Photo: The Canadian Press
A traveling exhibit at the Vancouver Public Library, as shown in this image, tells the story of 12 Indigenous children who were taken from their families as part of the so-called Scoop of the 1960s. THE CANADIAN PRESS / HO-Sandra Railing
The Vancouver Public Library has unveiled an exhibition at its downtown branch that tells the story of 12 Indigenous children who were part of the so-called Scoop of the 1960s.
The “hunt”, which began in the 1960s and lasted until at least the 1980s, involved the practice of taking an unknown number of children from their families and settling them in the homes of non-natives.
Vancouver is the last of six cities in British Columbia to host the three-day exhibition, which is also touring in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Sandra Relling, president of the Sixties Scoop Society in Alberta, says her group bought a copy of a traveling exhibition from the Ontario-based Legacy of Hope Foundation, which created the original around 2014.
The purpose of the tour is to advocate for survivors and educate Canadians to an important era in the country’s history by allowing people to read the stories of those who have not had a chance to get to know their own families or culture.
Rahling says policies to eliminate children have continued with the closure of schools, but this reality is often overlooked.
“They continued through child protection programs, which the federal government essentially tested through a change in Indian law and placed in the provinces and territories to manage the removal of children.
Rahling said she was hospitalized as a baby in 1967, but her 16-year-old mother was unable to reach Edmonton Hospital when she was ready to be discharged, so she was sent to live with foster parents.
She says thousands of other indigenous children have faced the same fate, involving different scenarios, and some have been forcibly removed from their families.
“We didn’t have any outside influence on the locals at all as we grew up. So this exhibition really talks about how we get home to ourselves, to our communities,” said Relling, who is not among a dozen people who have detailed stories in the exhibition.
“We just want to tell the story that there was something that happened between the residential schools and the modern well-being of the children. And we are living people who have gone through this life experience. “
Rahling says she was raised by loving foster parents, but her mother never gave up looking for her.
Eventually, they reunited the day before Rahling’s 21st birthday, something that came as a “complete shock” to her, as she lived her life essentially as a Caucasian person with parents who loved her.
However, the experience of her “turning the world upside down” has affected her mental health, Relling said.
Andrew Butterhill, a librarian at the Vancouver Public Library, says he hopes the “powerful” exhibition, called Bi-Giwen: Coming Home, Truth Telling from the Sixties Scoop and held at the downtown branch until Monday, will serve as an opportunity for people to know the stories of the survivors in their own words.
“It’s just a really important part of reconciling learning in the library.”
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