Editorial: Special Issue on Custom Adoptions

The legacy of state-controlled adoption of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children in Canada has been catastrophic. It has also been completely unnecessary, writes Grace Atkinson (2010) in Aski Awasis/Children of the Earth: First Peoples Speaking on Adoption, “given the longstanding history of custom adoption in many First Nation cultures and communities across Canada” (p. 37). Custom adoption, also known as customary, cultural, or traditional adoption, is a broad concept that refers to the cultural practices of adoption and caretaking of children that have always taken place in Indigenous communities. We realize that customary adoption has not been pursued in many communities for some time, for many reasons. One contributing factor is that cultural protocols and practices regarding caretaking and child rearing are different in each community, resulting in a schism between customary laws and provincial and federal policies, practice standards and funding formulas. In some communities, these practices may not be widely known or frequently used. An additional factor is that the terms and concepts related to “adoption” and “custom adoption” are Euro-Western, English-language ideas that do not translate easily—or at all—into Indigenous languages and worldviews. Despite these complexities, custom caretaking and child-rearing practices that are rooted in nationhood and customary laws are resurging across Canada as part of community movements toward self-determination. Communities are looking at urgently needed community-driven and community-controlled ways to keep their children in the community, such as custom adoptions, culturally grounded caregiving, and initiatives for children and youth in care that support cultural safety and continuity and ancestral rights. For instance, two First Nation agencies—Yellowhead Tribal Services Agency in Edmonton, Alberta and the Q’ushintul’s tse’ Adoption Program at Lalum’utul’ Smun’eem (LS) Child and Family Services (Cowichan Tribes, Vancouver Island, British Columbia)—made great strides in revitalizing the concept of customary adoption when they creatively engaged First Nation communities to proceed with customary adoptions that are recognized by tribal and provincial laws. Yellowhead Tribal Services Agency (YTSA) was a leader in this practice from 2000 to 2013 with their open and custom adoption program. Over 100 First Nation children were adopted through the sanction of the YTSA open custom adoption ceremony, which was given to the agency by Elder Bluestone Yellowface and other Elders who participated on the advisory committee for the adoption program. The program’s most prominent success is that none of the adoptions it arranged have broken down or dissolved. In BC, the Cowichan Tribes’ Lalum’utul’ Smun’eem Child and Family Services trailblazed old and new territory with its tribal adoption program Q’ushintul’s tse’. LS held its first adoption ceremony in 2008 and developed some innovative practices, such as Nation-based policy and practice guidelines for cultural planning. YTSA and LS demonstrate how reviving traditional practices and customary laws can generate a range of culturally relevant options for permanency planning with Indigenous children. Through our work and this special issue, we hope to center discussion of how custom adoption can be rejuvenated in many more Indigenous communities across Canada, supporting the return of children to their peoples, territories, and ancestral relations. For the past six years, members of the Siem Smun’eem Indigenous Child Well-being Research Network (ICWRN) at the University of Victoria have worked to document custom adoption traditions. ICWRN (web.uvic.ca/icwr) is a provincial interdisciplinary network of researchers, service providers, community members, and policy makers with an interest in using Indigenous research to transform child and family services. Aiming to address the dearth of research on custom adoptions, the network provides both a space for critical dialogue about Indigenous research related to child, youth, and family well-being and caretaking, and …