Voice of spirit Bear
Impression of Cindy Blackstock
“Governments need to stop politicizing the lives of First Nations children.”
“What would it feel like if your kids weren’t worth the money? . . . And what would it feel like to be a child who was being treated as if they weren’t worth the money by the Government of Canada?
We know what that looks like.
They start to believe that they’re not good enough, that they’re not smart enough . . . and then we see these terrible rates of suicide in our communities.
That is the reality.
We need to meet the needs of the children.”
“First Nations kids are 17.2 times more likely to be in foster care. Why? Because of poverty, poor housing, caregiver substance misuse related to multi-generational trauma and domestic violence.”
Cindy Blackstock, Executive Director of First Nations Child & Family Caring Society
Cindy Blackstock is a Canadian Gitxsan activist for child welfare and Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.
She is also a professor for the School of Social Work at McGill University. She is a recipient of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Cindy Blackstock has received over 50 awards including the Atkinson Charitable Foundation's Economic Justice fellowship (2009), National Aboriginal Achievement Awards (2011), Amnesty International Person of Conscience Award (2017), and the Janusz Korzak Medal for children's rights advocacy. She has also received 20 honorary doctorate degrees including the Doctor of Iyiniw Kiskeyihtamowinq Blue Quills First Nations University (2016) Asonamakew (Passing Knowledge on) from Blue Quills University in 2016 and an honorary doctorate from Osgoode Law School in 2017.
Blackstock was born in 1964 in Burns Lake, British Columbia. She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree (UBC), two Master degrees (Management from McGill University; Jurisprudence in Children's Law and Policy from Loyola University Chicago) and a PhD in social work (University of Toronto).
In 2016 The Globe and Mail described her as "Canada's 'relentless moral voice' for First Nations equality".
Blackstock has become an influential voice within the Indigenous, social work and child rights communities. Blackstock has spoken out about the systemic inequalities in public services experienced by First Nations children, youth and families.
In 2018 Cindy Blackstock published a book entitled Spirit Bear and Children Make History, to explain human rights to youngsters.
http://aptnnews.ca/2018/01/04/cindy-blackstocks-spirit-bear-book-written-to-explain-human-rights-to-youngsters/
Spirit Bear
Spirit Bear is a fuzzy teddybear who has accompanied child welfare advocate, Cindy Blackstock at every hearing and legal battle in her push for equality for First Nations’ kids.
“I really wanted something in the room that reminded all of us what this case is actually about— which was children.”
Children from Carrier-Sekani Tribal Council wrote and performed a Spirit Bear theme song for him:
Spirit Bear now has four books:
These books and more First Nations, Métis and Inuit books can be found at Goodminds.com
“If we can raise a generation of non-Indigenous children – who know about these inequities, who don’t accept these inequities or rationalize these inequities – that creates a better ground for those inequalities to end for First Nations’ kids”
Spirit Bear has his own law degree, website, twitter account, and has already starred in two animated short films, with two more films in progress.
“A member of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, Spirit Bear represents the 165,000 First Nations children impacted by the First Nations child welfare case at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, as well as the thousands of other children who have committed to learning about the case and have taken part in peaceful and respectful actions in support of reconciliation and equity.”
A young Spirit Bear in the wilderness
One of the rarest animals in the world, of whom only 50-100 exist, the Spirit Bear is a white or cream-coated black bear. Neither albinos, nor a unique species or subspecies, Spirit Bears are a unique colouration of the coastal British Columbian black bear, subspecies kermode.
“... sadly many Canadians judge you as if you were getting more . . .
In 2007 we filed this human rights case against the Canadian government.
We, the parties— the Assembly of First Nations, the Chiefs of Ontario and Anishnabe-aski Nation, Amnesty International and the Canadian Human Rights Commission— we were just fellow travellers who were trying to break this pattern of these courageous and dignified children and families screaming into silence into the public narrative.
We wanted this type of apartheid service delivery to stop.
It was necessary for us to litigate, to change Canada’s pattern of giving First Nations Children less.
We needed the Canadian public to awaken to the injustices.
This case shows you that public pressure can work.”
References
- https://www.aptnnews.ca/facetoface/governments-need-to-stop-politicizing-the-lives-of-first-nations-children-says-cindy-blackstock/
- https://fncaringsociety.com
- https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/cindy-blackstocks-spirit-bear-book-written-to-explain-human-rights-to-youngsters/
- https://bear.org/what-is-a-spirit-bear/
- https://spiritbear.com/wildlife/spirit-bear/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Blackstock
- https://diversityconference.ca/events/keynote-dr-cindy-blackstock/
- https://www.dal.ca/news/2022/02/11/cindy-blackstock--indigenous-children-worth-fighting-for.html
- https://www.travel4wildlife.com/face-to-face-spirit-bear/
- https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/cindy-blackstocks-spirit-bear-book-written-to-explain-human-rights-to-youngsters/