Signs a Foster Home Is Not Culturally Safe for Your Indigenous Child

Cultural safety in a foster home is not a wall hanging or a policy document — it is active practice. If your child's placement is not supporting language, ceremony, Elder relationships, and cultural identity, the placement is not meeting the standard that law and IFISC require. These are the specific signs that something is wrong.

A culturally unsafe placement does not always announce itself. The harm is often quiet: a child who stops speaking their language, who loses connection with community, who grows distant from their grandparents and Elders. By the time the damage is visible, it has been accumulating for months.

Knowing what to look for gives you the ability to act earlier.

Signs the placement is not culturally safe

The provider cannot tell you anything about your child’s nation. A provider caring for an Indigenous child should know the name of the nation, something about its culture, and the child’s specific community context. If they cannot tell you this, they have not done the basic work.

Your child has no access to ceremony. Smudge, prayer, potlatch, winter dance — whatever is meaningful for your child’s nation. If the provider is not facilitating this, ask why in writing.

Your child has no contact with Elders or cultural knowledge keepers. Relationship with Elders is not a program. It is a fundamental part of cultural development. If your child has had no Elders in their life since entering care, that is a red flag.

Language is not being supported. If your child spoke or was learning your language before the placement, is the provider supporting that? If no one at the placement speaks the language and no language programming has been arranged, that is a failure of cultural continuity.

Family visits are minimal or restricted without clear reason. Visits with you, with siblings, with aunts and uncles and grandparents are part of cultural connection. If visits are being restricted beyond what is legally required, ask for the written rationale.

Your child does not know their cultural identity. A child who cannot name their nation after months in a placement has not been supported in knowing who they are.

What to do when you see these signs

Write down what you observe during every visit. Note dates and specific observations. Raise the concerns in writing with your MCFD worker and request a written response. If the response is inadequate, take it to your lawyer.

Under Bill C-92, cultural continuity is a legal requirement, not a preference. A placement that cannot demonstrate it is meeting this standard can be challenged.

What IFISC requires of certified providers

IFISC Pillar 5 measures whether providers actively support language retention, ceremony access, intergenerational relationships, and cultural identity. Certification is renewed — it reflects current practice. A certified provider has been evaluated by Indigenous knowledge holders against these specific standards.

Ask whether your child’s provider is IFISC certified. If they are not, it is a reasonable question to bring to your worker. Learn more at ifisc.org/get-certified/ or reach us at [email protected].

If you are an Indigenous family navigating child welfare in BC and need peer support, contact KFT-Families Society at [email protected], call Lori at 604-512-3266, or visit keeping-families-together.com. IFISC operates weekly peer support circles, connects families with culturally grounded resources, and provides guidance to parents at every stage of the child welfare process — at no cost.