Thursday, August 1, 2024
Thursday, July 25, 2024
How did this HAPPEN? Few adoptees know personal effects exist or how to reclaim them
By TRACE L HENTZ (stunned!!!)
I had no clue that Minnesota kept mother's gifts to their child lost to adoption!
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| What kind of system is this? REALLY? |
YOU KNEW Minnesota opened all sealed adoption records July 1. Yes, I sent in a check but sent the wrong form (and it costs $40) so I am reapplying to get my original birth certificate (OBC). I have waited over 65 years to hold this stinking piece of paper in my hands. It will say my mother is HELEN THRALL. I know that. But it will be nice to have physical paper proof. Many adoptees are not given access to their own OBC.
Here is the shocker: This story hit Minnesota newspapers this week. If you were adopted out of that state like me, the state has been holding mementos from mothers to give to their child given up for adoption.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Where did they store all this stuff?
Thousands, maybe a million babies were adopted out of Minnesota… What about other states? OMG!
‘Minnesota could actually be the leader in figuring this out’ - OH REALLY!?!
WHO KNEW? The change in state law — which went into effect on July 1 — has brought renewed attention to personal effects kept in adoption files. The agency which once placed children will now support adopted people in claiming these gifts. WHAT THE HELL?
No one, including me, knew anything about this… I knew an adoptee who said her mother sent letters to the adoption agency in Mississippi to give to her but the adoptee never knew, and only got the letters years later, after she met her biological mom. Her mom told her she sent several.
Personal histories, items can be claimed by adult adoptees from Minnesota’s DHS files
Permanency Supports Grant Manager
Crystal Graves explains the concept of personal effects during an informational
gathering about recent adoption law changes at the Minneapolis American Indian
Center on July 11.
MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO
On a warm July evening, a group of fewer than a dozen people met at the Minneapolis American Indian Center to share information about how adopted adults can claim personal items left for them at the time of their adoption by their birth parents.
Ann Haines Holy Eagle searched and found her birth family many years ago and now advocates for Native American children and families, including fellow adoptees.
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Ann Haines Holy Eagle (center), Minneapolis urban representative for the Indian Child Welfare Advisory Council, speaks with adoptee advocate Sandy White Hawk during a gathering at the Minneapolis American Indian Center on July 11. Ben Hovland | MPR News |
“If I would have had something from my mom ... just to know that my mom loved me, you know, or thought enough to send something with me to fight in this world. It would have made a huge difference,” said Haines Holy Eagle.
For the past several decades activists have pushed for access to birth and adoption records. Last year, the state Legislature answered those calls, making state birth records available to adoptees for the first time.
The change in state law — which went into effect on July 1 — has brought renewed attention to personal effects kept in adoption files. The agency which once placed children will now support adopted people in claiming these gifts.
Haines Holy Eagle and members of the Indian Child Welfare Act Advisory Council, which advises DHS, first learned about personal effects kept by agency this past spring during a routine meeting. She says they learned about items kept in storage for decades — items of personal value, including photos, family heirlooms and small keepsakes.
Haines Holy Eagle said she and others were taken by surprise.
“We were just kind of shook,” said Haines Holy Eagle.
Haines Holy Eagle and members of the advisory group invited DHS representatives to present that same information to members of the community.
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Piikuni adoptee Kirk Crow Shoe smudges DHS employee Crystal Graves (left) with eagles feathers and sage during a healing ceremony at the Minneapolis American Indian Center on July 11. Ben Hovland | MPR News |
At the public event in July, adult adoptees let DHS staff know they’d like to approach the process not as a private matter, but as a community.
Haines Holy Eagle said she’s prepared to use the wisdom gained through her personal experience to lead the process of claiming personal effects.
She says the work should center on the experiences of adopted people in connection with their birth and adoptive communities.
“It’s time for us to be at the forefront of our healing and truth and reconciliation,” said Haines Holy Eagle.
DHS staff member Crystal Graves began her presentation to the community by explaining that she’s handled these personal effects going back 20 years. Throughout the evening, Graves told everyone she welcomes input from the adoption community in re-thinking how DHS can help adoptees request their belongings.
She explained to the small gathering how adopted adults can make a request to claim their belongings — what paperwork to fill out and where to send it.
Few adoptees know personal effects exist
Adoptees have been able to recover personal effects for years. DHS says they have followed statutory requirements that mandate confidentiality of adoption records, and they say it’s likely most adoptees don’t know they might have a personal effect in their file. DHS says only a few adoptees recover personal effects from their adoption files every year.
DHS provided MPR News with general information about the personal effects associated with adoption files but declined to make a staff member available for interview.
The agency estimates approximately 7,500 adoption files contain personal effects — less than 10 percent of all the adoption files kept by the agency.
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The handwritten words “For-Get-Me-Not” appear in an Easter greeting card addressed to “Bobby” displayed on a table in the Minnesota Department of Human Services building in St. Paul. Photographed on July 5. Ben Hovland | MPR News |
Haines Holy Eagle says she believes it’s possible that DHS has held onto these personal effects because they prioritized the wishes of adoptive parents over those of adoptees.
“You want it to be respectful of the adoptive parents, you didn’t want to disrespect them because you want them to feel like this is my new start. This is my new family,” said Haines Holy Eagle.
DHS estimates about ninety percent of the personal effects associated with adoption files are photos and the remaining ten percent are family documents.
DHS did allow MPR News to document a small number of personal effects in files over 100 years old. A black and white photo shows a baby in a pram. Another black and white photo shows a group of three siblings standing in front of a farm building. One of the personal items is a handcrafted Easter card. Inside is a hand pasted image of forget-me-not flowers, the signature page signed by the child’s birth parent.
Another item is a family document, an ornate baptismal certificate in the adoption file dating from just before 1920.
DHS points out the agency no longer places children up for adoption, following changes to adoption law in the 1980s. Still, as a state agency, DHS receives adoption files from placing agencies that have closed. DHS says its staff are still cataloging thousands of files, some of which contain still more personal effects.
DHS says it’s likely that current adoption placing agencies have adoption files, and those may contain more gifts.
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Seventy-three-year-old Lakota adoptee Pearl Brave Heart fills out post adoption search forms during the adoptee law informational gathering on July 11. Ben Hovland | MPR News PHOTO: Lakota adoptee Pearl Brave Heart, 73, shares the story of her adoption into a family of German descent as DHS employee Crystal Graves listens during a gathering at the Minneapolis American Indian Center on July 11. Ben Hovland | MPR News |
‘Minnesota could actually be the leader in figuring this out’
One adoptee advocate says Minnesota could be the first in the country to help people recover their belongings.
Attorney Gregory Luce is the executive director of the Adoptee Rights Law Center and sometimes helps adoptees obtain court orders to open their adoption files.
“It’s taken 80 years to talk about personal effects,” said Luce. “[Adoptees] have become inured to this idea that you’re entitled to nothing.”
Luce, who is also an adoptee, applauds the state for its renewed effort at helping adoptees claim their belongings.
“It’s huge, because it didn’t take a court order to make them do this. And so, Minnesota could actually be the leader in figuring this out.”
The beginning of the work to recover these personal effects was marked with a ceremony held during the July meeting at the Minneapolis American Indian Center. An elder performed a healing ceremony first for DHS staff member Crystal Graves and then invited members of the adoption community to join.
DHS says it will reconvene workgroups with members of the adoption community this fall.
Individuals interested in initiating a search can fill out the post adoption search form at the Foster Adopt Minnesota website.
STORY: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/08/04/minnesota-adoption-birth-records-policy-change
VIDEO https://youtu.be/88f4UVVcui4?si=l_dhZqX6-IOooaGz
- With Minnesota law change in effect adoptees can access original birth records
- Law change will unseal original birth recordsfor people born in Minnesota and later adopted
- People who were adopted, birth parents react to change in Minnesota birth records policy
- Adoptee reflects on Minnesota's new adoption policy, opening decades of family secrets
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| Caption: Fritz Scholder, “Dying Indian” (1968), acrylic on canvas, 27 x 40 inches (all images courtesy the Estate of Fritz Scholder and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York) GO READ: https://hyperallergic.com/935167/fritz-scholder-art-of-non-belonging/ | |
Indigenous women recognized for children’s welfare work
www.wellingtonadvertiser.com /indigenous-women-recognized-for-childrens-welfare-work/
Robin George 7/24/2024
And they took away more than just culture, Stewart said – “They disposed of everything. Family. Teachings. Land. Inheritance.”
GUELPH – Family and Children’s Services of Guelph and Wellington County (FCSGW) has recognized three Indigenous women for their work in child welfare advocacy.
Tauni Sheldon, Donna Dubie and Wendy Stewart were presented with FCSGW’s Award of Merit on June 20.
“The invaluable contributions of these Indigenous leaders and unwavering dedication to their communities serves as an inspiration to us all,” FCSGW officials state.
“This is the first time in local history Indigenous providers have been recognized for our child welfare advocacy,” Stewart said.
Sheldon, Dubie and Stewart advocate for Indigenous children involved with child welfare societies across Ontario. They are not agents of family and children’s services but independent providers who offer culturally appropriate support to Indigenous families.
Inuit advocacy
Sheldon lives in Ospringe and is Inuk from Nunavut and Northern Quebec, a Sixties Scoop survivor, and a cultural advisor with Kamatsiarniq.
Sixties Scoop refers to the removal of tens of thousands of Indigenous children from their families into the Canadian child welfare system.
Kamatsiarniq translates to “a place where Inuit are welcome” and is a child welfare program at Tunjasuvvingat Inuit, a non-profit service provider.
Sheldon oversees Inuit culture with families, supports Inuit families through navigating the child welfare system and guides children’s aid societies regarding Inuit culture and Inuit rights.
“Its important for Inuit to have that advocacy and support,” Sheldon said, “especially as none of us are on our traditional lands” in southern Ontario.
Tauni said Inuit are often swept under a pan-Indigenous approach, or assumed to be First Nations, instead of recognized as a distinct Indigenous group.
When Inuit are sent to Ontario from northern Canada through the child welfare system, she said it’s important the children “remain connected to who they are as Inuit.”
Sheldon said she “has that fire to try and be that voice for people who don’t have their voice or don’t know what to do,” because she knows how it feels to be a voiceless child.
Her family and her adoptive family are “still trying to understand the Sixties Scoop.”
“For my birth mother, it was very traumatic,” she said. Sheldon’s birth mother had arranged for a traditional Inuit adoption, but instead Sheldon was “scooped” and taken away to Ontario.
“I was a baby when I was apprehended” and at that time, there weren’t Indigenous people in the system who could advocate for her, Sheldon said.
After decades apart, Sheldon reconnected with her mother and said they now have a loving relationship. On Sheldon’s 50th birthday, she spent the day with her mother – the first birthday with her mother since the day she was born.
“We cried and held each other,” Sheldon said, adding she hears many stories similar to her own through her work.
First Nations
Dubie is an intergenerational residential school survivor who is Haudenesounee Turtle Clan from the territory of the Grand River.
She’s the founder and executive director of Healing of the Seven Generations (HSG), a nonprofit organization in Kitchener that supports Indigenous people in Waterloo, Wellington, Guelph and surrounding areas suffering the impacts of the residential school system.
Stewart, who lived in Erin from 1968 until 2019, is Bay of Quinte Mohawk Turtle Clan and the founder of Tall Tree Indigenous Peace Building Circles, a non-profit that supports Indigenous families and children through healing circles.
The circles go beyond conflict resolution, Stewart said, and work to “wrap around a family” and rally to figure out what they need.
Her work centres around safety, helping the family “address what they don’t do so well,” and emphasizing their strengths.
She builds relationships and trust with the families and helps them become aware “of their identity that was stolen from them.”
“If they are First Nations, I can say ‘here are your teachings – this is who you are. These values are pretty important. This is what was taken from you.’
“If they are Ojibwe, I can say ‘you are an Anishinaabekwe; an Ojibwe woman. I want you to keep repeating that.’”
Then she starts connecting them with “helpers,” many of whom work at HSG.
The helpers’ support includes food security, housing, health care, education, court support and ceremonies.
“It takes a village,” Stewart said, “and we are building that village.”
There is nothing like HSG in Wellington County or Guelph, so many Indigenous locals go to Kitchener to receive this support, Stewart explained.
Funding
And though HSG supports hundreds of people from Clifford to Kitchener, funding is limited, Dubie noted.
“Funding for Indigenous community organizations is always on the sparse side – an Indigenous organization will only be funded two thirds of what a mainstream organization is,” she said.
“We ride on grants for the most part,” Stewart said, “but grants are not sustainable.”
“It’s like the Canadian government wants us to fail,” Stewart said.
“We need resources,” Dubie said, “we need them to walk beside us, because we can’t do it all alone. But we aren’t asking them to control us as they walk beside us – walk beside us in friendship and understanding.”
She compared keeping the organization afloat on such a tight budget to “surviving above the drowning line of a flood.”
But despite the low funds, “We are going to do everything we can to better help those children,” Dubie said.
With more resources, they would like to create a place like HSG in Wellington County or Guelph, Dubie and Stewart said.
‘Canada did this’
Supports such as those offered at HSG are essential to combatting systemic issues such as the over-representation of Indigenous people in foster care, shelters, prisons and hospitals, “yet do we get the help to better our people? Absolutely not,” Dubie said.
“We basically top the chart at everything,” Stewart said: suicide, domestic violence, child welfare system, criminal system, poverty.
Dubie said it’s important to recognize these issues are results of the residential school system and the Sixties Scoop: “Canada did this to our people.
“The Canadian government didn’t want any more Indian ‘problem,’” Stewart said, so that’s why they wanted to take the Indian out of the child.”
And they took away more than just culture, Stewart said – “They disposed of everything. Family. Teachings. Land. Inheritance.”
Dubie said many Indigenous families struggling “don’t even know themselves why they are dysfunctional,” but their parents, grandparents and great grandparents were abused in residential schools and were told they could never speak about it, so turned to drugs, alcohol, gambling and other addictions to try to escape the pain.
“Canada is saying between 150,000 and 200,000 people were in residential schools,” Dubie said. “They have families, those families have families,” and the trauma is passed on from one generation to the next.
Indigenous children were shamed for their culture and told it was “evil devil worship,” which made them “afraid to be who they really are” and speak their traditional languages even after leaving school, Dubie said.
The children also experienced a wide range of physical and sexual abuse.
“They come out as young teens and young adults who don’t know how to be parents because of all those things that they were taught. Those things they were taught became parenting skills,” she said.
‘Knows the history’
“In order to service a family, you’ve got to have someone that understands that culture and knows the history,” Stewart said.
“All their lives they have been told they are a piece of shit,” she said. “We are saying, ‘guess what? You are not a piece of shit, and you do matter. (The Creator doesn’t) make mistakes, and Creator made you. So come on, let’s pull up your socks, let’s go.”
Dubie said organizations such as HSG, Tall Tree and Kamatsiarniq help families “get back in touch with their culture and understand who they are.”
Stewart said some children first learn they are Indigenous after connecting with an advocate through the child welfare system.
“We bring them back to the teachings. Help them build their self esteem. Help them build that spirit in them. Help them live a good life,” Stewart said. “We teach them how they can pray,” and about Indigenous stories and world views.
With ceremonies and traditional medicines, the advocates help families “move away from the drugs and alcohol and abuses. Because that’s not who we are as a people,” Dubie said.
“We are not ‘heathens,’ not ‘dirty Indians,’ we have heart and spirit,” she said. “We are people. We just want to survive – and have an awesome day.”
“Our community has a lot of kindness,” Sheldon added. “That’s our teachings.” But she said kindness can be a hard thing to achieve, “because we weren’t raised with kindness,” and faced lifelong systemic abuse, racism and criticism.
“You were beaten up as a kid when you went to mainstream school,” she said, and many Indigenous mothers had child welfare show up in the hospital as soon as they gave birth, “and you didn’t even do anything wrong.
“So to walk with kindness – it takes a lot.”
Breaking the cycle
Stewart said it’s significant for her when she sees children she worked with grow up to flourish as healthy and happy adults, “knowing that cycle is broken, and they are going to be okay.”
Some of the children grow up to be child welfare advocates themselves, she said.
Dubie said receiving the Merit Award was meaningful as it shows how far they have come along “a very long road.
“The award really recognized our endurance and our dedication to the community. Not just our contributions to child welfare, but the tough journey that we had and our resilience,” she said
Sheldon said it was an honour, particularly to share it with Stewart and Dubie, though it “felt kinda strange, as it’s not really the Inuit way to be awarded or recognized.”
Sheldon said she, Stewart and Dubie often “go beyond what we are asked to do … because we know the need is out there,” and they appreciate being recognized for that.
And she said FCSGW “has really taken a few extra steps, compared to other children’s aid societies, to work in Indigenous well-being.”
“We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to collaborate and partner with Wendy, Donna and Tauni; working together to disrupt and change the legacy of child welfare with Indigenous communities,” FCSGW officials state.
Sheldon said she has hope for the future because “we are in a day now of truth and reconciliation.
“We can’t erase the past,” Sheldon said, “but it left a legacy that is impacting Indigenous people.”
And now that the truth is out in the open, “We can work together as all people,” towards a better future.
Robin George Reporter
ISSUES WITH BLOGGER
I have not been able to sign in to access blogger until TODAY!
I will be posting articles today that I had saved asap.
THIS WEBSITE MAY DISAPPEAR which I why I will be creating a mirror site, just in case. (I will post a link)
To search, always use keywords: splitfeathers or american indian adoptees or my name Trace Lara Hentz... if this site goes out...
Trace
EMAIL: tracelara@pm.me
Monday, July 22, 2024
Landmark Minnesota Law is Signed
Federal Government Releases Latest Funds for Tribal Home-visiting Programs
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Saturday, July 20, 2024
My adoptive parents tried to erase my Indigenous identity. They failed.
SOURCE: https://headtopics.com/ca/my-adoptive-parents-tried-to-erase-my-indigenous-identity-55825652
Kim Wheeler, born Ruby Linda Bruyere, was adopted by a white family as part of the Sixties Scoop. She was one of tens of thousands of Indigenous children who were taken from their families and placed in the homes of mostly white families in Canada.
Kim Wheeler was adopted into a white family during the Sixties Scoop. After years of abuse, she lived to tell the tale of finding her way back to her culture. My name is Kim Wheeler but some know me as Kim Ziervogel. Others will remember me as Kim Bell, and to a small group of people I will always be Ruby Linda Bruyere. But the name game doesn't stop there.
Growing up, I was always reminded I was adopted. My mother and sisters would tell strangers, "She's adopted." It didn't really bother me, I suppose, because I was used to hearing it. My adoptive mother was a different case. She was psychologically abusive. She wore me down until all I could be was a "yes" person to everyone I met. It wasn't until I was in my 30s that I started to stand up for myself and began to say "no" to people. To this day, I still struggle with saying no, although some people wouldn't believe that. It's an internal process that unfolds in milliseconds.
Of course those same people were struggling with their own trauma of the Indian Residential School experience, but back in the 1970s and 1980s, no one knew this. Our parents would simply tell us if we didn't stay in school, if we didn't smarten up, if, if, if — we would end up "just like the Indians on Main Street.
Friday, July 19, 2024
The Storyteller
'Indian Horse' Director Partners on Richard Wagamese Documentary 'The Storyteller' (Exclusive)
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The creative team behind Indian Horse, the 2017 feature adaptation of the late Richard Wagamese's novel of the same name, are partnering for a documentary, The Storyteller, on the legendary Canadian indigenous writer.
Stephen Campanelli, Clint Eastwood's go-to cameraman, directed Indian Horse after it was adapted by Dennis Foon. In a deal to be unveiled at the Banff World Media Festival, Campanelli will serve as the cinematographer and Foon as a story consultant on the feature documentary about Wagamese and his Ojibway heritage to be directed by Jules Arita Koostachin (WaaPaKe, Broken Angel).
The indigenous creatives behind The Storyteller include Jim Compton as principal producer, while also serving as a writer and executive producer alongside Koostachin. The partners behind The Storyteller are also involved in the adaptation of Wagamese's novel Ragged Company and are developing a feature film adaptation.
A TV series based on the tale about four homeless people who seek refuge in a movie theatre when a severe arctic front falls on their city is also in development, with Campanelli and Koostanchin on board as co-directors of a pilot.
The Storyteller is produced by Wabung Anung Films Ltd. and Sea to Sky Entertainment. Sea to Sky has also partnered with Grinding Halt Films on the Ragged Company adaptation.
The Storyteller will look at the life of Wagamese, who was born in Wabasseemoong First Nation in Ontario and became a leading Canadian writer over a 35-year career that ended with his death in 2017 at age 61 years. The doc will address the impact of Canada's infamous residential schools and the Sixties Scoop atrocities on the country's indigenous people, experiences that took their personal toll on Wagamese.
The Canadian-Indian residential schools removed aboriginal children from their families, culture and heritage to be raised as Christians by the Catholic Church.
Campanelli first started working with Eastwood on the 1995 romance movie Bridges Of Madison County. He also became the preferred cameraman for other Eastwood titles like Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima and Gran Torino.
Thursday, July 18, 2024
When it’s Too Complex
The LIFE OF VON blog: This entry was posted on February 23, 2017, in adoptees, adopters, adoption, Food for Thought, Uncategorized and tagged adoptees, adopters, adoption, childhood, goodlife, orphan savers, stigma.
“When Problems Become Too Complex, We Long For Simple Solutions, Even if They Are Wrong.”
As
our world becomes more complex and problems become more difficult to
solve, we turn to simple solutions that give our psyches comfort. How do
we deal with poverty, over-population, global climate change, endless
wars? It’s difficult to figure out what to do.
We are all drawn to someone who seems to know the answer. “ISIS? Trust me, I’ll eliminate them in short order,” says Mr. Trump. Too many people in the world and an economic system that keeps people in poverty? “Don’t worry, I’ll build a wall to keep illegal immigrants out,” says Mr. Trump, “and I’ll get Mexico to pay for it.” – Dr Jed Diamond http://menalive.com/the-real-reason-donald-trump-will-be-our-next-president/#more-3797 *May 2016: JED'S WEBSITE: https://menalive.com/about/ [Mr. Trump Seems to Have Suffered Abuse, Neglect, and Abandonment as a Child. Many of Us Resonate with His Rage.]**
And so we dumb-down, over-simplify, remove the complexity at all cost and create a world where we don’t have to teach children to cope with their emotions, reactions, confusions, difficulties, dilemmas and they grow up not able to make decisions, solve problems or live independently.
Universities and college campuses were once places for rich learning, transitioning into adult life, enthusiastic debate, the forming of principles, the development of a set of ethics and the tools which would last us through life. They were once a place to test the water, to be free of parental scrutiny and ideals where the young leaned to live independently, to make ‘mistakes’, to try our new lifestyles, to try on political concepts, to cast of the limitations of childhood and the rules of home.
Today it seems parents follow, hovering, observing and ready at a moment’s notice to intervene, rescue, defend and prevent the learning that could be happening. Of course they do it for the ‘best’ of reasons, they love their children and are keen to protect them from harm, influences they don’t approve of and ideas they don’t agree with. In being so involved they take away the young person’s opportunities to learn ,discover and develop. Surely when we have children the aim is to eventually produce self-sufficient, independent, responsible, caring adults.
An old friend, who birthed three girls, used to say that her aim for childhood was to raise children who could think for themselves and clean their own ears! Later it was that they should be completely self-reliant and not need her, although of course she hoped love would survive the rigours of growing up and affection would be present.
If we try to raise children to be our friends, our companions, our saviours and our carers we are surely doing them a grave disservice, stilting their growth and tying them to us in an unhealthy, unproductive way.
It takes dedication to teach children to look after themselves, to be safe, to make good decisions, to have wisdom and compassion, to act ethically, to be honourable, fair and self- sufficient. It requires commitment, time, patience and a degree of maturity, self-knowledge and awareness, plus a sense of humour and the ability to laugh heartily at ourselves.
We must never forget that whatever we do we are modelling for our children. What we do they will do. What we say they will say. What we believe they will believe. That is a huge responsibility.
If you raise the children of others, you have additional responsibilities to ensure you are the best parent possible, to give them the best life possible but firstly to ensure that there was really no other option for them but adoption. You need to have a clear conscience, to have done your research adequately because you will be answerable for the rest of your life to the child you made an adoptee.
In addition you need to be fully cognisant of the things adoptees may bring with them into the adopted life – grief, loss, trauma, stigma, damage, PTSD, the deprivation from loss of language, culture, food, family, motherland.
You need to be familiar with the stages of the adopted life and what to do to assist if necessary. You need to know when to step back, how to deal with your fears, disappointments, inabilities, inadequacies,frustrations, denials and preconceived ideas. You will need a sense of humour, patience, a strong sense of self, endurance, support, the ability to change your mind and ideas and to cope with feeling threatened by the unknown, the uncertain and the unresolved. You will need to prepare yourself as best you can and know that no amount of preparation will ever be enough to deal with the reality of adoption. It has a way of taking by surprise, shocking, astounding, engulfing, overwhelming, numbing, enriching and surprising!
BACKGROUND: VON's BLOG (an adoptee blogger who lived in Australia)
Von writes: Years ago I first blogged at Blogger, until my account was closed down by the FBI!! Whoddathunk? Such far-reaching tentacles! A supporter of Reece’s Rainbow got the wrong end of the stick, attributed a comment or two to me, the least likely to make adverse remarks about people with DS, and before I knew it, I was besieged with comments from supporters with all sorts of suggestions, threats and ideas. One of those threats was carried out and my blog became inoperable. Fortunately, I had taken precautionary measures some months before, in expectation of such an event. In Blogland, when your topic is adoption, you can never be free of trolls, extremists, zealots, fundamentalists, missionaries, the blinkered and the closed-minded. There are always those non-adoptees more than happy to tell an adoptee how to live, where to live and what to do.
It is a great comfort to know we are not alone and that other adoptees understand and share our experience. One of my half-sisters when asked how she felt about discovering me, told everyone she found it ‘hilarious’. Somehow didn’t feel that way to me!
**Ongoing studies reported by the National Centers for Disease Control (Adverse Childhood Experiences—ACE—Studies) demonstrate that childhood abuse, neglect, and abandonment are more common than most of us think and impact our adult health and relationships. Abused children often hook up with each other as adults (It’s our subconscious attempt to heal old wounds).
Remembering Alex Janvier
Alex Janvier, Indigenous Painter of Evocative Abstractions, Dies at 89
The artist and residential school survivor created vivid works that meld Denesuline iconography with modern and contemporary styles.
Alex Janvier painting in his studio located in Cold Lakes First Nation land in eastern Alberta, Canada (all photos courtesy Canada House)
Contemporary painter and Cold Lake First Nations resident Alex Janvier died on July 10 at age 89, as confirmed by his family, who shared the news on the artist’s Instagram account. Remembered for his vividly colorful paintings melding Indigenous Denesuline artistry with modern and contemporary styles, Janvier and his work are celebrated in museums and private collections across North America and internationally.
Janvier was born in 1935 on Treaty 6 territory in eastern Alberta to Mari Janvier, a Saulteaux (Ojibwa) woman, and Harry Janvier, the last hereditary chief of the Cold Lake First Nations before the federal government imposed elected officials. The artist, one of 10 siblings, spent much of his childhood learning the Dene language and Denesuline customs for how to live off the land up until age eight, when he was taken to the Roman Catholic-run Blue Quills Indian Residential School. Janvier has recounted the trauma he endured at the school over the years. In an interview with CBC News, he shared his experience of being loaded onto a cold truck with other children, forcibly stripped, and showered in a group before having their culturally significant braids cut off.
(CBC NEWS: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/alex-janvier-residential-school-art-1.4011598)
Disconnected from his family and culture for 10 years, Janvier embraced the therapeutic benefits of drawing and painting at the Blue Quills school, where he was provided with materials and art instruction. “I found a certain time of the week, you could escape from the whole outlay of controls,” he told Ottawa Morning‘s Hallie Cotnam in an interview. “And for about three hours, you’re in your own world, and that’s when I began to discover my ability to work on paper and beautiful colours — all kinds of colours.”
As a teenager at St. Thomas More College in Saskatchewan, Janvier was under the tutelage of University of Alberta professor Carlo Attenberg, who introduced the young artist to the work of Wassily Kandinsky and Joan Miró. By 1960, Janvier completed his Fine Arts education at the Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary, and taught briefly before committing his time entirely to painting. In 1968, he married Jacqueline Wolowski, with whom he went on to have six children. The couple remained together until his passing.
In the early ’70s, Janvier became part of a group called the Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporation (PNAI, but also informally called the Indigenous Group of Seven) with artists Daphne Odjig, Jackson Beardy, Eddy Cobiness, Norval Morrisseau, Carl Ray, and Joseph Sanchez. The PNAI presented modern and Indigenous artwork to the mainstream Canadian art market, extracting it from the typical narrative of First Nations handicraft work. Not only did they exhibit and market their creative output as fine art, but they also promoted artmaking in Indigenous communities across Canada through educational opportunities and scholarships funded in part through their artwork sales.
In his own work, Janvier is best known for his colorful abstractions combining Denesuline geocultural references with European Modernism. Ranging from bold, vivid acrylic compositions of flowing lines, organic shapes, and dotted patterns to shifting and bleeding sweeps of watercolor on paper, Janvier evoked the natural world, Denesuline cosmologies, and his familial relationships through his work for the last 70 years.
Janvier has been included in various group and solo exhibitions since 1950, with more specialized attention paid to his unique practice starting in the early 2000s. The artist and his family established the Janvier Gallery in 2003 and later moved it to Cold Lake First Nations land, where he maintained his studio practice, exhibited and sold his work, and featured the work of other Indigenous artists across Canada. In addition to multiple solo shows at Bearclaw Gallery and Canada House, Janvier had a retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa in 2016, and many of his public commissions remain on display throughout the country.
The artist is survived by his wife, Jacqueline; their six children; and 22 grandchildren, as well as countless friends and relatives.
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