A Greenlandic mother’s one-hour-old baby was removed from her by Danish authorities after she underwent “parenting competence” tests – despite a new law banning the use of the controversial psychometric assessments on people with Greenlandic backgrounds.
Ivana Nikoline Brønlund, who was born in Nuuk to Greenlandic parents and has played for the Greenlandic handball team, gave birth to her daughter, Aviaja-Luuna, on 11 August in a hospital in Hvidovre, near Copenhagen, where she lives with her family.
An hour later, the local municipality took the infant into foster care. Brønlund, 18, says she has since only seen her daughter once, for an hour, when she was not allowed to comfort the baby or change her nappy.
The “parenting competence” tests, known as FKU (forældrekompetenceundersøgelse), were banned on people with Greenlandic backgrounds earlier this year after years of criticism by campaigners and human rights bodies, who argued successfully that the tests were racist because they were culturally unsuitable for people from Inuit backgrounds. As the law came into force in May, campaigners are asking why Brønlund was still subjected to a test.
Brønlund was told that her baby was removed because of the trauma she had suffered at the hands of her adoptive father, who is in prison for sexually abusing her. The municipality told her she was “not Greenlandic enough” for the new law banning the tests to apply, despite her being born in Greenland of Greenlandic parents.
Brønlund’s adoptive mother, Gitte, who is half-Greenlandic and lived there until she was 37, said: “It feels like you are not allowed to have a trauma if you are going to be a mum.”
[Ed: Ironically this policy of forcibly removing babies will ensure the trauma is inter generational. A similar approach to the forced removal of babies from mothers deemed unsuitable due to their own history of disadvantage is also pursued here in Australia.]
I note the editorial comment above and with respect must say that my experience with child protection in the NT with indigenous children was that despite the most terrible abuse children being subjected to it was almost impossible to get them taken from their parents and placed into care.
The concern about indigenous culture and the fear of offending was stronger than the concern for the children’s safety.
This is the other side of the indigenous trauma related to the Stolen Generation.
White kids, however, a different story. If a kid falls off the table and breaks its leg in a middle class white family then child protection would just about break down the door in their investigations.
See ‘Life Long Shadow’.