#60sScoop Survivor sent to New Zealand in 1975, looks for supports to reconnect with his tribal family

A Sixties Scoop Survivor who was taken from a northern Manitoba community in 1975 and sent to New Zealand, wants to return home to learn his history. But with little government support, he may have to pay out of pocket to return to the country that he claims once sold him away.

“As I’m older now and am looking into it, it’s obviously affected a lot of people in a lot of different ways, so for me, it’s an emotional roller-coaster, it’s up and down,” said Jonathan Hooker.

Dan Hooker. (Photo Courtesy: Dan Hooker)

Hooker was 18-months-old when he was taken from his Indigenous family and adopted by a New Zealand couple in 1975 as part of the Sixties Scoop.  A practice from the 1950s to 1980s where Indigenous children were forcibly placed in non-Indigenous homes across Canada and beyond.

“Deep down inside me there was always the connection to the Indigenous side of it, but again I didn’t understand it.”

STORY:

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/02/05/sixties-scoop-survivor-sent-to-new-zealand-in-1975-looks-for-support-to-reconnect-with-his-family-in-manitoba/