{"id":91135,"date":"2025-04-08T08:42:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T12:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=91135"},"modified":"2025-04-08T08:42:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T12:42:44","slug":"government-social-services-are-significant-agent-of-colonialism-n-l-inquiry-hear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/08\/government-social-services-are-significant-agent-of-colonialism-n-l-inquiry-hear\/","title":{"rendered":"Government social services are &#8216;significant agent&#8217; of colonialism, N.L. inquiry hear"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>-CP- A social worker with decades of experience working with the Innu in Newfoundland and Labrador has told a public inquiry that government social services that were supposed to help have in fact undermined and harmed Indigenous families. Lyla Andrew, who grew up in Toronto and attended university there, was fresh out of graduate school in the late 1970s when she began working in the Innu community of Sheshatshiu. She said she started her career with the commonly held \u2014 but incorrect \u2014 belief that she had something to give the Innu that they did not have. &#8220;The learning process was that my assumption was very wrong,&#8221; Andrew said in pre-recorded testimony played at an inquiry hearing in Sheshatshiu. &#8220;In fact, I don&#8217;t think what we were trying to share&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F04%2F08%2Fgovernment-social-services-are-significant-agent-of-colonialism-n-l-inquiry-hear%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>-CP- A social worker with decades of experience working with the Innu in Newfoundland and Labrador has told a public inquiry that government social services that were supposed to help have in fact undermined and harmed Indigenous families. Lyla Andrew, who grew up in Toronto and attended university there, was fresh out of graduate school in the late 1970s when she began working in the Innu community of Sheshatshiu. She said she started her career with the commonly held \u2014 but incorrect \u2014 belief that she had something to give the Innu that they did not have. &#8220;The learning process was that my assumption was very wrong,&#8221; Andrew said in pre-recorded testimony played at an inquiry hearing in Sheshatshiu. &#8220;In fact, I don&#8217;t think what we were trying to share... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F04%2F08%2Fgovernment-social-services-are-significant-agent-of-colonialism-n-l-inquiry-hear%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Government social services are &#039;significant agent&#039; of colonialism, N.L. inquiry hear - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/08\/government-social-services-are-significant-agent-of-colonialism-n-l-inquiry-hear\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government social services are &#039;significant agent&#039; of colonialism, N.L. inquiry hear - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"-CP- A social worker with decades of experience working with the Innu in Newfoundland and Labrador has told a public inquiry that government social services that were supposed to help have in fact undermined and harmed Indigenous families. Lyla Andrew, who grew up in Toronto and attended university there, was fresh out of graduate school in the late 1970s when she began working in the Innu community of Sheshatshiu. She said she started her career with the commonly held \u2014 but incorrect \u2014 belief that she had something to give the Innu that they did not have. &#8220;The learning process was that my assumption was very wrong,&#8221; Andrew said in pre-recorded testimony played at an inquiry hearing in Sheshatshiu. &#8220;In fact, I don&#8217;t think what we were trying to share\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/08\/government-social-services-are-significant-agent-of-colonialism-n-l-inquiry-hear\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-08T12:42:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/08\\\/government-social-services-are-significant-agent-of-colonialism-n-l-inquiry-hear\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/08\\\/government-social-services-are-significant-agent-of-colonialism-n-l-inquiry-hear\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Government social services are &#8216;significant agent&#8217; 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