There’s this case about an Aboriginal child who has been adopted by foster parents who are not themselves of the same ethnicity as the child (i think the mother is Caucasian, the father is part Aboriginal, but not of the same Aboriginal group as the child). Anyways, to cut a very long story short, the child (who is Squamish) is in the middle of a custody dispute between her foster parents and her band elders; the elders claim that the Squamish - who number less than 2000 - will be wiped out within generations if their children keep being adopted into non-Squamish communities. Her case is not the first case of adoption; others have been adopted as well from the Squamish band, by non-Aboriginals.
The child is 5 years old… It was in yesterday’s Globe and Mail incase anyone wants to check the accuracy of the story. i think she should be allowed to stay with her foster parents… the way they described her, she seems well-adjusted as it is in her home and ripping her away from the only people she’s known for her brief five years of life, wouldn’t that cause more damage in the long run ? The article did mention that no one from the Squamish band bothered to inquire about the child until they came to know that she had been adopted by a Caucasian mother. Now they’ve paid upto $200,000 in legal fees just to get this one child back. That’s pretty ridiculous. You could have spent that 200,000 on something else - like an orphanage within your community, or support services for single Squamish mothers with children.
Flip side of the coin is, there are only about 1500 Squamish individuals left in the world. So their argument is that, if these cross-cultural adoptions are permitted, pretty soon the next generation of Squamish will be raised without any knowledge of their culture and their beliefs. i think each case should be judged on its own merit. If the child is already five years old, let her be where she is… ripping her away from the only home she’s ever known is going to damage her in the long-term and that damage may be irreversible who knows.
[QUOTE] Originally posted by Zakiii: *
**I agree it’s silly to ruin the child’s life just because of some stupid culture.*
What will they achieve by preserving it? Cultures become extinct/modified all the time and new ones form, its no big deal.
[/QUOTE]
Back up the train there. :) If this was a Pakistani ethnic group we are talking about, we wouldn't call it a "stupid culture". It's not "stupid" for them who are facing cultural genocide (in their words).
If this was a Pakistani 5 year old girl, from some very small Pakistani ethnic group, and a Caucasian couple wanted to fly her from Pakistan to, let's say, their home in Las Vegas and they promised they would try to uphold her culture, etc., would we still be like - "don't ruin the child's life because of some stupid culture"?
i think each case has to be judged on its own merit. The girl is five years old already. At that age, kids form bonds with their primary care-givers. She's probably learned to recognize her foster-parents' faces. Taking her away from that, is not in her best interests i think. But each case should be judged individually... If it's a two-month old baby, then the circumstances are very different.
The Squamish have a valid perspective as well, to some extent. It's their entire survival they are talking about.
As I understand, in the UK, fostering is only permitted in cases where the child's identity would not be confused through fostering.
So there are restrictions, say, preventing ethnically Pakistastani children being fostered by Caucasions, or, in particular, preventing children of one religion being fostered by foster parents of another.
Of course, this leads to a problem with ethnic and religious minorities where fostering is not common. As an example, the British government is desperate to find Muslim foster parents to resolve the problem of a surplus Muslim children who have been taken into state custody to protect them from unfit or unavailable parents and family.
If they are so concerned, why didn't they come forward 5 years ago when the baby was up for adoption?
What is the guarantee that if a Squamish family adopts the baby, he/she will preserve the Squamish culture? When the kid grows up, he/she can easily move out of the Squamish community and marry someone from China for that matter and move there.
I could understand the problem if it was a religious conflict rather than a cultural one.
Just curious, if there is a difference between adoptive parents (adoption) and foster parents? Is it just semantics where the two terms are used inter-changably or is it a more clear-cut distinction
I thought, foster parents are selected from a pool of volunteers and are given custody by the state to take care of the child and the state provides them funds every month. If the parents don't think the child is working out, they return it to the Child Services Agency.
Adoption, as far as I understand is more encompassing where the parents take full custody and are responsible for bearing all costs for the child.
MS,
Well that’s an interesting law. i don’t think it exists in Canada. Just to throw a wrench in that, though – what do you do in cases where you aren’t able to find the same ethnicity of foster parents, as the child’s ethnicity? What happens to that child? Does s/he have to stay in an orphanage for the rest of her/his life just because they weren’t able to find ethnically-similar parents?
In this case of the 5 year old Squamish girl, i should add something else - the foster parents (the mother is Caucasian, the father is part-Aboriginal but not Squamish) have promised to raise the child with some understanding of her culture. Now obviously, these are just words; who knows whether or not they actually will. But they have already introduced her to some Squamish people in her community and i guess they want to make her understand where she comes from, while she is still young. So it’s not as though they have completely stated they will raise this child with no knowledge whatsoever of her Squamish background.
There is no guarantee.
i think it is, but i’m not sure. i would assume the Squamish practice a different set of religious beliefs but i don’t really know that for certain. And from their perspective, their culture IS their religion in the sense of how they view relationships/spirituality/the earth, etc.
Faisal Bhai, No, in this case i think it means the same thing. Good question there :k: i THINK they may have been foster parents initially, and then probably decided they want to adopt the child… now they have custody, i think.
Maybe it was my slip to use those words interchangeably.. i’ll try to find the article and post it here if i do.