"When did you first hear about the Sixties Scoop?" Vern Gladue asked as he sat down to talk about an important awareness event coming to the community this week. "Last year in the news, like a lot of people, right? In 1976 — when I was 11 — I got on a bus at Squirrelys and I ended up with a family in Tacoma, Washington — I stayed there until I was 18."
Gladue's relocation to a foster family — away from his family in the Beaver Lake Cree Nation — was through a Mormon Church program — not the provincial government's apprehension of thousands of Indigenous children from the 1950s to the 1990s, but his experiences give him a special understanding of the ongoing effects now being addressed by survivors of the sixties scoop.
"It was something that was accepted. If the government was doing it, other groups and organizations were doing it too," he said, drawing attention to an exhibit coming to the Beaver Lake Cree Nation's Multi-purpose Centre this Thursday.
Exhibit will share voices of survivors
The day-long event, called Bi-Giwen: Coming Home is part of a multi-community tour across Alberta by the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Alberta. The historic national exhibit will feature testimonials and information from four decades of survivors. The day begins with a pipe ceremony at 8:30 am and the exhibit runs from 9 am to 3 pm.
"Everyone is welcome," said Gladue. "You don't have to just be a survivor or Indigenous to attend. It's for the community — all community members — to be informed."
Gladue said his experiences with a foster family were not as difficult as others may have faced. He was allowed to travel back to his family during his time away. Others, however, inlcuding his own sister, however, had tougher times.
"Her family that she was sent to was so poor they had to contact my mom up here and ask her for money to buy shampoo," he said.
Scoop has troubling legacy
Many stories from the government's Sixties Scoop survivors can start to explain many of the pitfalls that Indigenous people have taken in later life, says Adam North Peigan, the president of the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society, and a survivor himself.
"To this day, the Sixties Scoop survivors experience the following: Abandonment issues ... addictions and homelessness ... sense of shame of colour of skin, heritage and ceremony ... suicidal ideations ... high rate of systemic issues such as justice system and child welfare," noted Peigan in correspondence about Thursday's event, which he calls a "powerful and emotional exhibit."
Last September, an information and awareness session for Scoop survivors and community members was hosted by Lac La Biche's Portage College Public Legal Education Program. The session drew about 40 people, and lead the way to this week's followup session and exhibit.
Shelley Jackson, the coordinator of the Public Legal Education program, says the exhibit is the culmination of a lot of work that many members of the local community have been a part of. Sharing in that journey is a role of the program.
"We are pleased to help promote awareness," she said, adding that the program also helps community members navigate the legal aspects of the Scoop, which includes a class action lawsuit against the government by survivors.
Gladue says the compensation packages available for survivors has a deadline of August, and he hopes the upcoming exhibit helps more people find information awareness and compensation along with answers and reconciliation.
