A Restorative Approach to Family Violence: Feminist Kin-Making

Description

A Restorative Approach to Family Violence looks back at an early and successful demonstration of a family and culturally based model to stop severe family violence. This conferencing model, called family group decision making, was applied by three diverse Canadian communities—Inuit, rural, and urban—to the benefit of child and adult family members. Narrative inquiry identifies how engaging the family and relatives resets the narrative from misrecognition to recognition of their competence and caring. Family violence poses some of the most long-term and controversial questions in restorative justice. Should we use a restorative approach to stop gendered and intergenerational harm? Or will bringing together those who have been harmed, those causing harm, and their supporters only incite more violence? Underlying these questions is a profound distrust of families and their cultural networks. This distrust has stalled turning away from carceral interventions that particularly harm minoritized communities. Moving forward in time, the volume identifies blocks to trusting families and their cultural networks and means of circumventing these blocks. The book offers a theory of feminist kin-making to comprehend the restorative process and gives practical guidance to restorative participants, practitioners, policy makers, and researchers. Cover Endorsements Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Foreword from Labrador Foreword from Newfoundland Preface Project Materials Abbreviations 1. A Restorative Approach—Narrative Threads Defamiliarizing family violence Feminist action against family violence An unexpected conclusion Feminist kin-making From resemblance to affinity An imposed ethic of care From taking to tending A restorative approach and family violence Culturally responsive Multiplying benefits Instigating change Western restorative traditions Gendered shaming Movements to colorize restorative justice Growing openness Resistance to White supremacy Accountability for racial justice Endogenous-exogenous solutions Learnings Cultural practice and rights A family group or the family group Recognition without the necessary power and means Communicating relatedness and belonging Rights and family violence Reconfiguring old partnerships Restorative justice and responsive regulation A disconnect between family-based approaches and restorative justice Liberatory framework Anti-carceral feminism Building trust in government Legitimate regulation Remarkably suited Most severe test? Serious, frequent, violent, and personal And familial Shifting masculinities Lessening stress, gaining confidence From misrecognition to recognition Catalyst for change Threads and contradictory tensions Narrative thread 1: Restoring family and cultural leadership Narrative thread 2: Storytelling for hope and recovery Narrative thread 3: Regulating responsively the healing process Narrative thread 4: Cascading trust and nonviolence The relevance of location Notes References 2. FGDM Example—A Newfoundland Story Cultural storytelling for liberatory transformation White settler-narrated magic tales Working-class resistance Domestic struggles Tales of transformation The FGDM lead-up Another angle Restoring family and cultural leadership Sarah’s determination Two sides at odds with each other Appealing to both sides of the family Supports for those harmed Orienting service providers Parole’s uncertainties, George’s alarm Nourishing homegrown leadership Storytelling for hope and recovery Weighted toward family and women Leveling the field Professional accounts Fathers and sons Magnifying suppressed perspectives Regulating responsively the healing process A mix of systems Informal conneecting Getting behind sensible ideas Hybridizing governance Cascading trust and nonviolence Out of contact Doing well Smartening up Critical impact, new directions Some further questions Notes References 3. FGDM Project Planning—Local Organizing, Emergent Responsive Regulation At home Shaped by cultural context National feminist contentions Community decision Port au Port Peninsula Local organizing: Helping out Economic changes and the status of women Local management of visits Helping out and family violence Nain Local organizing: Inuit-specific, Inuit women led Healing each other Our beautiful land Land as healer Multilayered consensual decision to participate St. John’s Local organizing: State engagement Women’s precarity Bridging Expanding project discussions Joint funding and resourcing Family Violence Initiative Resourcing family costs Rapid start-up Community leadership, emergent responsive regulation Notes References 4. FGDM Conferencing—Resetting Narrative, Revitalizing Culture That family Lowering barriers The agency of narratives Narrative inquiry Project assumptions Embedding project assumptions Conferencing resets Conference implementation Taking responsibility versus responsibilization Families making decisions Conference outcomes Backed by child welfare assessments Getting unstuck Cultural revival Mi’kmaw revival in Western NL Mi’kmaw Family & Children’s Services of Nova Scotia, Canada Wikimanej Kikmanaq—Family circles as an authentic experience for Mi’kmaw families Notes References 5. Concluding Possibilities—Cascading Trust in Families and Cultural Networks Restorative making-with Storylines of feminist kin-making No binary answer Hybrid of allies Turning to families and culture Wanting FGC for own family Messages of caution and hope Don’t assume costs are always the issue for government Beware of risk aversion and slippage into familiar paradigms Check which system is making the most referrals to a program Consider the impact of the type of legislation on delivering conferences Keep programs closely tied to cultural networks and local communities Attend to the needs of all family members Be mindful of the workers Doing the deep work with the feminist community Establishing restorative jurisdictions Creating international learning communities for researchers Cascading trust in families and cultural networks Notes References Index