Parenting from Western and Traditional Indigenous Perspectives
By Celeste Halliwell, BBT Indigenous Game Coordinator
Living in a “nuclear family” is a Western ideology and consists of mother, father, and children. It does not include aunts, uncles, and grandparents as part of their immediate family.
In indigenous communities, the mother/caregiver was not the only contributor to children’s well-being, rather the entire community was involved with child rearing and attachment would be with relatives and the tribe. Parenting was considered to be shared among indigenous families and communities.
The extended family were known to include clans, kin, elders, and leaders in their community.
Christian values the mother as the sole caregiver for children in the home while the father worked. The mother would also form the primary attachment to her children. This was not the case for indigenous families as attachment came with the extended family.
If a family couldn’t have children, families governed by Western ideologies would have to go through a legal process to adopt a child for their family.
If an indigenous family couldn’t have a child, or if a child passed away, other members of their tribe would give them a child(ren) to raise with or without formal arrangements but would not have a legal process.
If a child was born with a disability, Western societies had them placed into institutions for care for hundreds of years.
If an indigenous child was born with disabilities, it was viewed that this person was not deficient, but could be part of their society in their own special way.
Western social values have been considered organized as a hierarchy that is practiced in terms of becoming bigger, higher, newer, or faster in terms of structure and power. These ideals have thus, created scales for people to adhere to in order to attain their preferred goals.
Indigenous cultures attempt to mold their children into ideal personalities that will enable their children’s personal strengths, both physically and spiritually. Each child in turn, will contribute to the tribe’s society to maintain traditional values and customs.
Western societies have externalized groups that are used for social control and discipline, such as the police.
Indigenous societies collectively agreed on what norms their societies would adhere to in order to maintain harmony among the tribes and prevent being ostracized from their tribes. The norms were a knowledge that was internalized and also served to minimize the diversity among acceptable behaviors.
For many years, indigenous people have been viewed as having deficiencies with parenting skills with their children, lack attachment to their children and how parenting traditions were deemed inferior in comparison to Western ideologies. This article by no means identified all of the differences between cultures and parenting practices. It does however highlight some of the true cultural ideologies behind approaches to Western and Indigenous practices of family life.
“To understand traditional parenting of children, one must firstly understand the Blackfoot ways of knowing and how the indigenous people used to live together as a community of their tribes, their land, and animals within the universe” (Betty Basteine, 2004).
Please see Parenting from Western and Indigenous Perspectives in our resources for more information and references.
References:
1. A Parents Role. Retrieved online from: Parenting | Psychology Today, March 2022.
3. Maslow, A.H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50: 370-36.
4. Lindstrom, G., Choate, P., Bastien, L., Weasel Traveller, A., Breaker, S., Breaker, C., Good Striker, W., and Good Striker, E. (2016). Nistawatsiman: Exploring First Nations parenting: A literature review and expert consultation with Blackfoot Elders. (pg. 11, 12). Calgary, AB: Mount Royal University.
5. Choate, P. & Lindstrom, G. (2018). Parenting Capacity Assessment as a Colonial Strategy. Canadian Family Law Quarterly, 37 (4): 40-60.
6. Blackstock, C. (2009). Why Addressing The Over-Representation Of First Nations Children In Care Requires New Theoretical Approaches Based On First Nations Ontology. [Abstract]. The Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 6 (3): 1-18.
7. Little Bear, L. (2000). Jagged worldviews colliding. In M. Battiste (Ed.). Reclaiming indigenous voice and vision. 77-85. Retrieved from: Leroy Little Bear.Jagged Worldviews.pdf (utoronto.ca).
8. Lindstrom, G. & Choate, P. (2016). Nistawatsiman: Rethinking assessment of aboriginal parents for child protection following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. First People’s Child and Family Review, 11 (2): 45-59.
9. Neckoway, Brownlee & Castellan. (2007). Is attachment theory consistent with aboriginal parenting realities? First Peoples Child and Family Review, 3 (2): 65-74.
10. Gerlach, A. (2008). “Circle of Caring”: A first nations worldview of child rearing. The Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 75 (1): 18-25.
11. Basteine, B. (2004). Blackfoot ways of knowing: the worldview of the Siksikaitsitapi. University of Calgary Press, Calgary, Alberta, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/49840