The Sixties Scoop, Close to Home?

The premier of Saskatchewan apologized recently for the complicity of that province's government in what is often called the "Sixties Scoop." It refers to the practice in several provinces of removing First Nations, Metis and Inuit children from their families  and communities to place them in foster homes or put them up for adoption in non-indigenous families. While this did occur in the 1960's in actually began in the 50's and continued into the 80's.

In the apology Premier Scott Moe observed:

However, during the Sixties Scoop, not nearly enough consideration was given to the fact that Indigenous children come from communities with their own rich traditions, culture and history.

Some Indigenous children were separated from their families and their communities, and as a result those children were cut off from their culture, and they were cut off from their traditions.

Despite the good intentions of many foster and adoptive parents, too many of these children were caught between two worlds.

They were stranded in a sense, with no knowledge of who they were, or where they came from.

Then these words of apology:

We failed the survivors we heard from in the sharing circles, and so many others.
We failed their families.  We failed their communities.  We failed.

On behalf of the Government of Saskatchewan . . . on behalf of the people of Saskatchewan . . . I stand before you today to apologize . . . to say sorry.  We are sorry for the pain and sadness you experienced.  We are sorry for the loss of culture and language.  To all those who lost contact with their family, we are so sorry.



Saskatchewan Sixties Scoop Survivors

Last Fall I had my own startling awakening about the Sixties Scoop in the context of my family. I have a cousin in British Columbia who was adopted by my uncle, a United Church minister, and my aunt. She is Coast Salish, if I recall correctly, and she was born in the early 1960's. I consider my aunt and uncle to have been loving parents and two others in the family were adopted, but she was the only Native child. Was she a Scoop baby, and a Scoop survivor? When she was a teenager she became increasingly unsettled, first running away from home, then living on the streets and involved in the sex trade. I saw her at my uncle's funeral 14 years ago and was gratified to learn that her life had moved into a new, much more positive chapter. I have no idea whether she has reconnected with her First Nations community or relatives.

I know that my aunt and uncle would have acted out of the best of Christian intentions, but I'll probably never know the full story. I shall pray for my cousin and all those whose lives were irrevocably changed by what we now realize was a misguided and ultimately racist policy. We need to remember that there are still thousands of aboriginal children in care today, often far from their communities of origin.