Creating a better future for communities through research

Mamow Obiki-ahwahsoowin Research Project

Our Partners
The project is funded by a Child Welfare Research Grant from the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services, and is carried out by Centre for Community Based Research and Tikinagan Child & Family Services.

Project Synopsis
Tikinagan Child & Family Services is an Aboriginal Child Welfare Agency in Northern Ontario. It serves an area between James Bay, Manitoba, and Nunuvut that is about the same size as the distance from Windsor to Ottawa. Over the last several years, Tikinagan has developed and implemented a unique approach to child welfare practice that is based on the traditions of First Nations people in Northern Ontario. This approach is called Mamow Obiki-ahwahsoowin, which translates as "Everyone working together to raise our children."

The three-year research project is designed to document the Mamow model so that Tikinagan can share what is has learned with others. The specific goals of the project are:

  • To describe how the Mamow Obiki-ahwahsoowin model is intended to work

  • To explain why the Mamow Obikiahwahsoowin model is important in First Nation communities and how it respects the communities' traditional customs

  • To understand what the communities think of the Mamow Obiki-ahwahsoowin model and see if there are ways in which it could better serve the communities

  • To understand if the Mamow Obikiahwahsoowin model has made a difference for First Nation families and communities. If it has made a difference, to understand what the differences are.

This project is being carried out by a team that includes three aboriginal researchers based in the north who speak the traditional languages of Ojibway and Oji-Cree, as well as two researchers and two students based at CCBR. Over the last year, these team members have been visiting communities across the North meeting and interviewing Chiefs, band council members teachers, elders, spiritual leaders and others who are involved in caring for children and families. A steering committee made up of Tikinagan staff, elders, and other First Nations people guides the project.

Mamow Obiki-ahwahsoowin is a set of values and a vision, as well as a model of service. For this reason, our research project has had to twin knowledge production and knowledge mobilization. We take every opportunity during the research process to teach people about the Mamow vision and to provoke discussion about it.

Project Team:
Andrew Taylor, Suzanne Field, Selma Poulin, Robert Baxter, Elsie Stoney, Ashley Johnson, Zoe Le Fevre.

For more information please contact Andrew Taylor at andrew@communitybasedresearch.ca. You can can also view our project newsletter or visit the website of the North-South Partnership at www.northsouthpartnership.com.

For an in-depth look at the experiences of Nishnawbe Aski families and Tikinagan Child & Family Services, please visit www.cominghometikinagan.com, a website devoted to the book Coming Home, by Maurice Brubacher together with the People of Tikinagan.

     

    CCBR enjoys a traditional cookout