Indigenous parents and child welfare: Mistrust, epistemic injustice, and training
| Author | Robert Leckey,Chukwubuikem Nnebe,Miriam Clouthier,Raphael Schmieder-Gropen |
| DOI | 10.1177/09646639211041476 |
| Published date | 01 August 2022 |
| Date | 01 August 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Indigenous parents and
child welfare: Mistrust,
epistemic injustice, and
training
Robert Leckey , Raphael Schmieder-Gropen,
and Chukwubuikem Nnebe
Faculty of Law, McGill University, Canada
Miriam Clouthier
IMK sencrl/LLP, Montreal, Canada
Abstract
The settler state’s taking of Indigenous children into care disrupts their communities and
continues destructive, assimilationist policies. This article presents the perceptions of
lawyers, social workers and judges of how Indigenous parents experience child welfare
in Quebec. Our participants characterized those experiences negatively. Barriers of lan-
guage and culture as well as mistrust impede meaningful participation. Parents experi-
ence epistemic injustice, wronged in their capacity as knowers. Mistrust also hampers
efforts to include Indigenous workers in the system. Emphasizing state workers’ignor-
ance of Indigenous family practices and the harms of settler colonialism, participants
called for greater training. But critical literature on professional education signals the
limits of such training to change institutions. Our findings reinforce the jurisdictional
calls away from improving the system towards empowering Indigenous peoples to run
services of child welfare. The patterns detected and theoretical resources used are rele-
vant to researchers of other institutions that interact with vulnerable populations.
Keywords
Child welfare, continuing professional education, epistemic injustice, First Nations
parents, Indigenous parents, social work
Corresponding author:
Robert Leckey, Faculty of Law, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Email: robert.leckey@mcgill.ca
Article
Social & Legal Studies
2022, Vol. 31(4) 559–579
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/09646639211041476
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Introduction
In Canada and other settler states, child welfare takes Indigenous children from their fam-
ilies into care at a rate vastly higher than their share of the population. On some views,
this disruption of child rearing within Indigenous families and communities continues the
destruction done by overlapping assimilationist, even genocidal, policies. The dealings of
Indigenous parents with the agencies of child welfare and the courts thus command atten-
tion on the part of those concerned with colonization’s ongoing harms. In research
designed collaboratively with the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal, we asked
lawyers, social workers and judges in child welfare in Quebec for their perceptions of
Indigenous parents’experiences with the system and their recommendations for change.
Our participants cast Indigenous parents’dealings with child welfare and the youth
courts in overwhelmingly negative terms. They stressed state workers’ignorance of
Indigenous family practices and the ongoing harms of settler colonialism. Interviews
indicated that, in contending with child welfare and the courts, Indigenous parents experi-
ence epistemic injustice –wrongs to individuals in their capacity as knowers. This
concept and related ones are more present in research in philosophy and social work
than in legal studies. As for participants’recommendations, the most frequent was for
more training about Indigenous peoples. But critical literature on professional education,
developed in the health sciences, cautions that such training has limited capacity to
change institutions substantially. While recommendations focused on adjustments to
individual conduct –on the part of state personnel and Indigenous parents –structural,
fundamental changes seem necessary. We contend, then, that our findings reinforce jur-
isdictional calls not to fix the colonial system but to transfer authority over child welfare
to Indigenous communities.
Given its location and scope, this article may speak most immediately to scholars of
‘postcolonial’contexts, Indigenous peoples, social services and the legal system. But it
may contribute to broader readerships. The conditions for epistemic injustice and profes-
sionals’recourse to training as a remedy for structural injustice obtain in settings other
than child welfare. Our analysis may thus inform researchers of other institutions that
interact with vulnerable people internally or externally, such as the military, police and
healthcare. Moreover, the article’s theoretical resources relating to epistemic injustice
and critiques of professional training hold untapped potential for sociolegal researchers.
Research and Legal Context
This project addresses a gap in the research: no empirical study has gathered the percep-
tions of professionals in child welfare regarding the process for Indigenous parents.
It complements the rare studies of Indigenous mothers dealing with the system in
Quebec (Croteau, 2019; Soumagnas, 2015; for other provinces, see Bennett, 2009;
MacDonald, 2002; on Aboriginal youth in youth protection in Quebec, see Gagnon
Dion et al., 2017; Gagnon Dion et al., 2018).
Indigenous children are grossly overrepresented within state care in Canada, including
in Quebec.
1
This situation prevails in other settler states, such as Australia and New
Zealand (Tilbury and Thoburn, 2011: 298–300). Materially, the risks propelling the
560 Social & Legal Studies 31(4)
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