Beyond Reform and Abolition: Navigating the Complexities of Indigenous Child Welfare

Abstract

Despite the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act nearly 50 years ago, Indigenous children are persistently disproportionately represented within the child welfare system, yet continue to be overlooked in the debate between abolition and reform in the social work literature. Purpose: As these disparities continue to widen, social workers fail to recognize the unique struggles of Indigenous children and families upon encountering the child welfare system. Design: The present work provides a historic overview of Indigenous child welfare interaction, grounds discussions in coloniality, and implicates social work’s complicity in perpetuating the genocidal fiscal economy of Native child trafficking. Results: Through a lens of Indigenous child welfare, we sift through the abolitionist versus reformist debate, introduce the Indian Child Welfare Act as an example of a non-reformist reform, and conclude with implications for social work practice.