23 Facts About Sixties Scoop

1.

Sixties Scoop was a period in which a series of policies were enacted in Canada that enabled child welfare authorities to take, or "scoop up, " Indigenous children from their families and communities for placement in foster homes, from which they would be adopted by white families.

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2.

The term "Sixties Scoop" itself was coined in the early 1980s by social workers in the British Columbia Department of Social Welfare to describe their own department's practice of child apprehension.

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3.

Government policies that led to the Sixties Scoop were discontinued in the mid-1980s, after Ontario chiefs had passed resolutions against them, and a Manitoba judicial inquiry had harshly condemned them.

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4.

Multiple lawsuits have since been filed in Canada by former wards of the Sixties Scoop, including a series of class-action lawsuits launched in five provinces, such as the one filed in British Columbia in 2011.

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5.

The Sixties Scoop was an era in Canadian child welfare between the late 1950s to the early 1980s, in which the child welfare system removed Indigenous children from their families and communities in large numbers and placed them in non-Indigenous foster homes or adoptive families, institutions, and residential schools.

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6.

The Sixties Scoop was further precipitated by the introduction of child welfare services on reserves where social workers argued that Indigenous children were not offered equal services on reserves as non-Indigenous children through provincial social services.

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7.

The beginning of the Sixties Scoop coincided with Indigenous families dealing with the fall-out of the residential school project which had negative results on their social, economic, and living conditions.

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8.

Sixties Scoop stated that there has been an increase in the number of children from these communities who are up for adoption because of the rise in illegitimate births and marriage breakdowns among Indian and Metis people.

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9.

Sixties Scoop's research found that Aboriginal children were being disproportionately taken into the child welfare system.

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10.

Sixties Scoop was crying because she realized – 20 years later – what a mistake that had been.

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11.

The "Sixties Scoop" has evolved as a descriptor that is applied to the whole of the Aboriginal child welfare era, simplistically defined here as roughly the time from the waning of residential schools to the mid-1980s period of child welfare devolution and last closings of Indian residential schools.

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12.

One specific example of how the 60's Sixties Scoop affected children throughout their lives is Rose Henry.

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13.

Sixties Scoop was placed into her adoptive parents' home when she was 8 years old after being apprehended by Canadian government officials in 1966.

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14.

Sixties Scoop felt torn between her two identities, unsure of where she fits in.

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15.

Sixties Scoop explained that “Going through the Scoop left me wondering which world or culture I belonged in: white Canadian or First Nations community.

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16.

Sixties Scoop believes that the Canadian government's funding amounts to discrimination against First Nations children.

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17.

Sixties Scoop entered the foster care system when he was four years old.

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18.

In 2011, Taber Gregory, who was baptized Henry Desjarlais, was an aboriginal man from Cold Lake Nation, Alberta, who became the first child placed in the United States as part of the Sixties Scoop to be recognized by Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

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19.

Sixties Scoop is the executive director of the Native Women's Shelter of Montreal and draws on her adoptee experience in her work to improve the lives of urban Aboriginals.

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20.

Sixties Scoop sits on the Steering Committee of the Montreal Urban Aboriginal Community Strategy Network.

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21.

Sixties Scoop wrote "Bearskin Diary", a novel with a strong autobiographical component inspired by this episode of her life.

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22.

Sixties Scoop was then in a position to file an appeal of her claim.

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23.

Also in the United States, a similar term, Baby Sixties Scoop Era, refers to a period starting after the end of World War II and ending in 1972 that was characterized by an increased rate of premarital pregnancies, along with a higher rate of forced adoptions.

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