Show Notes
In 1980, a 25-year-old Wayne Christian led the historic Indian Child Caravan to Vancouver, a thousand-person march that successfully clawed back jurisdictional control over Indigenous children. That march paved the way for the landmark Bill C-92, which recognizes the jurisdiction of Indigenous nations to enact their own child welfare laws, policies, and approaches to child and family service delivery. In this episode, Chief Wayne discusses the Caravan’s enduring legacy, and his lifelong commitment to those he set out to march for: children.
Additional Resources:
To read about the Indian Child Caravan, the political movement to confront the state’s removal of Indigenous children and the subsequent victory for First Nations jurisdiction, explore the history here and here.
Find here the foundational political work of George Manuel through his seminal book, The Fourth World: An Indian Reality, and the Declaration of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (often referred to as the “Red Paper”).
For more information on the federal framework for Indigenous jurisdiction over child welfare: Bill C-92, view the Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families (Bill C-92).
Visit the UBC Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC) for resources on the history and legacy of residential schools in Canada.
To learn about Jordan’s Principle – the legal rule ensuring First Nations children have equitable access to government-funded services, regardless of jurisdictional disputes – you can find more information from the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society.
Note on terminology: For help understanding the choice to use “Indigenous” versus “First Nations” in this series, see here
For an (unfinished) history of Indigenous refusal to systematic child removal in BC see also Chapter 2 of Erika’s dissertation Making Kin / Unmaking the Colony: Indigenous Refusal in the Era of Colonial Child Removal
More from Calling All Kin
Kirsten Barnes successfully fought to bring a Gitxsan girl back to her family after she had been in care for six years in a non-Indigenous home. Barnes, a former elected Chief of Gitanmaax and the Indigenous Justice Centre Clinical Director at the BC First Nations Justice Council, is unapologetic in her fight for her nation to assume control over child welfare service delivery. For her, Gitxsan child welfare is not just a “program,” but a “way of life.”
For 15 years, Haida auntie-advocate Katharina Stocker served as Executive Director of NIȽTU,O Child and Family Services Society, championing a simple philosophy: prevention, not punishment. The NIȽTU,O Child and Family Services Society provides families with the support they need, so their children are not removed. And it works! Over a five-year period, not a single child from her member nations was taken into provincial care. In this episode, Katharina offers a masterclass in culturally-appropriate, trauma-informed care that truly centers children and families.
Tara Williamson was nearly taken in the ‘sixties scoop,’ but now she navigates the child welfare system as an adoptee, a parent, and legal expert. A member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation and the Co-Research Director at the Indigenous Law Research Unit, Tara partners with First Nations to revitalize and articulate their own family laws under Bill C-92. Williamson shares why it’s important to “breathe life” back into Indigenous laws around children and families, and what’s at stake when we talk about keeping children at the center of child welfare decision making.
Calling All Kin launches Wednesday, September 30th, 2026, on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Listen to our trailer and subscribe today.