2. Women's Perspectives - Christian Aboriginal Infrastructure ...

A further difficulty is a reluctance on the part of some chiefs and band councils to comply
with enforcement actions, particularly notices of garnishment. The experience in Ontario,
for example, is that some bands refuse even to provide information that may assist in the
enforcement of a support order or notice of garnishment. 104
Consistent with our recommendations in Volume 2, we proposed in Volume 3 that
jurisdiction over child welfare and family matters (among others) be affirmed as matters
falling within the core jurisdiction of self-governing Aboriginal nations. We also
recommended that Aboriginal nations or communities establish family law committees,
with Aboriginal women as full participants. These committees would study issues such as
• the interests of family members in family assets;
• the division of family assets on marriage breakdown;
• factors to be considered in relation to the best interests of the child, as the principle is
applicable to Aboriginal adoption;
• rights of inheritance pertaining to wills, estates and intestacy; and
• obligations regarding spousal and child support.
The second issue requiring immediate attention is the difficulty of obtaining child care.
The lack of accessible and affordable child care is particularly problematic in urban areas.
Since urban Aboriginal women usually do not have the extended family and community
networks available to women in rural communities, they need access to child care if they
wish to seek employment or further education. In urban areas, a significant proportion of
Aboriginal families are headed by sole-support mothers. Lack of child care can thus
become a barrier to employment:
Often poor, without work, with little education and with dependent children, they
[Aboriginal women] are isolated and particularly ill-equipped to confront a life setting
that is very remote from their first culture. The young women think that in the city
everything will be easier, that they will be able to find work, a boyfriend and offer a
better life to their children….But the reality that awaits them is quite different.
[translation]
Éléonor Hoff
Quebec Native Women's Association
Montreal, Quebec, 27 May 1993
Aboriginal women in all parts of the country spoke about the need for culturally
appropriate child care facilities and the resources to maintain them.
A lot of women…are going through hardships and a lot of times we have tried to keep the
daycare centre open but, according to the law, it is impossible…because it has to look
nice and it has to meet government standards….We feel we can maintain a daycare centre
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