Indigenous children in foster care should stay in home communities, says head of roundtable

A Labrador foster parent and head of a group working to better the Labrador foster-care system is stressing the importance of keeping Indigenous children with Indigenous parents in their Indigenous communities.

Amanda Rich, agency director of Innu Child and Family Services with the Innu Round Table Secretariat — a collective organization of some of Labrador's Indigenous First Nations — said the group has worked with the Newfoundland and Labrador government to push for more Indigenous children to remain in their communities instead of being sent elsewhere.

"We've seen in certain situations how when you take a child out of a community and they're placed somewhere that they're not familiar with … many things can happen with regards to destruction of a child's life," Rich told CBC Radio's Labrador Morning on Monday.

"When it comes to being Innu, you know, you can lose sight of [it] in terms of your identity. You can lose also connections with your family."

The care of Indigenous children in Newfoundland and Labrador has been under the microscope in the province for over a year, fuelled by the inquiry into the treatment and experiences of Innu children in Newfoundland and Labrador's child protection system. Meetings and hearings have been held across Labrador over the course of the year.

Innu Nation has also been pushing for children to remain in the region for years, with treatment that includes a focus on their culture and roots. 

According to Statistics Canada, about one-third of children in Newfoundland and Labrador's foster-care system in 2021 were Indigenous, even though Indigenous people made up only about nine per cent of the province's overall population.

October also marked Foster Family Month in Canada. There are approximately 560 foster families in Newfoundland and Labrador, according to Children, Seniors and Social Development Minister Paul Pike.

Rich said foster children in communities like Natuashish and Sheshatshiu have a unique opportunity to maintain aspects of Innu language and culture, being exposed to different cultural elements and feeling valued in their communities.

"[I was] making sure that my children and my family go out on the land and making sure this child has that experience. And knowing every child within the community has had probably that experience, it's making sure that still continues," Rich, a former foster parent, said.

"To me, I took pride into that. Because it wasn't just doing that because I'm obligated, it's already in me as an Innu parent … that they know where they come from."

Pike told CBC News the province values its relationship with people like Rich and the Round Table Secretariat — exploring guidelines through an Indigenous lens likely not done previously.

"We want to keep them safe and, where possible, at home with their families and living in their own culture," he said.

Part of that work includes creating mandated cultural plans for families fostering Indigenous children to support connections to their culture and meetings with Indigenous working groups since 2022, Pike said.

Outside of Indigenous care, Pike said the department is also reviewing foster care across the board in Newfoundland and Labrador, including the payments foster families receive with the rising cost of living — especially in Labrador.

"We hope to be able to talk more about this in the coming months," he said. "We do have a team of people that are putting together a plan."

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