Short excercise in prep for the 'Gitxsan Grandparent's Stuggle with Child Protection' presentation June, 20. A National Aboriginal History Month Work Lunch and Learn.

1. Happy National Aboriginal History Month!!
Here are a few exercises to adventure in prep of the “Gitxsan Grandmothers Struggle
with Child Welfare” whichwill be after all the lunch and learnsare completed.
EXERCISE ONE
Close your eyes and imagine this pandemic situation gets worse. A spike occurs in
numbers. Everyone is wearing masks, washing their hands, using hand sanitizer,
essentially making the best of a stressful situation. Then one morning you get a call
from someone working at the Ministry of Health informing you that you were in a
supermarket, shopping for necessities – fruit, vegetables, toilet paper – at the same
time as a super spreader, an individual who tested positive for COVID-19. This person
from the Ministry is giving you a courtesy call to let you know the paramedics are on
their way. The situation is too critical; the pandemic numbers too high. You’re in the
immune-compromised group and you will be quarantined at a hospital, not self-
isolating in the safety of your own home. You ask why and are told you can’t be
trusted. Several ambulances arrive to cart everyone in your apartment away – every
member of your family is separated and will be sent to a COVID-19 hospital ward.
Your grandchild is two years old and unable to understand what is happening.
Everyone that is familiar to her is disappearing. You are so overwhelmed with worry
about the virus and being exposed to it even though you were being careful and
mindful, you can’t figure out what to say, can’t think of the words or vocabulary to

2. explain the huge umbrella crisis of a pandemic or quarantine to a toddler. You will not
be able to see your family or your grandchild, you won’t be allowed to speak to any of
her for the next six weeks. You don’t know how she’s doing. You are lying in a
hospital room, scared and alone and terrified every tickle in your throat is a sign you've
caught the virus; you're exhausted from worry, and not sure your body can fight off the
illness. No one can tell you if your granddaughter is symptomatic, if she is displaying
signs of the virus, if the hospital has enough ventilators. You wonder how hard is it to
incubate a toddler, what drugs they use to calm them down, if those drugs cause other
problems. You don't know if your granddaughter is ill, if she's getting worse, if she’s
alive. No one can tell you.
How do you feel? Make a list of the emotions you might feel in such a situation.

3. Exercise Two
If you were a grandparent with grandchild/ren, that were removed by the ministry,
and you are the only family able to take the child/ren:
A) What are your first thoughts of steps to take?
B) How long do you imagine it would take to have the child/ren put into your
custody?
C) What legal helpis there for a grandparent?