Fostering Indigenous Children in Newfoundland and Labrador: Cultural Connection and Your Responsibilities

One-third of children in Newfoundland and Labrador's foster care system are Indigenous. Indigenous people make up approximately 9% of the province's general population. That gap — between 9% of the population and a disproportionate share of children in care — is the defining crisis in NL child welfare, and it is inseparable from any honest conversation about what it means to be a foster parent in this province.

If you're considering fostering in NL, you need to understand this context. Not because you're personally responsible for the history that created it, but because the child placed in your home may be Innu, Inuit, Southern Inuit, or a member of another Indigenous community — and their right to cultural identity is not optional, not aspirational, and not something you can address later. It is a legislated requirement from the moment of placement.

The Legal Framework: Bill C-92 and Provincial Policy

The federal Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families — commonly called Bill C-92 — came into force in 2020 and fundamentally changed how provinces must approach Indigenous child welfare. For foster parents in NL, the key requirements are:

Priority placement: When an Indigenous child enters care, CSSD must make genuine efforts to place them first with a family member, then within their own community, then with another Indigenous family from the same nation, before placing with a non-Indigenous family. If you are a non-Indigenous foster parent with an Indigenous child in your home, it means that option was exhausted or unavailable — and your responsibility to maintain the child's cultural connection is correspondingly greater.

Cultural continuity: Service providers must document genuine efforts to maintain the child's connection to their culture, language, and community. This is not a checkbox. It means active, ongoing participation in cultural activities, facilitation of contact with community members, and cooperation with Indigenous cultural representatives assigned to the child's care plan.

Inherent right to self-government: Indigenous nations have the recognized right to develop their own child welfare laws under Bill C-92. In NL, several Indigenous governments are in active processes of asserting this jurisdiction.

In addition to the federal law, NL's amended Children and Youth Care and Protection Act (CYCPA) explicitly requires cultural connection plans for Indigenous children and mandates that Indigenous representatives be heard in court proceedings affecting those children.

Who the Indigenous Communities Are in NL

Newfoundland and Labrador has three distinct Indigenous groups whose children appear frequently in the foster care system:

Innu Nation

The Innu people of Labrador are divided between two main communities: Sheshatshiu (near Happy Valley-Goose Bay) and Natuashish (on the coast of Labrador). The Innu Nation has been actively moving toward a community-led child welfare system, with an Innu Planning Circle that coordinates with CSSD on child placements. A provincial inquiry was established in 2022 to examine the treatment and outcomes of Innu children in the child protection system — a process that reflects both historical harm and the community's demand for greater sovereignty over its own children.

For foster parents in the province caring for Innu children, FFNL (Foster Families NL) has published a dedicated guide: A Guide to Fostering Innu Culture. Understanding core concepts — the importance of land-based connection, the Innu-aimun language, and the specific significance of "going out on the land" — is not background knowledge. It's operational knowledge for a foster parent with an Innu child in their home.

Nunatsiavut (Labrador Inuit)

The Inuit of Labrador are governed by the Nunatsiavut Government, which operates its own Department of Health and Social Development with a Family Services division. Nunatsiavut Family Services provides Family Connections workers and Indigenous Representatives who support children in care and participate in care planning. The Nunatsiavut Government operates offices in Happy Valley-Goose Bay and Nain.

When an Inuit child from the Labrador Inuit Settlement Area is placed in your home, you will likely work with a Nunatsiavut Family Services worker alongside your CSSD worker. These are separate authorities with complementary roles. The Nunatsiavut worker is the primary voice for cultural matters; the CSSD worker manages the administrative care plan.

NunatuKavut (Southern Inuit)

The NunatuKavut Community Council (NCC) represents the Southern Inuit of Labrador, whose territory spans the southern and central Labrador coast. NCC is in ongoing negotiations with both the provincial and federal governments for increased jurisdiction over family services. Their children may appear in the foster care system across a wider geographic range than the northern Inuit communities.

What a Cultural Connection Plan Requires of You

Every Indigenous child in care in NL must have a Cultural Connection Plan (CCP) as part of their broader Plan for the Child. This document is not written by you — it is developed with input from Indigenous community representatives, the child (age-appropriately), and the child's birth family. But it is implemented primarily by you.

The CCP typically requires:

Facilitating regular visits and contact: Ensuring the child maintains a sense of belonging in their home community. For Labrador-based communities, this may involve travel that requires advance coordination and, in some cases, air travel to communities accessible only by plane.

Land-based activities: For Innu and Inuit children, participation in hunting, fishing, berry-picking, and "going out on the land" is not optional cultural enrichment. It is foundational to identity. You don't need to be an expert in these practices yourself — but you need to facilitate access to people who are.

Language preservation: Innu-aimun and Inuktitut cannot be maintained without exposure. This may mean accessing recordings from elders, connecting with a language speaker in the community, or enrolling the child in cultural language programming where available.

Collaboration with Indigenous Representatives: You will work alongside mandated community partners. These individuals are not oversight figures checking on your performance — they are partners in the child's care. Treat them as such.

The Fear of Cultural Harm

The most common objection from non-Indigenous prospective foster parents considering placements with Indigenous children is the fear of causing cultural harm — of doing something wrong, of being inadequate to the task. This fear is understandable, and it's honest. It's also not a reason to avoid these placements.

The alternative to a non-Indigenous foster family with genuine cultural commitment is, in many cases, a placement further from the child's community, a group home, or a private residential facility costing the province $400,000 per year. The research on outcomes in those settings is not encouraging.

What the system needs are non-Indigenous families who are willing to take the cultural requirements seriously, cooperate with Indigenous representatives without defensiveness, and place the child's identity at the centre of the placement. That is a learnable, practicable commitment.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Foster Care Guide includes a cultural competency section that breaks down the mandatory Cultural Connection Plan into concrete, actionable steps — what it covers, how it's developed, and what your role is in implementing it.

The Priority Placement Principle in Practice

If you are an Indigenous person in NL considering fostering, the system's priority placement structure creates a particularly urgent need for your participation. Children placed within their own nation, with families who share their language and cultural practices, experience significantly better outcomes than children placed cross-culturally. The shortage of approved Indigenous foster homes in NL — particularly in rural and remote communities — is one of the primary reasons Indigenous children are disproportionately placed far from their communities.

If you are from an Innu or Inuit community and you are interested in fostering, contact your community's child welfare representative or the regional CSSD office in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. The province's recruitment urgency is real, and the cultural fit you bring to a placement is something no amount of training can fully replicate.

What the System Is Moving Toward

The direction of travel in Indigenous child welfare in NL is clear: increasing Indigenous self-governance. Bill C-92 provides the framework, and both the Nunatsiavut Government and the Innu Nation are actively exercising it. Within the next decade, child welfare for these communities will likely be administered through Indigenous-led systems rather than the provincial CSSD.

For foster parents operating today, this means the collaborative relationship you build with Indigenous community representatives is not peripheral to your role — it's preparation for a system where those communities have full authority over their children's care.

For the complete guide to fostering in NL, including cultural connection plan templates and guidance on working with Indigenous community representatives, see /ca/newfoundland-and-labrador/foster-care/.

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