Tikinagan Child and Family Services

In Ojibway and Oji-Cree, Mamow Obiki-ahwahsoowin means "Everyone working together to raise our children", expressing the way our communities understand the holistic and inclusive nature of raising children.

Tikinagan developed our Mamow Obiki-ahwahsoowin service model as a way of supporting and strengthening these traditional practices. Tikinagan's Mamow Obiki-ahwahsoowin is a community-based approach connected to the inherent jurisdiction of First Nations to look after our children and to fulfil our conviction that the answers lie in the communities.

Weagamow Kokum and Granddaughter

The first principle of Mamow Obiki-ahwahsoowin is to keep our children with us and within our communities. We live by our belief that the answer for our families and their future is within the strength and traditional knowledge and skills of our communities.

Authorized through Part X of The Child and Family Services Act, section 208, Mamow Obiki-ahwahsoowin standards are in keeping with the benchmarks set out in The Child and Family Services Act for mainstream child protection cases. Mamow Obiki-ahwahsoowin is a reflection of how we work with our communities to plan for the best interests of their children.

Historically, when a family did not take adequate care of its children, Elders and community leaders would support the parents to change their ways. When children could not be cared for by their own family, they would be placed with extended family members or another family from the community, but would continue to have contact with their parents. Euro-Canadian contact resulted in the erosion of these traditional customary care practices.

Tikinagan was created by the Chiefs of the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation to serve children and families in ways that respect our culture and the unique needs of our children and families. Tikinagan's Mamow Obiki-ahwahsoowin evolved as a service model which respects our past traditions and is responsive to the present by ensuring that the parents, extended family members, Elders, community resource workers and First Nations leaders are all involved in child protection.