The First Peoples Child and Family Review: Special Issue on Custom Adoptions

The First Peoples Child & Family Review is published twice yearly by the First Nations Caring Society of Canada (FNCFCS). The First Peoples Child & Family Review proudly presents this Special Edition on Custom Adoptions in partnership with the Siem Smun’eem Indigenous Child Wellbeing Research Network at the University of Victoria. This edition contains research articles, agency experiences, cultural perspectives and personal stories that highlight custom adoption from a historical and contemporary perspective.

This special edition of First Peoples Child and Family Review is an outgrowth of forums and the collective and individual work of ICWRN members. The Review invited submissions that address the cultural, practice, policy, and research dimensions of custom adoptions and related customary caregiving practices, including (but not limited to) customary law and custom adoption traditions and ceremonies, custom adoptions in Indigenous and non-Indigenous families and by delegated agencies, kinship care, permanency planning, cultural continuity and cultural planning, legal considerations, and case studies of successes and challenges in custom adoption.

Articles in this Special Edition Include:

• A Discussion Paper On Indigenous Custom Adoption Part 1: Severed Connections - Historical Overview Of Indigenous Adoption In Canada

• A Discussion Paper On Indigenous Custom Adoption Part 2: Honouring Our Caretaking Traditions

• Lessons Learned From The YTSA Open Custom Adoption Program

• Creating Places Of Belonging: Expanding Notions Of Permanency With Indigenous Youth In Care

• Na Gan Ts'i'stk Grandmothers' Group Of Lax Kw'alaams