Rather than provide community resources and supports.įrom the 1960s to the 1980s, provincial governments considered the removal of Indigenous children the fastest and easiest way of addressing Indigenous child welfare issues. With many communities under-serviced, under-resourced and under the control of the Indian Act, provincial child welfare agencies chose to remove children from their homes Surrounding children and child welfare in Indigenous communities. ( See also Economic Conditions of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and Social Conditions of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.) With no additional financial resources, provincial agencies in 1951 inherited a litany of issues The process began in 1951, when amendments to the Indian Actgave the provinces jurisdiction over Indigenous child welfare (Section 88) where none existed federally.īy the 1960s, after nearly a century living under devastating federal policies, such as the Indian Act and residential schools, many IndigenousĬommunities - particularly those living on- reserve- were rampant with poverty, high death rates and socio-economic barriers.

Not an isolated event propelled by inferior Indigenous parenting, but rather an extension of paternalistic policies in Canada that sought the assimilation of Indigenous cultures and communities. often without their parents’ or band’s consent - and their subsequent adoption into predominantly non-Indigenous families across the United States and Canada. In the report, Johnston describes the large-scale apprehension of Indigenous children in the 1960s from their homes, communities and families of birth The child welfare system, entitled Native Children and the Child Welfare System.

Patrick Johnston, a researcher for the Canadian Council on Social Development, first used the term “Sixties Scoop” in his 1983 report on Indigenous children in The “Scooping” of Indigenous Children, 1951–80s

Aim definition 1960s