A traveling exhibition at the Vancouver Public Library, as shown in this booklet image, tells the story of 12 Native children who were removed from their families as part of the so-called Sixties Scoop. THE CANADIAN PRESS / HO-Sandra Relling The Vancouver Public Library has unveiled an exhibition at its downtown branch that tells the story of 12 Native American children who participated in the so-called Sixties Scoop. The “scoop” that began in the 1960s and continued until at least the 1980s included the practice of taking an unknown number of children from their families and placing them in non-native homes. Vancouver is the last of the six cities in British Columbia to host the three-day exhibition, which has also toured Alberta and Saskatchewan. Sandra Relling, president of the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Alberta, says her team bought a copy of a traveling exhibition from the Ontario-based Legacy of Hope Foundation, which created the prototype around 2014. The purpose of the tour is to support survivors and educate Canadians about an important moment in the country’s history, allowing people to read the stories of those who have not had the opportunity to get to know their own family or culture. Relling says child abduction policies continued as boarding schools closed, but that fact is often overlooked. “They went on through child welfare programs that the federal government actually looked at through an amendment to Indian law and put it in the provinces and territories to manage the removal of children.” Relling says she was hospitalized as a baby in 1967, but her 16-year-old mother could not go to a hospital in Edmonton when she was ready to be discharged, so she was sent to live with foster parents. He says thousands of other indigenous children have faced the same fate in different scenarios, and some have been forcibly removed from their families. “We had no outside influence of any kind, nationality, at all when we were growing up. So this report really speaks to the fact that we are returning home to ourselves, to our communities,” says Relling, who is not among the dozens of people who have detailed their stories. in the report. “We just want to tell the story that something happened between home schools and modern daycare. And we live people who have gone through this life experience.” Relling says she grew up with affectionate foster parents, but her mother never stopped looking for her. They finally reunited the day before Relling’s 21st birthday, which came as a “complete shock” to her as she lived her life essentially as a Caucasian with loving parents. However, the experience of “overthrowing the world” had an impact on her mental health, says Relling. Andrew Battershill, a librarian at Vancouver Public Library, says he hopes the “strong” report, called Bi-Giwen: Coming Home, Truth Telling from the Sixties Scoop and Running to the Downtown Branch by 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 piece of reconciliation that you learn to have in the library.”
