Inuvialuit child service law to replace 'sterile and colonialist' system with cultural continuity

Inuvialuit youth in child and family services will now be supported to remain in their home communities after a new law was signed in Inuvik, N.W.T., on Wednesday. 

The new legislation was implemented by the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC) and was the first of its kind created by an Indigenous government in the N.W.T., and the first in an Inuit region.

Now, youth who are beneficiaries of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR) — which includes Inuvik, Aklavik, Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour, Tuktoyaktuk and Ulukhaktok — entering child and family services anywhere in the country will be supported so they can remain in their home community, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Jackie Jacobson, MLA for Nunakput, said many Inuvialuit youth are in the foster system in Alberta, and this law can help bring them home. 

Duane Ningaqsiq Smith, IRC chair, said residential schools have created intergenerational traumas that continue to affect Inuvialuit family relationships.

"Because of residential schools, the parents lost that communication with their children because some of them were taken away for years and when they went back home, they couldn't even speak the same language," he said. "Then it just became a vicious cycle."

That disconnect has been worsened with the current child and family services system that keeps youth away from their culture and history, Smith said. 

Smith said the new legislation will eventually allow the IRC to build its own child and family services that offers financial, cultural and educational support for Inuvialuit families. But he was clear in saying it will not just replace the existing one run by the territorial government. 

"It's going to be reflective of our culture and our approach, not just a sterile colonialist approach that's been implemented for the last 100 years," he says.

Smith says in order for the IRC to create its own child and family services system, it will need additional funding from the federal government.

Jacobson, who is Inuvialuit, has fostered numerous children with his wife Jenny.

He says they make it a priority to teach all their children about their culture.

"I'm Inuvialuit, hunting, fishing, dog teams ... and we instill in them family," he said.

Jacobson said he is very happy with the new legislation as it will ensure more youth continue to be immersed in their culture.