Sixties Scoop Network launches an innovative Mapping Project for Sixties Scoop Survivors

(Ottawa, ON) June 23, 2020 – The Legacy of Hope Foundation congratulates the Sixties Scoop Network (formerly the National Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare Network) for launching a ground-breaking, interactive map to visualize the displacement of Sixties Scoop Survivors and share their experiences. The Sixties Scoop Network’s project, In our own Words: Mapping the Sixties Scoop Diaspora is being conducted with Dr. Raven Sinclair, a University of Regina professor who initiated the Pe-kīwēwin. The project hopes to uncover the history behind the policies that led to a disproportionate number of Indigenous children in care. It will support Survivors in finding and reconnecting with family members and accessing services and support resources.

The National Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare Network has served as an advisor in the project created by the Legacy of Hope Foundation (LHF) called Bi-Giwen: Coming Home –Truth-Telling from the Sixties Scoop. This project explores the experiences of Survivors of the Sixties Scoop, which began in the 1960s and continued until the late 1980s, where Indigenous children were taken from their families, often forcibly, fostered and/or adopted out to non-Indigenous homes often far away from their communities and some across the globe. This project consists of a traveling exhibition along with an Activity Guide and features the first-person testimonies of twelve Indigenous Survivors of the Sixties Scoop, and reflects upon their enduring strength and resilience. The LHF is pleased to see another resource in addition to our own, out in the public that will raise awareness of the high rates of Indigenous child apprehension into the Child Welfare System and the impacts it has had on generations of Indigenous Peoples.

The LHF is a national Indigenous charitable organization whose purposes are to educate, raise awareness and understanding of the impacts of Residential Schools, including the Sixties Scoop and the intergenerational harms caused to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. This year marks our 20-year anniversary of LHF supporting the healing process of Survivors and their families, and working with Canadians to take action to address racism and discrimination in order to promote equality and to foster Reconciliation in Canada.

For more information on the Legacy of Hope Foundation, visit legacyofhope.ca.

For more information on the Sixties Scoop Network, please contact Colleen Hele-Cardinal at sixtiesscoopmap@gmail.com.