Cindy Blackstock

Cindy Blackstock, a member of the Gitksan First Nation of British Columbia, is changing the discriminatory policies and actions toward First Nations children in Canada through a vibrant social movement. Cindy is building a new child welfare system by working directly with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities and helping them translate their constructive and reconciliatory visions for child welfare into action.

Cindy is changing the mindsets of citizens—including politicians, businesspeople, and public servants—toward First Nations as well as their treatment by government. She works across disciplines and sectors to engage people within and beyond Canada to take action to bring equal funding, support, and resources to all Canadian children. Cindy works at all possible levels to make this vision a reality.

At the grassroots level, Cindy is creating a large reconciliation movement through the development of Touchstones of Hope, a process that brings together public child welfare practitioners and members of First Nations communities. Through patient network building, not only has Cindy succeeded in finding common ground among Canada’s 233 divided First Nations groups, representing 30 different languages, she has also created unique spaces where Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples can interact and plan their future collectively, putting their children’s welfare in the forefront. Together, they identify processes to solutions and address the ongoing structural and systemic barriers that have made child welfare issues, inequalities, and conflict, seemingly intractable. Touchstones’ design brings participants to the table without their titles or job functions. This creates an environment where participants are free to express their opinions and develop reconciliatory solutions while not being bound by mandate and policy or tribal protocol.

Equally important to Cindy’s mission of addressing child welfare issues for all Canadians is the knowledge dissemination and research aspect of her work. Cindy is very clear about this strategy, saying she does research “out of necessity, to change things.” She works with professional, high-caliber researchers to build a legitimate and scientifically-sound body of research on issues of child welfare. Cindy is systematically filling a critical knowledge gap and is using research as a tool to bridge the chasm between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities. In additiion, she disseminates First Nations knowledge (scientific and non-scientific) to spread awareness and build an action-focused movement through an online journal and nationwide awareness campaigns, such as “Seven Ways to Make a Difference” and “Be a Witness.” Cindy is thus building the empathetic social fabric needed to pave the way toward equity. She is also creating compelling evidence that the Western and Aboriginal paths to knowledge and understanding mesh well together, and can in fact, complete each other.

After playing a leading role in passing a historical law, Jordan’s Principle, a child-first principle to resolve jurisdictional disputes involving the care of First Nations children, Cindy is now leading the most publicly watched case in Canadian history. She is presenting a case in front of Canada’s Human Rights Tribunal against the Canadian government. Cindy’s goal, regardless of the final decision, is to engage a critical mass of Canadians in the cause of First Nations child welfare and highlight the current discrimination in health and education of First Nations families across Canada to further influence national policy.

Canada continues to grapple with its recent past of taking Aboriginal children away from their families to place them in Residential Schools. There, they were systematically stripped of their culture, and victims of physical and psychological abuse. In the wake of this long policy (i.e. the last Residential School closed its doors as recently as 1990), Aboriginal communities struggle to regain their cultures, languages, and sense of identity and community. Many First Nations communities now suffer from endemic social issues, including substance abuse and high drop out rates. These are symptoms of the continuing discriminatory policies enacted against First Nations throughout Canada. Federal and provincial governments allocate fewer financial and human resources to its most marginalized population: First Nations communities receive at least 22 percent less child welfare funding than other Canadians and $2,000 to $3,000 less elementary and secondary education funding per student. In addition, First Nations children are drastically over represented in child welfare care. Overall, there are more First Nations children in child welfare care in Canada than at the height of Residential Schools. As a result, First Nations children have poorer health, higher rates of youth suicide and incarceration, and many end up with substance abuse problems.

Although there are social service programs that aim to address some of these issues, they tend to address symptoms but not the systemic issues or its root causes. Child welfare services do not embrace local values and traditions but continue to use western methodologies. Within the government, many politicians and public servants are simply not aware of these issues. Among those who are, they generally do not have the power to change things. Others may have the power to change things but have other short-term priorities related to pending re-elections.

Among the Canadian and global public, there is lack of information about the conditions of First Nations. Moreover, the lack of knowledge and understanding of Canadian Aboriginal history creates a large gap in the identities and cultural heritage of all Canadians. In school, Aboriginal youth do not learn about their past, and grow up lacking self-confidence about their own culture. Non-Aboriginals show many misconceptions about First Nations communities, and those who are more aware often do not know how to take action.

In the 1990s Cindy was working as a child protection worker in British Columbia and saw first-hand that there are insufficient services to help First Nations resolve very complex problems. She spent many years doing front-line service work in Aboriginal communities but realized that mindsets, relationships, and structures needed to change to break the cycle of poverty and neglect.

In 1999 Cindy became the first Executive Director of the Caring for First Nation Children Society. Prior to developing a strategy, she completed a 6-month field study to understand the expectations of First Nations communities regarding the health of their families. With this research, Cindy developed a curriculum for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal social workers which is now part of the official program for any social worker dedicated to child protection in the province of British Columbia. It is a 13-week university program that includes an internship on a reserve. In 2010, more than 200 students attended this program, and a total of 600 social workers have been trained thus far. Cindy invited 15 Aboriginal people to contribute to the materials. Since many of them did not have the skills to write, they were paired with writers, and the Aboriginal authors were given copyright. This method ensured the curriculum reflect Aboriginal perspectives.

In 2002 Cindy co-founded the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society (FNCFCS) to promote equity for First Nations through research, advocacy, and curriculum development. Rather than creating direct programming, FNCFCS developed a national approach to child welfare program development, Touchstones of Hope. Touchstones is a set of policies and a comprehensive step by step approach to attain reconciliation by promoting truth-telling, acknowledging inequities, restoration, and long-term dialogue. Touchstones’ uses a train-the-trainers model: In 2009, 30 trainers were trained across the country to facilitate workshops. In 2009 and 2010, 500 people participated in the program and 40 communities nationwide, in urban and remote areas, were offered the opportunity to implement this reconciliation approach. In British Columbia, the provincial government adopted this program in their practices to address First Nations issues. In total, more than 200 people, representing the government (i.e. Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Health) and citizen organizations (COs) use Touchstones. The implementation of Touchstones puts pressure on the government to tackle issues faced by First Nations.

Cindy found it equally important to fill the gaping knowledge gap that allows politicians and citizens alike to ignore the conditions of First Nations communities. She works with leading researchers to convince those that need to be convinced—usually the government—and speaks to them in their own language: That is to say quantitatively. This applied research program is used both as a public education tool as well as to support evidence to influence national public policy. The reports and documents are all freely accessible online. Cindy’s quantitative and qualitative research defines a problem from legal, economic, political, cultural, and social perspectives, compares the cost of not dealing with the issues at-hand to the cost of taking action, and develops joint solutions with the government. These jointly-developed solutions are then implemented within a 12-month period. She is also channeling her impact through a very open and inclusive basic newsletter for children as well as sophisticated and academic reports using her Ph.D. Cindy is harmonizing the natural beliefs of her people with the highest possible levels of education. This is a true example of reconciliation. Education in Residential Schools was torturous, but Cindy is now harnessing the power of education for social good and for the advancement of the rights of First Nations.

Cindy recognizes that involving high-profile partners is key to change at a high level. She mobilizes other organizations to write independently about Aboriginal issues in Canada. To date, some examples include: UNICEF Canada’s book on Aboriginal children’s rights using Cindy’s research; the Canadian Pediatric Society’s annual report card and best practices, including Cindy’s research as well; Amnesty International’s Write for Rights (i.e. online support for policy solutions); and the Canadian Medical Association, which passed a motion to support Jordan’s Principle. She also convinced the General Auditor of Canada, Sheila Fraser, to do her own research on the allocation of resources to Aboriginal communities and she came to the same conclusions as Cindy.

Cindy and the FNCFCS also work extensively on policy change. In 2007 Cindy won a historical national battle called Jordan’s Principle to ensure that no First Nations child could be denied proper medical and personal care due to provincial/federal arguments over jurisdictional funding for health services. (Although health care is a provincial jurisdiction, First Nations health care is managed by the federal government.) Jordan’s Principle now states that the child’s well-being comes first and payment decisions can be reviewed post hoc. The same year, the Assembly of First Nations and Cindy’s organization jointly filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission alleging that Canada was racially discriminating against First Nations children. Cindy is using civil rights law to get legal recognition that there are financial and human resources inequities for First Nations families. It is the first time in history that Canada is being held to account before a judicial body with the power to order an enforceable remedy. The tribunal began in September of 2009 and she has engaged Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada in this battle. Cindy is bringing significant national and international attention to human right’s violations against Canada’s Aboriginal people.

For her, the process is more important than the results. It is as much about public education and awareness raising, as it is about changing policy. She uses the tribunal as an engagement tool by inviting peoples of the world and organizations to join the “I am a witness” campaign. This web-based campaign provides a place for people to learn about the child welfare tribunal and invites them to register as a witness. Being a witness means that people/organizations agree to follow the case, listening carefully to both sides, and decide for themselves whether the government of Canada is treating First Nations children fairly. Registering is open to all ages in order to encourage the engagement of children and youth whom she is inviting to lead this social movement. In 2010, over 5,500 people from at least 10 countries signed on to be a witness making the First Nations child welfare tribunal the most formally watched court case in Canadian history. If Cindy wins the court case, the government of Canada will have to address the funding inequities brought forward which ties in directly with the bigger vision, developed through the Touchstones process.

Cindy was born in 1964 to a First Nations father and a non-Aboriginal mother and grew up in rural and remote communities in Northern British Columbia. Her childhood was colored by the oppressive racism against First Nations who were still being placed in Residential Schools with the aim of eradicating First Nations culture. These same schools only provided a grade three level of education as government officials believed First Nations children were only suited to household service and farming/labor. This reality coupled with the fact that federal laws had just been changed to allow First Nations people to attend high school and university meant that Cindy could not remember one First Nations person who graduated from high school, let alone went on to university. She was surrounded by stereotypes and judgments by non-Aboriginal Canadians who, not understanding the history, mistook the dramatic symptoms of government oppression as racial inadequacy.

Cindy was not comfortable with living an entire life trying to recover from the legacies of residential school and other forms of oppression—she was determined to go to university, overcoming the financial barriers. Cindy became a social worker in a bureaucracy where she learned how little the system was addressing the real problems of child welfare and poverty. She quickly realized that she did not fit there. In 1999 she became the executive director of the First Nations Caring Society where she established a successful professional development and policy institute for Aboriginal child welfare in British Columbia. She then co-created the Caring for First Nations Children Society to lead her movement for social reconciliation of First Nations and non First Nations communities.

In September of 2006 Cindy started her Ph.D. and finished in March 2009. She is an internationally recognized researcher and advocate for children’s rights who can prick the conscience of the complacent bureaucrat, but moves beyond confrontation to engage the world as citizens who share certain values and seek collaborative solutions. Her blend of community development experience, policy development, and intellectual rigour have propelled her into a leadership role within the reconciliation movement—an effort to heal the wounds of Aboriginal children by fundamentally changing the Aboriginal child welfare system.

Cindy is deeply influenced by the voices of Elders. At many critical moments in her life and career, she has connected to a spirit around her, drawing on the voices of her ancestors to make decisions when at crossroads. This has also developed her sense of community—Cindy leads by community building and helping to advance the agenda of community priorities. She is learning how to fly, which she says gives her the free space she needs to consider and solve problems.