The Sixties Scoop - Part 03

Send us a text, tell us your canadian creepy!The closing of residential schools did not mean the end of Canada’s attempts to separate Indigenous children from their families, communities, and cultures. The system changed. The goal of assimilation remained.In Part 03 of our series on the Sixties Scoop, we examine how changes to the Indian Act opened the door for provincial child welfare authorities to intervene on reserves, and how poverty created and perpetuated by colonial policies was frequently treated as evidence of parental neglect.We look at the experience from both sides of the separation: parents who returned home to find their children gone, mothers whose newborns were taken from hospitals, and children who were adopted or fostered across Canada, the United States, and beyond, often growing up without access to their names, languages, families, or cultures.Through survivor experiences, we explore the lasting consequences of this forced separation, including what researchers have described as a profound state of identity limbo: growing up disconnected from Indigenous community while never fully belonging in the white environments into which many children were placed.But this story is also about reclamation.We look at the ways survivors and Indigenous communities have worked to reconnect with family, culture, ceremony, community, and the land, restoring connections that government systems attempted to erase.This episode, and the entire Sixties Scoop series, was researched by Christine Young.Content note: This episode discusses colonialism, forced child apprehension, residential schools, racism, child abuse, family separation, suicide, mental health struggles, substance use, and intergenerational trauma.🌱 PayYourRent.ca is an Indigenous-led grassroots initiative calling on settlers to engage in ongoing, voluntary financial redistribution in support of Indigenous land defenders, sovereignty, and community well-being.This foundation supports urgent needs like housing, food security, legal defense, and cultural revitalization—all grounded in the principle that land back also means resource back.If you live, work, or benefit from life on stolen land, consider learning more or making a monthly contribution at PayYourRent.ca.Justice isn’t a moment—it’s a commitment.Edited by Kyle McDonnell