First Nations children make up a disproportionate number of children in the province's care, but they're often cut off from aboriginal culture, a conference in Victoria heard this week.
The question for First Nations communities and child and youth care workers is how to change that to get better outcomes for aboriginal children.
"Research shows that when children know about their culture it acts as a protective factor," said Leslie Brown, University of Victoria associate dean in the faculty of human and social development, who helped organize the conference on behalf of the Indigenous Child Welfare Research Network.
About 51 per cent of children in care in B.C. are aboriginal, although First Na-tions make up only 9.3 per cent of the child population in B.C.
Among practical ideas brought up at the conference was an "aunties program," Brown said.
"When a family is in trouble and children might be in need of protection, women in the community who are healthy and have been vetted can come in and work with the family before the system gets involved," she said.
That could avoid removing children from the family, which too often leads to generations of children in care, Brown said.
She said research based in aboriginal communities is key to improving outcomes.
The idea of research can be alarming to First Nations, said Sandrina de Finney, assistant professor in the school of child and youth care and a member of the Malaseet First Nation. She recalled stories from her mother about research on children in residential schools on what happens to teeth and growth when children are deprived of certain foods.
"But we can do that research on our own terms," de Finney said. "We have always known what songs to sing to a colicky baby, we know when to go fishing and how the stars work."
