in Regina, Saskatchewan, in July 2018. The camp was set up to protest Indigenous lives lost or affected due to violence, foster care and addiction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Samantha Maciag</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Viable alternatives are available, but pursuing them requires political will. We must continue to apply pressure to these governments to take action.</p>
<p>Following the B.C. government’s clear and public statement to end the discriminatory practice of birth alerts in their province, all provinces and territories should promptly follow suit. </p>
<p>This should be done through a shift in culture from nontransparent, punitive measures, to one focused on prevention and early intervention, fostering trusting and collaborative relationships with at-risk expectant parents. </p>
<p>Only then will we make meaningful progress in achieving calls to action related to keeping Indigenous children with their families in this era of Truth and Reconciliation in our country. </p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123896/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Malebranche does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>To make meaningful progress on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action, all provinces and territories should promptly follow B.C. and ban discriminatory ‘birth alerts.’Mary Malebranche, Clinical Lecturer, University of CalgaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1143552019-04-18T06:01:54Z2019-04-18T06:01:54ZAntibiotic shortages are putting Aboriginal kids at risk<p>At any time, almost <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0136789">one in two</a> Aboriginal children living in remote areas will have a school sore. That means right now, there are an estimated 15,000 children needing treatment.</p>
<p>School sores can be painful and itchy. But left untreated, they can lead to <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0000467">rheumatic fever</a>, bone infections or sepsis.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5730933/">most effective and tolerable antibiotic</a> to treat school sores is in short supply, and this is putting Aboriginal kids at risk of life-threatening infections.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-simple-school-sores-often-lead-to-heart-and-kidney-disease-in-indigenous-children-86066">Why simple school sores often lead to heart and kidney disease in Indigenous children</a>
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<h2>What are school sores?</h2>
<p>School sores (or Impetigo) are common in Aboriginal children living in remote areas due to the association with scabies, tinea and head lice, which are <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0000554">also very common</a>.</p>
<p>When their skin or scalp is itchy, children may scratch and break the skin, allowing the bacteria that cause school sores to enter. Insect bites and minor trauma can also become a site for a school sore to develop. </p>
<p>School sores are caused by the bacteria <a href="https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-014-0727-5"><em>Staphylococcus aureus</em></a> and Group A Streptococcus. These bacteria are highly contagious and spread easily from child to child.</p>
<h2>What are the treatment options?</h2>
<p>School sores are usually treated with an antibiotic cream when only a few kids have them. But because these sores are so common in remote communities, it’s recommended that an oral antibiotic or an injection is used to prevent the development of antibiotic resistance.</p>
<p>Both the oral antibiotic and the injection work well to treat school sores, but we know many kids won’t want the needle. </p>
<p><a href="https://infectiousdiseases.telethonkids.org.au/our-research/skin-guidelines/">Current guidelines</a> recommend treating school sores with the antibiotic trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (known by the brand names Bactrim and Septrin).</p>
<p>Most kids under eight years old need to take a liquid antibiotic. The Bactrim brand antibiotic syrup tastes good and is easy to swallow. Naturally, <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2814%2960841-2/fulltext">kids prefer it</a> to a painful injection.</p>
<p>In September 2018, Bactrim syrup was withdrawn from the market, possibly due to a company merger, leaving the Septrin brand as the only remaining brand of this antibiotic in syrup form.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269721/original/file-20190417-139104-1rk6tqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269721/original/file-20190417-139104-1rk6tqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269721/original/file-20190417-139104-1rk6tqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269721/original/file-20190417-139104-1rk6tqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269721/original/file-20190417-139104-1rk6tqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269721/original/file-20190417-139104-1rk6tqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269721/original/file-20190417-139104-1rk6tqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s much easier to get kids to take a flavoured syrup than swallow a crushed up tablet, or have an injection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">From shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This put a lot of pressure on the company making Septrin to increase the supply needed for kids all over Australia. But they couldn’t keep up with demand. The Septrin syrup has now been <a href="https://apps.tga.gov.au/Prod/msi/Search/Details/sulfamethoxazole">out of stock</a> for eight months, which has affected the treatment of a large number of Aboriginal children with school sores.</p>
<p>The alternative for younger children is to crush the trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole tablets, which tastes terrible and is not recommended by antibiotic regulators. It’s not very accurate for getting the dose right, particularly in the smallest kids.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-school-sores-and-how-do-you-get-rid-of-them-86930">What are school sores and how do you get rid of them?</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>For example, a two-year-old will weigh about 12kg. The recommended dose of trimethoprim/sulphamethoxazole for a child of this weight is <a href="https://infectiousdiseases.telethonkids.org.au/siteassets/media-docs---wesfarmers-centre/national-healthy-skin-guideline---1st-ed.-2018.pdf">48mg trimethoprim</a>. The tablets only come as 40mg trimethoprim or 80mg trimethoprim, making it tricky to get the required dose for this child. And guidelines have not anticipated this situation, so there is little to inform dosing decisions.</p>
<p>In recent months, we’ve heard the crushable tablets in another brand of the same medicine, known as Resprim, are now also out of stock.</p>
<h2>How can antibiotics that kids need just disappear?</h2>
<p>Drug shortages are a <a href="https://www.shpa.org.au/sites/default/files/uploaded-content/website-content/shpa_medicines_shortages_in_australia_report_june_2017.pdf">huge problem</a> in health care. </p>
<p>Information about these stock outs filters to doctors and pharmacists haphazardly. There’s no coordinated process for this in Australia, and it can take weeks or months for the information to get to the health-care workers. Often they’ll only become aware of the shortfall when they have a patient who needs the antibiotic.</p>
<p>Mandatory reporting of drug stock outs to the Therapeutic Good Administration (TGA) by the manufacturers <a href="http://apps.tga.gov.au/prod/MSI/search/">commenced in 2018</a> to address this. Time will tell whether it helps the flow of information.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-aboriginal-children-still-dying-from-rheumatic-heart-disease-63814">Why are Aboriginal children still dying from rheumatic heart disease?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These problems are never simple. Old, cheap antibiotics are no longer on patent and not generally profitable for the manufacturers. These antibiotics are usually prescribed for short courses of three to five days, and so are rarely prioritised in comparison to the long-term medications required for the older population (such as diabetes or heart medications).</p>
<p>In a developed country with world-class health care, it’s unacceptable if an antibiotic needed to treat an infection is not available because we don’t have a national system for coordinating and maintaining antibiotic supply.</p>
<h2>Why this drug shortage is a particularly concerning one</h2>
<p>Skin sores are more than a nuisance condition. They make kids feel sick, take weeks to heal and may lead to absences from school. </p>
<p>The long-term problems of rheumatic fever, sepsis and kidney disease result in <a href="https://static.treasury.gov.au/uploads/sites/1/2019/02/360985-END-RHD-Centre-of-Research-Excellence.pdf">lifelong chronic ill health</a> and are a much higher cost to the health system than a simple, cheap course of oral antibiotics to treat the skin sores before they become a bigger problem.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-discrimination-and-stressful-events-affect-the-health-of-our-indigenous-kids-67548">How discrimination and stressful events affect the health of our Indigenous kids</a>
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</p>
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<p>With 15,000 Aboriginal children at any one time needing this antibiotic to treat school sores, the demand is real.</p>
<p><em>Zoy Goff, antimicrobial stewardship pharmacist at the Perth Children’s Hospital, and Hannah Mann, regional pharmacist in the Kimberley and research partner for the Kimberley-based skin health trials, contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114355/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asha Bowen receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. </span></em></p>Almost half of Aboriginal kids living remotely will have a school sore at any one time. But there aren’t enough of the right antibiotics to treat them.Asha Bowen, Head, Skin Health, Telethon Kids InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/857132017-11-01T22:37:10Z2017-11-01T22:37:10ZFoster care damages the health of mothers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192275/original/file-20171027-13331-e99fcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Parenting programs and home visiting programs can offer vital support to mothers struggling with mental illness, substance use, and other challenges. Research shows that avoiding foster care is better for the health of mother and child. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Spending time in foster care can have <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-1118">serious consequences for the health</a> and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2005.01530.x">well-being of children</a>. But what about their mothers? </p>
<p>The impact on women of being separated from their children is often overlooked because many of these moms have been accused of abuse and neglect, and don’t meet society’s standards of good parenting. </p>
<p>As a researcher in community health sciences, I have been studying the outcomes for mothers whose children have been taken into care. In a recent study conducted with colleagues at the University of Manitoba, we examined mental illness, treatment use (health care interventions) and social factors among 1,591 mothers who had a child taken into care. </p>
<p>This research, recently published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, found that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech-2017-209542">having a child taken into care has detrimental effects on a mother’s health</a> and well-being. </p>
<h2>Contributing to depression, anxiety and substance use</h2>
<p>The research was carried out in Manitoba. We used Child and Family Services case files to identify mothers who had a child placed in care. We then linked these data with medical claims, hospital discharge abstracts, prescriptions, Employment and Income Assistance case files and information from the Canadian census. </p>
<p>These data were used to define three mental illness diagnoses, along with treatment use and social stability. The mental illnesses we looked at were depression, anxiety and substance use. We measured treatment use by visits to doctors, hospital stays and prescribed-drug use. Whether a mother moved or received income assistance measured her social stability.</p>
<p>We found that among mothers who had a child taken into care, the number of mothers with depression, anxiety and substance use diagnoses was much higher in the years after their children were placed. After being separated from their children, these mothers also had more physician visits, hospitalizations and prescribed-drug use. </p>
<p>This fits with <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2015.05.024">findings from a previous study</a> where mothers were interviewed. One mother said: “Once they took her away… I went into a very deep, deep depression. I didn’t talk to nobody… just wanted to be left alone.” </p>
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<p>When compared with 1,591 mothers who raised their own children, mothers who had a child taken into care had worse mental health, more treatment use and more social instability — both before and after they lost custody. For most of the outcomes, the differences were much bigger in the years after the child was taken into care.</p>
<p>This study provides convincing evidence that foster care has detrimental effects on a mother’s health and well-being. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/family_reunification.Pdf">Previous research</a> shows that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11769982">mental illness, substance use and poverty</a> are often the reasons why children in care are not returned to their families. The findings from this study show that the stress of having a child taken into care can contribute to these reasons, making it harder for families to be reunited.</p>
<h2>Indigenous children in care</h2>
<p>To fully understand what this research means, we must consider a few factors. One is that we defined mental health diagnoses using physician claims records and hospitalizations. But not all mothers who have a mental illness seek treatment. So we likely underestimated the number of mothers who have a mental illness. </p>
<p>Mothers who have a child taken into care may also be encouraged to seek treatment for an existing mental illness when trying to regain custody. This could mean that mothers who have existing mental health conditions contributing to their child being placed in care may only start seeking treatment after losing their child.</p>
<p>Most mothers in this study, however, did see a doctor in the two years before the child was taken into care. This makes it more likely that major mental illness would have been identified by the doctor beforehand. </p>
<p>We should also consider that this study was conducted in Manitoba, Canada, which has <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61087-8">one of the highest rates of children in care in the world</a>. As in many other parts of Canada, there is also a significant <a href="http://mchp-appserv.cpe.umanitoba.ca/reference/CIC_report_web.pdf">over-representation of Indigenous children in care</a> in Manitoba. </p>
<p>How a mother responds to having her child taken into care could in part be a result of the specific history and social policies of this province.</p>
<h2>Support can prevent the need for foster care</h2>
<p>This is the first population-based study to look at the outcomes for mothers who had a child taken into care. The findings that mothers’ health and well-being deteriorate in the years after they lose custody of a child has important practice and policy implications. </p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0954579413000813">Strengthening resources</a> and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12195">capabilities of mothers</a> who are at risk of having a child taken into care can result in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077559517701230">better outcomes for both mother and child</a>, studies have found. </p>
<p>Mothers with mental illness and those with cognitive disabilities have much higher rates of their children being taken into care. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-3156.2008.00526.x">Providing these mothers with parenting training and programs</a> intended to improve social supports and psychological well-being often eliminates the requirement for children to be taken into care.</p>
<p>Early childhood home visiting programs have also proven effective in <a href="http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/5/08-057075/en/">reducing children being placed in care</a>. Such programs involve trained professionals, such as public health nurses, visiting families in their homes and providing support, education and information to prevent child maltreatment.</p>
<p>When a child is taken into care, services providers should make sure that mothers are well-supported to prevent their health and well-being from getting worse.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85713/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Wall-Wieler receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>New research shows that having a child in foster care is often harmful to a mother’s mental and physical health.Elizabeth Wall-Wieler, PhD student in Community Health Sciences, University of ManitobaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/788272017-06-08T19:26:21Z2017-06-08T19:26:21ZTo lift literacy levels among Indigenous children, their parents’ literacy skills must be improved first<p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/are-we-making-progress-on-indigenous-education-39329">this series</a>, we’ll discuss whether progress is being made on Indigenous education, looking at various areas including policy, scholarships, school leadership, literacy and much more.</em> </p>
<hr>
<p>There’s a large adult-sized hole in Australia’s approach to boosting literacy levels among Indigenous children and young people. </p>
<p>For several decades, the focus has been on increasing investment in schools and refining the ways we engage Indigenous children.</p>
<p>But what if the most effective way to get more kids reading and writing was to give their parents those same skills?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.lflf.org.au/">The Literacy for Life Foundation</a> is exploring this idea through the Aboriginal Adult Literacy Campaigns the organisation has been running in western New South Wales since 2012, in partnership with the University of New England. </p>
<p>The Foundation uses a campaign model known as <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11159-014-9421-5">Yes, I Can!</a>, originally developed in Cuba. It has been used in 30 countries in the global south, including <a href="http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/lnj/article/view/1898">Timor-Leste</a> where it reached 200,000 people.</p>
<p>Each campaign is led by local Aboriginal leaders and their organisations, supported by a small team from the Literacy for Life Foundation. So far, it has run in five western NSW communities, with completion rates over 65%.</p>
<p>This is five times higher than Indigenous students’ completion rates for formal, accredited Foundations Skills courses run through the national vocational education and training (VET) system, which aim to get students to a similar level on the Australian Core Skills Framework. </p>
<p>Nationally, the <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/data/data/infographics/indigenous-vet-participation-completion-and-employment-outcomes-infographic">completion rate for VET Certificate One courses</a> is only 13%, and lower in rural and remote areas. These courses are mainly funded for registered job-seekers aged 15-65, missing a large number of adults who have very low literacy. </p>
<p>A key difference identified in a recent <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/publications/publications/all-publications/enhancing-training-advantage-for-remote-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-learners">NCVER study</a> is that Yes, I Can! is taught in community, by community members, with a non-formal community education approach.</p>
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<h2>Struggle to complete everyday tasks</h2>
<p>While adults are the focus, boosting literacy levels across an entire community creates a flow-on effect into other areas, including health, employment, justice and school education.</p>
<p>In initial household surveys, over 50% of adults said they did not have the literacy they needed for everyday tasks such as filling in forms. </p>
<p>The consequences of this can be quite dire. </p>
<p>Law and justice officials and community leaders in these locations <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/driving-unlicensed-indigenous-people-stuck-between-a-rock-and-hard-place-inquiry-told-20170525-gwd4jo.html">report</a> that people with low literacy are less likely to go for their drivers licences, resulting in multiple instances of fines, arrest and incarceration for unlicensed driving. </p>
<p>People with very low literacy also struggle to understand and respond to the official communications from Centrelink and job network agencies, which determine their continued eligibility for income support. </p>
<p>The lack of control that people with low literacy have over their circumstances brings with it a range of <a href="http://www.lowitja.org.au/education-determinant-indigenous-health-beyond-bandaids-chapter-3">health problems</a>. At the same time, they are less likely to access primary health care services, and to follow the instructions they are given for managing medications and treatments. </p>
<h2>Impact on children</h2>
<p>When the adults in a community experience these problems, they have obvious consequences for their children, including on their ability to participate in school.</p>
<p>Most importantly, parents and other adult relations who struggle with literacy are unlikely to be able to support their children at school, in the way that parents with more literacy can. </p>
<p>This includes reading to children when they are very young; being able to understand and respond to notes that come home from school; taking part in parent-teacher meetings; and advocating for their children when they are having trouble at school. </p>
<p>It should therefore come as no surprise that children who are least likely to attend regularly and do well in school are those who grow up in households where few adults, if any, have had a good education. </p>
<p>When Literacy for Life Foundation ran an adult literacy campaign in the small New South Wales community of Enngonia, the local school principal was one of the biggest supporters. She said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>More parents are talking to me about school and asking for their kids to be given homework. Our pre-schoolers are using the library more, too. It’s been a great thing for the community: it’s given the adults who did miss out on their schooling a chance to catch up and have a way to relate to their children.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>An <a href="https://www.une.edu.au/current-students/resources/academic-schools/school-of-education/research/arc-funded-projects/adult-literacy-and-aboriginal-community-well-being-in-western-nsw">ARC-funded longitudinal study</a> of the impact of the campaigns is now underway and due for completion in 2019. This will provide more detailed evidence of the links between lifting adult literacy across a community and better school outcomes for children. </p>
<p>In the meantime, there is plenty of <a href="http://caepr.anu.edu.au/Publications/DP/2003DP257.php">evidence</a> already in the public domain that indicates <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/australian-journal-of-indigenous-education/article/popular-education-for-adult-literacy-and-health-development-in-indigenous-australia/653BE7C4CF6C1079B05D91352E52475B">Indigenous adult literacy</a> levels are alarmingly low and require immediate attention.</p>
<p>Aboriginal community leaders began calling for action on adult literacy nearly <a href="http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A20015">30 years ago</a>, and these calls were supported in the <a href="http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A23137">recommendations</a> of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.</p>
<p>If we are serious about getting more Indigenous kids reading and writing, we must tackle low adult literacy at the same time. If we don’t, the gap will only continue to widen.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>• <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/are-we-making-progress-on-indigenous-education-39329">Read more articles</a> in this series.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78827/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bob Boughton was the Project Manager on the first pilot of the Yes I Can campaign in Australia in 2012-14, for which UNE, his empoyer, was funded though the Commonwealth government. He is a currently a member of the Technical Commttee which advises the Literacy for Life Foundation Board, and the Project Leader and a Chief Investigator on the ARC study mentioned in the article, in which the Literacy for Life Foundation is a Partner Organisation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Beetson works for Literacy for Life. He receives funding from state and federal governments and the ARC.</span></em></p>The children who are least likely to attend school regularly – and do well – grow up in households where the adults themselves have very poor literacy skills.Bob Boughton, Associate Professor, University of New EnglandJack Beetson, Executive Director and National Campaign Coordinator at The Literacy for Life Foundation; Adjunct Professor , University of New EnglandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/718862017-02-09T19:12:14Z2017-02-09T19:12:14ZBack to school – understanding challenges faced by Indigenous children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155579/original/image-20170205-18772-1rb2ed0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One way teachers can respect culture is by embedding it into 'mainstream' subjects.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tracey Nearmy/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Chances are that many a tear has been shed throughout Australia in recent weeks with the start of the school year. But enough about the parents, let’s talk about the kids!</p>
<p>As with other students, many Indigenous kids will be excited about school, while others will be feeling nervous as they come to grips with new teachers, peers, and environments. </p>
<p>For Indigenous children, there are some added and unique challenges and opportunities.</p>
<p>In 2017, it is likely that more Indigenous children than ever will be commencing school for the very first time. The Indigenous population is young and growing fast. </p>
<p>In 2011, the percentage of Indigenous people under the age of five years was <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/indigenous-observatory/reports/health-and-welfare-2015/indigenous-population/">double the percentage</a> for the rest of the population.</p>
<p>Not only is the Indigenous population younger, but statistics are showing signs of improved Indigenous enrolment in early childhood education in the past decade. </p>
<p>In 2001, <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/30EDAC9D34AFC189CA256E9E0028706F?opendocument">46% of Indigenous</a> four-year-olds attended preschool. And in 2013, approximately <a href="http://closingthegap.dpmc.gov.au/assets/pdfs/closing_the_gap_report_2016.pdf">75% of Indigenous</a> four-year-olds were enrolled in early childhood education. </p>
<p>Increased participation is encouraging – getting off to a positive start is important when it comes to lifelong learning. <a href="https://theconversation.com/early-childhood-education-is-key-to-closing-the-gaps-54322">Research shows</a> that preschool and childcare participation are positively associated with reading and literacy, as well as maths and abstract reasoning over the long term. </p>
<p>The challenge of providing positive starts to learning is not confined to remote communities alone. </p>
<p>In fact, <a href="http://closingthegap.dpmc.gov.au/assets/pdfs/closing_the_gap_report_2016.pdf">enrolment data</a> of Indigenous children in early childhood education programs show higher rates in remote areas than in major cities and regional areas. </p>
<p>The reasons for lower rates of participation in urban areas can be due to a <a href="https://www.mq.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/103615/barriers_to_participation.pdf">combination of generic factors</a> (such as cost and transport) and cultural factors (namely, Indigenous parents’ concern about the cultural identity of their children being supported and valued). </p>
<p>If Australia wants to close the gap in education, then we cannot afford to look at schooling in a vacuum to other socioeconomic factors. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.aedc.gov.au/resources/detail/2015-aedc-national-report">Australian Early Development Census</a>, Indigenous children in 2015 were twice as likely to be developmentally vulnerable on two or more of the AEDC developmental domains (physical health and wellbeing; social competence; emotional maturity; language and cognitive skills; and communication skills and general knowledge).</p>
<h2>Embedding Indigenous culture into subjects</h2>
<p>The growth in the number of Indigenous children entering school has implications for schools and governments alike. </p>
<p>Principals and teachers will need to work hand-in-glove with Indigenous families to ensure school is a culturally safe environment for their children. This means that <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/uploadedFiles/ClosingTheGap/Content/Publications/2012/ctgc-rs15.pdf">Indigenous heritage is respected and promoted</a>. </p>
<p>If school environments get this right early, then the downstream effects can be very positive, as shown by a young Koori woman <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-01/jessica-buhagiar/8229784">scoring 98.3%</a> in the 2016 New South Wales Higher School Certificate. </p>
<p>One way teachers can respect culture is by embedding it into “mainstream” subjects. </p>
<p>Take for example, a school in the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-01/trail-blazing-aboriginal-bilingual-maths-program-revisited/8134998?site=indigenous&topic=latest">Top End</a> which is using kinship systems to teach maths. By building on the children’s understanding of kinship relationships, Yolngu teachers help children see the link between particular patterns in kinship names across generations, then associate them with number patterns in conventional maths. By working from what they know, children are actively building a bridge to western concepts and finding grounds of commonality. </p>
<h2>Getting to know each child</h2>
<p>If we want to grow more success stories in Indigenous education, teachers will need first to establish positive relationships, not only with children but with their families and the wider Indigenous community’s people and culture. </p>
<p>While school policies are important, relationships are the real keys to success.</p>
<p>For teachers, the message is simple – get to really know your kids, their families, their community and its history, and what’s going on at home. </p>
<p>Have a cuppa with Elders. Share a joke with the kids, kick a footy, ask how their weekend was, find time for the children to share their stories, be it through play, art, sport, writing, or show and tell. </p>
<p>You might be testing children, but they’ll be testing you too. They will be looking to see if you’re friendly, trustworthy, caring. If you pass their test, then there is a stronger chance they will pass yours.</p>
<p>Culture is a large part of an Indigenous child’s story, but it is not the only part.</p>
<p>Many (not all) Indigenous children are under stress (educationally, socially, emotionally) due to low income, family mobility, overcrowded homes, and poor health and disability. </p>
<p>Last year I co-authored a paper about Indigenous education that we called <a href="http://research.acer.edu.au/policyinsights/4/">“Creating expectations that are really high and highly real.”</a></p>
<p>The point of our paper is that Indigenous success in education requires simultaneous and coordinated action inside the school gates and outside of them – all aimed at promoting Indigenous child wellbeing. </p>
<p>Social stressors often make the educational climb far steeper and longer for Indigenous children.</p>
<h2>Cost of education</h2>
<p>Schooling affordability remains as a big issue for many families – Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike. </p>
<p>The notion of “free education” is fast disappearing into Australian mythology. </p>
<p>As a mother in <a href="http://www.dailymercury.com.au/news/mum-rant-cost-school-supplies-goes-viral/3133806/">Queensland recently showed</a> via her Facebook post (which went viral), the cost of schooling is a concern for many low-income families. Her message will have struck a chord with many Indigenous families who find books and a pencil case with pencils in it hard enough to buy, let alone a computer case with a computer in it, and having access to Wi-Fi.</p>
<h2>Targeted funding</h2>
<p>At a systems level, we have got to get the education dollar to <a href="https://theconversation.com/educating-australia-why-our-schools-arent-improving-72092">where it is most needed</a>; and nowhere is it <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-education-results-show-need-for-needs-based-funding-23656">more needed</a> than in Indigenous education. </p>
<p>About eight in ten Indigenous students <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/lookup/4221.0Main+Features52010?OpenDocument">attended public schools in 2010</a>, so adequate resourcing for public schools in low socioeconomic areas (where many Indigenous people reside) <a href="https://www.indigenousjustice.gov.au/resources/dropping-off-the-edge-2015-persistent-communal-disadvantage-in-australia/">is imperative</a>. </p>
<p>Schools in low socioeconomic status areas are not only faced with the challenge of providing quality teaching, but often they will need resources to meet the needs of the “whole child”, including their psychology, nutrition, speech, career prospects, and cultural identity. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.murrischool.com/">Murri School</a> in Queensland is showing the way by providing wrap-around services for children. </p>
<p>The school works with Aboriginal health services and the University of Queensland, among other organisations, to provide <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-19/brisbane-murri-school-raises-indigenous-student-retention-rates/6332272">holistic support services</a> to children such as in the areas of family support, psychology, ear, nose and throat services, occupational and speech therapy. </p>
<p>They are also supporting children who have shown signs of inter-generational trauma, through tailored healing programs.</p>
<p>Bolstering Indigenous success in education is a shared responsibility: students, families, schools, communities, and governments alike. To paraphrase the poet John Donne,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“No child is an island, entire of herself; every child is a piece of the continent, a part of the main… I am involved in education, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If we can get the three R’s (relationships, responsibilities, and resourcing) right, then in future years, we can get children off to a positive start at school and shed a tear for the right reasons.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71886/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Dreise does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Teachers – get to really know your kids, their families, their community and its history, and what’s going on at home. While school policies are important, relationships are the real keys to success.Tony Dreise, Indigenous policy analyst & researcher, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/719942017-02-09T04:40:30Z2017-02-09T04:40:30ZStop focusing on ‘the problem’ in Indigenous education, and start looking at learning opportunities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155584/original/image-20170206-18772-1c9cwh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We need to stop blaming Indigenous students and families for low school achievement.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Neda Vanovac/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/educating-australia-35445">this series</a> we’ll explore how to improve schools in Australia. Some of the most prominent experts in the sector tackle key questions, including why we are not seeing much progress; whether we are assessing children in the most effective way; why parents need to listen to what the evidence tells us, and much more.</em></p>
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<p>Much attention in Australian Indigenous education is paid to the “<a href="http://closingthegap.dpmc.gov.au/chapter-02/index.html">achievement gap</a>” and not nearly enough is paid to the “opportunity to learn gap” – this refers to the <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-volume-I.pdf">subject content</a> students are exposed to in school. </p>
<p>Debates focusing on the achievement gap, where in 2014 only <a href="http://closingthegap.dpmc.gov.au/introduction.html">59% of Indigenous students</a> complete Year 12 or equivalent compared with 85% of their non-Indigenous counterparts, tend to place an emphasis on contextual factors such as the role of poverty or socioeconomic status as an explanation of <a href="https://www.acer.edu.au/documents/PISA-2012-Report.pdf">lower educational achievement</a>. </p>
<p>In the wider public, this can spiral quickly into blaming students and families, or gives schools and teachers permission to find some comfort in the status quo.</p>
<h2>Stop focusing on ‘the problem’</h2>
<p>Focusing on the opportunity to learn gap removes the emphasis from locating “the problem” in the person (or family or culture), and turns our attention to the accummulated differences in access to key educational resources. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>quality teachers that can adapt to context</p></li>
<li><p>personalised academic programs and guidance systems</p></li>
<li><p>high quality curriculum opportunities, such as being supported to become proficient in rigorous curriculum content (for example, advanced mathematics)</p></li>
<li><p>high quality educational materials, such as up-to-date technologies and good connectivity</p></li>
<li><p>good informational sources that support learning at school and home.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These inequalities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have compounded over the years and, as such, many have been denied access to quality education. You could argue that this is a form of institutionally sanctioned discrimination.</p>
<h2>What is ‘opportunity to learn’?</h2>
<p>Students’ ability to learn a subject is based on whether, and for how long, they are exposed to it in school – as well as the adequacy and effectiveness of their engagement in the learning process. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-volume-I.pdf">OECD research</a> has shown that the opportunity to learn is connected with student achievement in multiple ways. It is a complex idea that involves both school systems and classrooms. </p>
<p>At the systems level, opportunity to learn plays out through whether students are able to attend school and what is available in the way of curriculum, teaching staff stability, teaching quality, tracking practices, and school resources. </p>
<p>At the classroom level, it involves resources and teaching practices. The educational resources at both of these levels have failed to help Indigenous students improve their knowledge and skills, contributing to poor educational outcomes. </p>
<p>Many Indigenous students, even those who are achieving some success, do not have adequate support to engage with a rigorous curriculum. </p>
<h2>What impact can this have on learning?</h2>
<p><a href="https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/education/about/research/starpath/documents/Starpath%20Summative%20Report.pdf">Research carried out</a> in New Zealand secondary schools has shown that, in relation to literacy, Māori (Indigenous) and ethnic minority students are exposed to different and a narrower range of texts. </p>
<p>An implication of this is that they are only able to complete a narrow part of the assessed curriculum compared to their peers in other schools.</p>
<p>The quality of the texts students read were lower, with students being given shorter texts and ones targeted at youth rather than adult readers. </p>
<p>As a result, students were found to be diverted into a low track curriculum with limited exposure to the content necessary to enter higher education. Teaching approaches were observed to be highly structured and teacher directed.</p>
<p>Some districts and schools in California have gone further and <a href="http://justschools.gseis.ucla.edu/solution/pdfs/OTL.pdf">proposed standards</a> and measures around opportunity to learn to ascertain true outcomes for students. </p>
<p>Examples of measures include whether or not students have access to qualified teachers, access to advanced classes and the amount of time spent with the subject matter, and whether the teachers have the knowledge and training to be effective in the context they are teaching. </p>
<p>These sorts of measures would give governments a truer picture of the distribution of resources in education and enable them to make decisions that are more equitable. </p>
<p>Students would benefit from a more equitable distribution of resources and there would be greater transparency in learning progress against performance standards. </p>
<h2>Something needs to change</h2>
<p>It is not enough to wring our hands when successive OECD reports and <a href="https://theconversation.com/naplan-results-reveal-little-change-in-literacy-and-numeracy-performance-here-are-some-key-takeaway-findings-70208">National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) </a> results emerge showing Australian Indigenous students have made little, or very uneven, progress.</p>
<p>Something needs to change. </p>
<p>We need to understand there are opportunity costs associated with poor educational outcomes for Australian Indigenous students. </p>
<p>The greatest cost is borne by students through low achievement. But they are also by the school in the provision of remedial interventions, retention rates, repeated years, special education, and disciplinary problems that are often tied to school failure. </p>
<p>Society further <a href="https://theconversation.com/closing-doors-what-do-school-dropouts-cost-us-9499">bears the cost</a> of students dropping out, incarceration, and low productivity in the workforce. </p>
<p>In the case of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, it is a cost borne by successive generations – and hence the community as a whole.</p>
<p>Opportunity to learn is not the panacea of what is not working in Australian Indigenous education. Achievement gap data is a poor guide for policy to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. </p>
<p>We need more comprehensive data that scrutinises schools and their practices, including what occurs in the classrooms. </p>
<p>One key data strategy to bring about change is to use it to create a culture of inquiry in our schools. We must have a willingness to ask questions and not be afraid of the answers. </p>
<p>Where is our school at with Indigenous students? Why are we there? And what needs to change to improve achievement? Continuous monitoring must also become part of the school culture to evaluate if the changes are appropriate and contributing to raising achievement. </p>
<p>Data also helps to build dissatisfaction with current practices when they are manifested in low expectations, low-level curricula, and low-level instructional strategies.</p>
<p>It will also help a good school leader bring their staff, students and community together to create a platform for a shared vision and plan. We need to ensure everyone gets plenty of opportunities to be involved with the data collection, analysis and use, and then change will be inevitable.</p>
<hr>
<p>• <em>Elizabeth McKinley explores this theme further in a new book called <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/items/165663">Educating Australia: Challenges for the Decade Ahead</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71994/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth McKinley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Focusing on the opportunity to learn gap removes the emphasis from locating “the problem” in the person, and turns our attention to the differences in access to educational resources.Elizabeth McKinley, Professor of Indigenous Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/621662016-07-24T20:04:11Z2016-07-24T20:04:11ZTeaching phonics skills alongside reading raises literacy achievement among Indigenous children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131198/original/image-20160720-8014-1pdgfn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indigenous children in Australia continue to slip below national minimum standards for literacy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Neda Vanovac/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>“Despite a long history of policy attention, no consistent improvement has been made in the literacy and numeracy achievement of Indigenous Australian primary school students.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is the latest finding from the <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/indigenous-primary-school-achievement">2016 Productivity Commission report</a> on Indigenous primary school achievement.</p>
<p>It reveals that Indigenous children are still greatly disadvantaged in numeracy and literacy skills. </p>
<p>Around nine out of ten Year 9 students in remote Indigenous communities are at, or below, the <a href="http://www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au/">national minimum standard for literacy</a>. </p>
<p>The situation is similar for those Indigenous children living in other areas of Australia, including cities. </p>
<h2>Raising achievement among Indigenous achievement</h2>
<p>Maori children in New Zealand face similar issues, and trail behind non-Indigenous children in literacy and numeracy. </p>
<p>They also tend to be disadvantaged, marginalised from minority groups, living in poverty, spread across remote, rural, and urban areas, not expected to do well, and attend schools that are unable to break the cycle of failure. When a child lags in literacy, it sets them up for failure in later life.</p>
<p>So how can the Australian government break this cycle and raise Indigenous achievement to mainstream levels? </p>
<h2>A program that’s working</h2>
<p>A literacy program being used for Indigenous, disadvantaged children in New Zealand has had some success. </p>
<p><a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01222/full">Research shows</a> that the program helped to raise literacy levels of Year 2 Indigenous Maori children attending schools in poor areas to average levels with just a small change to current methods.</p>
<p>In the study, a group of 96 six-year-olds were randomly put into four groups: phonics, where children learn to read by sounding out words, book reading, where children read books again and again and learn words visually, mathematics, where children did maths and no reading at all, and a combination of phonics and Big Book – books with large print and colourful illustrations – reading. </p>
<p>After 12 30-minute lessons that took place once a week over several months, the group with the combination approach was significantly ahead of the other groups on a number of measures. </p>
<p>They were at average levels for their age in word reading, and approaching average in reading accuracy, comprehension, and spelling. Whereas the control groups (phonics only, book reading only, mathematics only) lagged behind. </p>
<p>The success of the approach was that it combined the teaching of phonics skills with the reading of authentic children’s literature. There was direct instruction – where the teacher taught specific phonics rules for how to sound out and pronounce key words from the book – and an engaging format (children’s literature). The stories were chosen so that children could relate to them. </p>
<p>This approach was so successful because children learned rules to help them sound out words from their Big Book, and because they were able to see the rules in action while reading the Big Book with their teacher.</p>
<p>Indigenous children are currently taught phonics separately from reading. The combined approach, however, shows children how to sound out words from the Big Book first and then to read the words in the Big Book.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131315/original/image-20160721-31151-1b79pyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131315/original/image-20160721-31151-1b79pyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131315/original/image-20160721-31151-1b79pyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131315/original/image-20160721-31151-1b79pyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131315/original/image-20160721-31151-1b79pyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131315/original/image-20160721-31151-1b79pyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131315/original/image-20160721-31151-1b79pyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Combined approach: before reading the Big Book called Greedy Cat, the children studied words from the book that follow phonics rules like the ‘ur’ in ‘purr’, the ‘ill’ in ‘still’, and the ‘ch’ in ‘lunch’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Laura Tse</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Closing the gap</h2>
<p>A similar combined approach would be effective for Indigenous children in Australia both at the early childhood level and in the regular school system. </p>
<p>It’s an approach that the <a href="http://closingthegap.dpmc.gov.au/">2016 Closing the Gap report</a> – which sought to find out what was and wasn’t working for Indigenous Australians – is looking for. </p>
<p>This research is part of a wider conception of school change originally developed by education psychologists at <a href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept92/vol50/num01/How-Project-READ-Builds-Inquiring-Schools.aspx">Stanford University</a> called Project Read that aimed to teach children not just to read but to increase their other academic skills as well.</p>
<p>It focused on language and literacy, especially decoding, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.</p>
<p>This <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED338726.pdf">school-wide model</a> has been implemented in both high and low poverty areas of the US. The project had a strong impact in one South Central Los Angeles school that had always been below the district average but whose language and reading scores, over a ten year period, had gradually come much closer to that average. </p>
<p>Such positive results for one school in a poor area showed that progress can be made across the whole school.</p>
<p>Self-belief is a requisite requirement for success, and good academic skills can provide a solid foundation for self-belief. This approach could set the necessary foundations and help close the gap for Indigenous children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62166/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Dillon receives funding from The Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Nicholson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A New Zealand literacy program is helping to raise Indigenous achievement to mainstream levels.Tom Nicholson, Professor of Literacy Education, Massey UniversityAnthony Dillon, Lecturer, Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.