Rethinking Racine v Woods from a Decolonizing Perspective: Challenging the Applicability of Attachment Theory to Indigenous Families Involved with Child Protection

Abstract

The 1983 case Racine v Woods is the leading child protection case from the Supreme Court of Canada, distinguishing bonding and/or attachment as a more important determinant of best interest for an Indigenous child than cultural connection. Using this case, courts are upholding the permanent placement of Indigenous children in non-Indigenous homes as opposed to placement within their culture. Racine v Woods reflected knowledge of attachment and family at that time but runs counter to current knowledge. Reconsideration of the factors to decide cross-cultural adoption is needed. The essential point is that attachment assessment draws from a dyadic relational theory and is being applied to communal family systems, such as Indigenous systems. Such a review is consistent with the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as well as its predecessor, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP), and recent Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) decisions.

Where do we go from here? Ongoing colonialism from Attachment Theory

“…Cassidy (2016) feels little progress has been made answering these questions. This is consistent with our own work (Choate et al, 2019;Choate & Lindstrom, 2017;. Mesman et al (2016) suggest that examining the child's competency development only on the basis of the infant-mother relationship diminishes the predictive power of attachment.…”

“…Thus, our argument is not against attachment but against the methods of defining family, parenting and child rearing from a Eurocentric perspective and then applying that to Indigenous cultures. Child rearing is different in Indigenous cultures but there is no pan-Indigenous way to describe it (Choate et al, 2019;.…”

“…Relative to AT, the leading legal case in Canada is the 1983 Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) decision of Racine vs Woods (1983, 2 SCR 173;Choate et al, 2019). This case concluded that attachment superseded the child's culture by determining that bonding sustains while culture fades.…”

“…Rather, we see a role for Indigenous researchers and knowledge keepers to begin exploring the stories and traditions of "attachment" and how that might be defined. and Choate et al (2019) have shown some examples of how the connections of the child might be seen and described in assessment. Building such knowledge needs to be relationally based (Stewart & Allan, 2013) and not be appropriated away from the creators of the knowledge.…”

Tūhono Māori: Promoting Secure Attachments for Indigenous Māori Children. A Conceptual Paper

“…The emergence of other ethnic perspectives not only highlights differences in attachment beliefs, it also draws attention to the similarities concerned with raising emotionally secure children (LeVine, 2004;Oppenheim, Sagi, & Lamb, 1988;Takahashi, 1986). These also indicate the effectiveness of attachment theory in determining outcomes for Indigenous peoples (Choate et al, 2019).…”