ABORIGINAL FOSTER DOLLS


Selection Criteria For Development of Doll Profiles:
Each Aboriginal Foster Doll is unique and has their’ own culture, personality, previous life experiences, health/education concerns and personal achievements.* We have taken great care when developing the profiles so that they will reflect some of the situations expressed to us from young people in care and members of their’ support system (i.e. The Foster Care Team). When developing the profiles, we had three main objectives; we wanted each doll to be unique and have their own personalities, we wanted all medical conditions and treatments to be accurate, and we wanted to represent the various Aboriginal cultures of children in care.**


Objective #1: Each Doll Must be Unique
Every Aboriginal Foster Doll was given a “personality”-likes, dislikes achievements, goals, etc. Within the profiles, you can find descriptions of what the doll enjoys doing and information about their individual talents.

Volunteer Kris working with dolls


Objective #2: Accurate Medical Conditions and Treatments are Represented
So that the profiles can continue to be used as teaching tools, and insure the medical conditions and treatment programs are as accurate as possible, we enlisted the assistance of SunnyHill Children’s Hospital and the Developmental Disabilities Association. With the direction from youth in care/the Foster Care team about major health concerns for Kids in Care and the help of professionals, we have created profiles that reflect frequent disabilities and the kind of treatment that would be available to youth with the province.

Volunteer Kris working with dolls


Objective #3: Various Aboriginal Cultures will be Represented
To show the diversity of Aboriginal cultures, Foster Dolls will come from different cultural backgrounds. Their will also be variations between the dolls as to their knowledge of their own cultural practices, histories, languages etc. During their time in care, steps must be taken by the community and by Foster Parents to insure Aboriginal children stay connected to their culture. Through the project, we hope to make the public more aware that removing a child from his/her culture affects their identity, and endangers the continuum of that culture as a whole.

* The completed profiles have been altered to protect the identity and privacy of Foster Families and service providers who have assisted in their development.

** As we are limited in the number of Dolls included in the project, so are we limited to the number of Aboriginal cultures which can be included in the project. The cultures that are mentioned in the project were selected based on: [1] population within British Columbia; [2] Our ability to communicate the complexities of that culture (our own knowledge or ancestry); and [3] the consent of the Band. It should also be noted that an out-of-province culture was selected to show that some young people in care originate from other parts of the world and cultural inclusion is made more difficult.  

Michel
Harry
Angelina

Daniel
Desiree
Melissa

Justin
Rosemary
Meghan

Gina
Robert
Patrick

Summer
Trevor
Cory
Select a doll to view his or her profile.


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