Indigenous Sixties Scoop adoptees want meeting with Canada's new government

A group of indigenous people adopted during the Sixties Scoop says no members of Canada's Liberal government have responded to itsrequest to meet with the prime minister and cabinet.

During the Sixties Scoop,between the1960sand '80s, an estimated 20,000 indigenous children were taken from their parents by childwelfare services and placed with mostly white families. Torn from their communities, many lost touch with their culture and language.

• Sixties Scoop: 'They just wanted to remove an Indian child into a white home'

On Dec. 16., Indigenous Adoptees-Ottawa sent a letter inviting Prime Minister Justin Trudeaufor a discussionabout healing fromdamage caused by the Sixties Scoop.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould, as well as Canadian Human Rights Commission head Marie-Claude Landry and National Chief Perry Bellegarde were also addressed in the letter.

Though itwas sent out again in January, there has been no responsefrom any of the recipients,

Neither Indigenous Affairs nor the Prime Minister's Office hasresponded to CBC'sinquiries about the letter and the Sixties Scoop.

"I don't think they're interested in this conversation," said Colleen Cardinal, co-founder of the Indigenous Adoptees group.

"I think they're really caught up in doing theinquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.

"There should be some form of acknowledgment that they've actually received a letter and that they're looking into it," says DuaneMorrisseau-Beck, group co-founderand one of the letter's authors.

"To date, we haven't had any acknowledgment from anywhere."

Taken at birth

Children taken during the SixtiesScoop were mostly sent to live in homes across Canada and the United States, but some ended up as far away as Europe, New Zealand and Australia.

In 1972, Colleen Cardinalwas taken from her biological family at birth in Edmontonand adopted into a non-indigenous family in Ontario.

"I didn't even know I was native until I was a teenager,"Cardinal said."The home I grew up in was extremely violent."

When she was 16,Cardinal ran away to Albertaand discovered her birth mother, a residential school survivor who was then living on "skid row."

Cardinal eventuallyreturned to Ontario and began rediscovering her First Nation roots and connecting with other adoptees.

"I thought I was the only one who was adopted."

Still, because of the abuse she suffered Cardinal nowlives with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

• '60s Scoop adoptees find 'some kind of belonging' at national gathering

Along with DuaneMorrisseau-Beck and other members of the Indigenous Adoptees group, she organizes gatherings of Sixties Scoop survivors in Ottawa and regularly communicates with other groups across the country.

Strategy needed

In 2015,Manitoba apologized for its role in the Sixties Scoop andSaskatchewan is expected to follow suit. There have also been class-action suits launched inOntario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. that would see adoptees receive compensation, similar to what was offered to residential school survivors.

• Greg Selinger, Manitoba premier, apologizes for Sixties Scoop
• Apology coming but no money for Sixties Scoop: Sask. Premier Brad Wall

Indigenous Adoptees-Ottawasays a meeting with the prime minister and cabinet should be the first of many with indigenous adoptees across the country.

This new government promised that it would work on reconciliation and this is it.- Colleen Cardinal, member of Indigenous Adoptees-Ottawa

The group wouldlike to see the creation of national roundtables similar to ones held for missing and murdered indigenous women, where governments, agencies and adoptees can develop some sort of strategy.

Morrisseau-Becksays survivors he hasspoken to in the Ottawa area have even been asking for a national inquiry into the Sixties Scoop such asthe one being crafted by the government for missing and murderedindigenous women.

"This new government promised that it would work on reconciliation and this is it," says Cardinal."We're asking for it."