The Northwest Territories Residential Southern Placement Program: Dislocation and Colonization through ‘Care’

Abstract

This research traces colonialism and neoliberalism as foundational architecture to health policy in Canada that seeks to erase Indigeneity and disability and secure the dominance of a White settler able-bodied state. This is accomplished through critical analysis of the Residential Southern Placement Program, a health policy from the Northwest Territories, Canada. Residential Southern Placements are contractual agreements made between the Northwest Territories Department of Health and Social Services and service agencies from southern provinces to provide ‘care’ to territorial residents with a disability whose needs—according to the Department of Health and Social Services—cannot be met within the territory. We explore how the ostensibly neutral health policy Residential Southern Placements becomes enacted as a violent intervention of erasure that specifically targets hundreds of Indigenous Peoples with cognitive disabilities-- as evidenced through data collected by a Freedom of Information Request-- through long-term and, at times, lifelong dislocation from families, communities, and land. In this analysis we position the Residential Southern Placement Program as an intervention that aims to uphold and safeguard a White settler able-bodied vision of Canadian society. This research highlights an ongoing colonial practice with important implications for disability studies and Indigenous health researchers.