"The cultural stuff is important," he says, "but people can survive without the culture. Everything being the same, it's valuable. But the safety of the child, their economic welfare, their psychological welfare, that's more important. If you are well looked after, it is possible to catch up on culture. It's not so easy to catch up on neglect."

"I think devolution is a good thing," she says. "There's been generation after generation where we haven't been in charge of our own destiny."

[Venecia Shanelle Audy]'s paternal grandmother, Irene Simpson-Campeau, told a local newspaper she had cared for Venecia and Venecia's younger brother until March of 2006 because Venecia's mother, Melissa Audy, now 24, was overwhelmed with the responsibility of looking after four children under the age of six.