Kina wiya (Extended family and community members)
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The default presumption in Canadian law is that parents or immediate nuclear families have primary rights and responsibility for the care of children. In an Indigenous context, the people who have cultural obligations, responsibilities and rights for the care of children may be much broader. Indigenous Peoples have wider kinship relationships and privileging parents diminishes the role of other people who are culturally very important to Indigenous children (Ardith Walkem, Wrapping Our Ways Around Them: Indigenous Communities and Child Welfare Guidebook)
In Anishinaabe families, kina wiya or ”everyone” is responsible for the wellbeing of children. Children are not only raised by their families, but by the community as a whole. The responsibilities held by extended family members include providing daily acts of care and support as well as working together to address harms and challenges as they arise. Broader Anishinaabe ideas of kinship should also be considered in determining temporary care placements for children who are vulnerable or at risk.
A North Shore Elder said that “we taught each other to help raise our children, and we did that as a family… nobody was excluded…everybody looked after everybody…aunties, uncles, grandmothers, grandfathers, especially the small ones…nobody stood alone, they were altogether in a circle. Babies, youth, adults, and elders relied on one another. Everyone had responsibility. Extended families also came together to make decisions when children and youth were in need of support and care.
Wilma Bissaillon of Mississauga explains how community involvement in raising children helps them to build a sense of identity and connection in contrast to the separations created by the imposition of the child welfare system:
And then, when you went out of your lodge or your wigwam, you had the other ones that formed your community of the circle. And, within that circle, you just kind of took care of everybody; you took care of the child across from you or over on the other side, but nobody was really alone. Whereas the child... and I can't remember... the Children’s Aid Society created separation, and that separation is what we experience today. So we have a lot of [our] children who went out and got adopted or were taken away from our homes to be in a non-Native home, and they kind of lost who they were. And I guess that’s what we would like to see – at least, this is what I would like to see – is, we return back to that practice of keeping our children with us so that they know who they are without having to be told who they are. So, yeah, this is very important to me, not only in my job, but I think as an Elder going forward when we see these kinds of things being developed.
Nelson Toulouse said that “wellbeing comes from how we are raised and how we walk this earth. We learned that from our parents. This is what this is about.” Extended family members can also provide gendered guidance. As an example, a single dad in the Nogdawindamin Elders and Cultural Workers session was advised to lean on grandmas and aunties for support for raising his daughter. For a single father raising his daughter, this is where the role of Aunties come in, because that’s how it was long ago when Aunties came to play and teach young girls. Aunties (and grandmas) do rites of passage, helping young girls by giving them all their teachings. The teaching of the Auntie and the Grandmother is that once Grandma leaves, the Auntie’s take over.
The above teachings and practices emphasize the importance of resolving conflicts and harms within families and communities rather than involving outside authorities. Extended family should step in if there’s a broken family home. Extended family members are also expected to provide discipline and teaching when children are engaging in unsafe or harmful behaviours.
Aunts and uncles were often called upon to provide discipline for children as they grew and developed. Anishinaabe Children also had close relationships with aunts and uncles, and these relationships became more significant as they grew older and needed to develop the disciplines required in adult life. Disciplining children was a key role for the aunts and uncles. Aunts and uncles are also often tasked with providing information about relationships and sex to youth.
In the past, extended families lived together in one unit—grandparents, parents and children. Now people live in separate smaller families. While, living together in one space may not always be a preferred arrangement in Anishinaabe families today, the involvement of extended family and the maintenance of healthy relationships between extended family members is still integral to the overall development of the child. The Anishinaabe practice of ‘non-interference’ can only work in a system where children are highly connected and attached to their parents and extended family, where the culture is inherently child-friendly. It needs to be where the culture and environment are set up so that children integrate into every part of daily life and that “good choices” are easy to make (and in the best interest of the child).