Sixties Scoop adoptees mull what comes next

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This article was published 26/07/2015 (3188 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A month after a landmark apology by the provincial government, children of the Sixties Scoop say they want more research, better ways to relearn their language and traditions, access to healing services and perhaps compensation.

That’s the wish list that emerged from a weekend conference at the University of Winnipeg that saw more than 100 children of the Sixties Scoop gather for the first time.

The focus was on sharing stories and networking. Attendees also heard about Manitoba’s new open adoption records that could help Sixties Scoop adoptees connect with birth families and how Australia atoned for its treatment of indigenous children.

Selena Kern, who is from Brokenhead Ojibway Nation but was adopted as a toddler to a Pennsylvania family, said the conference was one of many steps in reconnecting Sixties Scoop adoptees with their past and raising awareness about the Adopt Indian and Métis program.

“The one thing I heard over and over was how they all felt so isolated,” said Kern, secretary-treasurer of the Manitoba Indigenous Adoptees Coalition. “Growing up as the only little brown face in the room.”

In June, Premier Greg Selinger apologized for the Sixties Scoop at a ceremony at the legislature, the first such apology in Canada. Beginning in the 1960s, roughly 20,000 aboriginal children were taken from their homes and adopted to white families, often out of province or into the United States.

Marcel Balfour, MIAC’s vice-president and a conference organizer, said finding ways to put the apology into action is the next step.

Balfour said the Sixties Scoop isn’t as widely understood as residential schools, and there are many avenues for academic research on how the Adopt Indian and Métis program operated and its long-term effects on adoptees.

Many at the conference also talked about the need for programs to help adoptees relearn their indigenous languages and cultural practices.

Also up for discussion was a possible compensation settlement with government and participation in a class action lawsuit such as the one that sparked the Indian Residential Schools agreement.

“I’m sitting on the fence on that because you can’t put a dollar figure on people’s trauma,” said Kern. “Money can’t bring back the lost years. Money can’t bring back language.”

Class-action lawsuits against the federal government have been filed in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia. Another one in Ontario filed in 2009 is the furthest along.

Balfour said MIAC has not yet taken a formal position on litigation, and many questions remain about jurisdiction.

Balfour wondered if a collective remedy might make more sense than individual payments such as those made to residential schools survivors.

“Maybe whittling it down to a cheque isn’t the right approach,” he said.

Instead, he said there might be merit in negotiations with the provincial and federal government on a more comprehensive agreement that could replace a long, drawn-out legal battle spread over several provinces.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca