Eight First Nations regain control over children in care

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This article was published 22/12/2015 (3601 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Several First Nations on the east side of Lake Winnipeg have the final say again in the lives of their children in care.

Under changes approved by the province that went into effect Dec. 18, the eight Ojibway First Nations are in charge of decisions about the day-to-day lives of about 1,000 children.

“The Southern First Nations Network of Care is pleased to announce and officially recognize the new governing board of directors for Southeast Child and Family Services,” an email statement announced.

“It means they can run their own agency now. They have done lots of work to prepare for this and they are on their own now,” said Bobbi Pompana, the outgoing CEO of the network. “The southern network oversees all the agencies so we will have a connection but now we’re not involved in the actual running of Southeast,” Pompana said.

A low-profile handover ceremony was held Friday, moving some indigenous front-line workers to tears.

Ian Bushie, a former chief and the new Southeast agency board chairman, hailed the decision as an example of how First Nations child welfare should be governed.

He said the handover was emotional because of its significance for families.

“You have to have a say in the direction of how your kids are cared for, in order for grassroots care to take on its full meaning,” Bushie said.

“In First Nations politics, you hear a lot of about the grassroots and this is a perfect example of that,” said Bushie.

More than 1,000 children in care

It’s been five years since the communities — which because of their sheer number made up the single largest indigenous child welfare agency in Manitoba — had the final say in child welfare decisions.

The First Nations include Poplar River, Berens River, Pauingassi, Little Grand Rapids, Bloodvein, Hollow Water, Black River and Brokenhead. Together, the number of kids in care from the eight First Nations has ranged from 1,000 to more than 1,100 every year between 2009 and 2014.

That is equivalent to about 1 in 10 out of every kid in care in the province, now numbering more than 10,000. Nearly 90 per cent are indigenous provincewide.

Southeast Child and Family Services was rebuilt from the ground up in the last five years with a clear focus to operate independently of the province and the chiefs of the eight communities.

It’s governing mechanisms are balanced between being accountable to the communities and the province’s child welfare structure.

Day to day, front-line workers now have an agency executive to report to and a governing board of directors to provide oversight.

No longer will child welfare decisions go through the provincially controlled Southern First Nations Network of Care, the child welfare administrative centre for First Nations in southern Manitoba. It was formerly known as the Southern Authority.

Southeast was one of the regions caught up in the highly charged political struggle for control between indigenous chiefs and the province, which ended up in a messy court battle.

confusing and suspicious relationship

In 2010, two years after the province took over the agency under an administrative order, allegations went public about the former Southeast Child and Family Services agency.

By then, aboriginal child welfare officials had launched a full-scale audit.

A 220-page review that year outlined a confusing and suspicious financial relationship between the child welfare agency and the tribal council run by the chiefs.

Reviewers found at least $1 million transferred out of the child welfare agency to the tribal council for questionable administrative fees, loans and other transfers that didn’t appear to benefit kids in care.

Pompana and Bushie said in separate interviews that the agency now is much different.

The biggest difference is a clear separation between child welfare matters and Southeast’s tribal council under the chiefs.

Elected officials aren’t eligible to sit on the board under new criteria designed to draw in community members with experience in child welfare matters, Bushie said.

“The reasons Southeast was in administration was all worked through over the years. They have a board of directors now that’s fully trained, a new administrator who’s done an awesome job getting everything ready. They’ve done lots of work in the last year and a half to lift the order,” Pompana said.

The board is made up of one representative from each of the communities. None of them are chiefs or councillors but the councils do appoint the representatives. The term is four years but the first board is staggered with half serving two years and half serving the full four years.

board members can’t have any political ties

Bushie, a former chief for Hollow Water, said he had to choose between throwing his name back in the ring for upcoming local elections or keeping his political distance.

“That’s a very important point,” said Bushie, “to be eligible for the board, you can’t have any political ties. That was a huge concern for the Southern Network.”

“It is the Southeast Child and Family Services and, as a board, we’ll be overseeing policy development, program development and the hands on approach,” he added.

Brokenhead Chief Jim Bear, who claimed the province’s review ultimately exonerated chiefs of wrongdoing, called the development “great news” for the southeast First Nations.

The biggest task now is to get the word out that child welfare decisions are their own again, Bear said.

“Some of our people have received the message and they are elated that we can now resume looking after our own,” Bear said.

“We will incorporate past customary traditions while assisting those working with our children and families on parenting skills, budgeting and respite services,” Bear said.

He said challenges still to overcome are related to the intergenerational legacy of residential schools and provincial child welfare system.

“The related issue is we need healing programming… to be healthy physically, mentally and spiritually to move forward and to be able to look after our own (families),” Bear said.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca