Aboriginal mothers who have lost custody of their kids say the child-welfare system is often unfair, overly complex, and alienates children from their culture.

Those are the findings of a study released Friday based on interviews with 32 Manitoba mothers who navigated the province's child-welfare system -- the social workers, the lawyers and court processes, the addiction and counselling programs and visitation rules.

Many of the women were middle-aged and may have come into contact with child welfare before cases involving First Nations children were referred to aboriginal agencies and social workers better able to respect First Nations' culture.

But the women told researchers they experienced overt racism from social workers and struggled with foster parents who failed to respect cultural roots. Many said they couldn't get their kids back even though they cleaned up their lives.

Aboriginal mothers who have lost custody of their kids say the child welfare system is often unfair, overly-complex and alienates them from their kids.

Those are the findings of a study released this morning based on interviews with 32 mothers who navigated the province's troubled child welfare system -- the social workers, the lawyers and court processes, the counseling programs, the visitation rules.

Many of the women were middle-aged and may have come into contact with child welfare before devolution -- the process when child welfare cases were handed over to aboriginal agencies and social workers better able to respect First Nations' culture. But they told researchers they experienced overt racism from social workers and foster homes often broke vital cultural bonds.

The study recommends the creation of support groups, plain-language guides and an advocates office to help aboriginal women trying to win back custody of their kids. The study's authors say more needs to be done to help parents do a better job before their kids are placed in foster homes.