Overview

Our member First Nations are reclaiming inherent rights to protect and care for our own children, rights never ceded to any other level of government; Mnaasged Child and Family Services was created by those First Nations to deliver Child Welfare Services on their behalf

In addition, Mnaasged will provide Child Welfare services for all other FNMI children within our traditional territories as the “default” option unless a First Nation or Indigenous community has determined otherwise

Services for our own people is the primary subject of Service Model; services for other indigenous peoples will follow this template but incorporate their own unique perspectives, history, language and traditions.

“The beautiful rays of the rising sun,

shedding light on the future – our children.”

The name Mnaasged was given to us by Elder Mary Sturgeon,

Chippewa of the Thames First Nation

What are our core values? Who we are?

Within the cultures and First Nations in the Mnaasged territory of Lunaapeew, Anishnawbe and

Onkwehónwe, the following translation of the cultural teachings will serve as the determinants and

guides to the work of Mnaasged.

The Sacred Bundle

The Onkwehónwe, Anishnawbe and Lunaapeew speak about Natural Law as the teachings that define

the sacredness of life. It is the principles or values that govern human relations and the relations

between humans and the natural world, the land, the animals and the spirit world all of which

contribute and create balance of life.

The Sacred Bundle is an expression and extension of those Natural Laws. Sacred bundles have

historically been used to extend the teachings to the next generation, reminders of the traditional oral

transmission of the teachings that travel from one generation to the next. It is within this spirit that this

bundle is created to acknowledge the Natural Law of each of the First Nations combining their teachings

to create an indigenous foundation of spiritual

Code of Ethics

Wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility, and truth. Ethics in the workplace involve making

decisions in the face of priorities, responsibilities, and restraints, which at times may be clear but at

other times may be ambiguous and conflicting. It is at these times that the decision-making process

within Mnaasged Child and Family Services will consider the values of the Seven Grandfather Teachings.

Mnaasged CFS recognizes that its employees are in public position and are seen to be in a special

position of trust with high expectations with regard to proper use of resources, information, and power.

As such it imposes ethical obligations on employees to act in the best interest of the organization. From

the values come the standards of conduct expected of employees. Employees are expected to strive to

live up to these standards. The values of Mnaasged are a set of ideals to which employees should aspire.

The standards of conduct are intended to be more practicably enforced.

The Mnaasged Vision Tree

Our vision for children, families, communities and the agency is described in the Mnaasged Vision Tree.

The Sacred Tree of Life is a symbol of peace and strength for Indigenous people, and for Mnaasged.

Roots and Soil

The Roots of the Tree describe how the Original Spirit of our people was severely damaged following contact with colonialism. Prior to contact, the people had strong communities, strong families, and a strong economic and spiritual foundation. Our cultures, our spirituality, our languages are a part of the Earth providing nourishment for the spirit and identity for everyone within the community. Our lands provided more than enough food and materials for clothing and shelter, through hunting, harvesting and

agricultural practices.

Our Tribal societies were sustained through the Clan systems, ceremonies, and traditional customs and practices.

Contact with the European colonial system brought devastation to our nations. Our lands, our homes,

our economic base, our political leadership, our languages, our spirituality and our pride – these things

were all stolen from us. The colonial system was intent on annihilating and/or assimilating us in ways

that were truly attempted genocide. This is represented in the pollution of the very roots of indigenous existence. The theft of our children who were imprisoned in the residential schools was an attempt to steal the spirit of our peoples. As a result, we have lived with alcohol and drug addictions, abuse,

oppression and low self-esteem.

The Trunk of the Tree

The tree trunk represents the backbone of the agency. Relationships are a high priority for Mnaasged, as

we know that solid relationships are paramount to building a successful child and family service agency.

Mnaasged must be grounded in strong relationships with First Nation leaders, community members, and

external agencies and other partners. Similarly, strong internal relationships among the Board of Directors, management, staff and foster parents are necessary. We want Mnaasged to set an example of healthy relationships for the children and families we serve.

Self Care is a priority for successful agency development. We cannot have healthy relationships or provide healthy services if we ourselves are not healthy. Thus, staff are encouraged and required through supervision to take care of themselves and to focus on their own healing journeys. All staff are required to develop and sustain their own self-care plan.

Authenticity is another aspect of the Tree Trunk. We strive always to work with dignity and integrity, to

be real and not to disguise or alter the truth.

Mnaasged has a role to assist in educating and supporting the people in our communities to break the silence about our history of colonization and oppression, to tell our stories, and engage in open dialogue.

Our service model and every aspect of the agency are to be culturally-based. We want for the people we

serve to experience our services in a holistic way. We will seek meaningful dialogue and feedback from the communities when developing and designing services. Our community development work will utilize Indigenous and creative processes that empower and develop skills of community members.

Critical thinking requires that we examine our own positions of power and to look at how we participate

in the abuse of power and how we contribute to the disempowerment of others. Collective action has the power and mandate to effect change through challenging structural oppression and power imbalances.

We are committed to developing the agency in ways that are grounded in culture and language, and to

articulate Indigenous approaches to services and governance, and using the Indigenous languages to

describe our programs and services.

Research and evaluation is another aspect of the backbone of the agency, as we seek to utilize Indigenous

best practices and to continually improve the ways that we work. Indigenous methods of research and

evaluation are used to strengthen the agency operations, as well as to strengthen and educate the people

we serve.

The Tree Branches

The Tree spreads out above the Trunk into a network of branches that produce leaves, flowers and fruit.

These branches represent the agency programs and services. Our Shared Vision for agency services

reflects our belief that children are sacred gifts from the Creator and that the Creator brings us together

to share our own gifts in the protection, nurturance and care for our children.

The Rainbow

The Rainbow describes the Rights of First Nation Children. These Rights include:

The Sun

The Sun embodies Vision, Understanding, and Respect, as well as Prayer, Ceremonies, and the Elders.

The Sun represents Spiritual Guidance and the Original Teachings, Laws and Beliefs. These Sacred Ways

were disrupted and damaged through the colonial systems and the residential schools. They were not

destroyed. Mnaasged aspires to meet our sacred responsibilities, together with the communities,

through best practices that will protect and support our children and families now and for the future

generations.

The Values that sustain this vision include:

Vision of the Future for Our Children

Mnaasged Child and Family Services vision of the First Nations to reclaim sovereignty in child and family

welfare. Sovereignty includes the sovereign right to care for our children, the right to keep our children

within our communities, and the right to care for our children according to our Indigenous customs of

care. Sovereignty also includes the responsibility for families, extended families, Clans and community

members to provide love, care, protection and guidance for our children, the youth, the adults and the

Elders throughout all the stages of life.

Our people have always been sovereign

nations with the rights and responsibilities

to provide care for our children. During

historical times, Indigenous people cared

successfully for their children within the

Nation communities, according to our

Indigenous customs of care.

Colonial oppression disrupted these

effective systems of care. Many people

were murdered during the times of early

contact, many children were orphaned,

and many families left homeless.

Communities were disrupted and moved

to new territories where they were

confined on small tracts of reserve lands.

The sacred bonds were disrupted between

the people and the land that sustained

them physically and spiritually.

Through the residential schools experience, children were stolen from their families and communities,

and generations of Indigenous children grew up without parenting, without spiritual guidance, without

community care and without their language and culture.

The intergenerational trauma of the residential schools continues today. Since the residential schools

were closed, the loss of our children has continued through the non-Native child welfare practices of

apprehending our children and placing them into outside non-Native foster homes and adoption homes.

The development of Mnaasged affords us the opportunity to rebuild our original customs of care and to

take back the full responsibility for the care of our own children and families.

Our eventual goal is to reclaim sovereignty in child and family welfare

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