By Patrick Quinn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Nation Long before European contact, customary adoption was common among the Cree and other Indigenous people. It traditionally involved placing a child with another family for survival purposes when the parents were for some reason unable to properly care for them. After lobbying by Cree authorities since the early 1980s to legally recognize this practice, Quebec began consulting with Indigenous groups in the early 2000s when it was reviewing its own adoption laws. With Bill 113 passed in 2017, the province’s Indigenous Nations now have the ability to create their own unique systems that oversee and document this process. As the provincially designated “competent authority” in Eeyou Istchee, the Cree Nation Government is working with communities to establish local committees and reaching…
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