Scooped not shattered: I am a Sixties Scoop survivor

 

Opinion

I want you to consider building a better future for the next seven generations, writes Mike "O'dah ziibing (Heart of the river) Ashkewe

By Mike "O'dah ziibing / Heart of the river) Ashkewe

Guelph Mercury |  January 3, 2023

O'dah ziibing indizhinikaaz. I am Heart of the river. I am also a Sixties Scoop survivor, and I am a product of Canada’s violence and colonization against its Indigenous population.

I was raised as someone who only knew being Indigenous as a hustle, and it was something not to be proud of, but rather hidden and shameful. I was stripped of my culture, my language and the very core of my Ojibwe identity. I would not begin to explore who I was until I started to attend college in 2006. Even then I would face racism and I was relatively alone there. I started to talk with people who looked like me, had the same experiences as me from rural Ontario, but also I would be exposed to new things. I was exposed to compassion, understanding, and empathy. I was welcomed as an Indigenous student and I could be proud of where I came from.

It would take the lawsuit against Canada regarding the Sixties Scoop for me to really begin to explore my roots, discover who I was, and what my blood was calling to. My biological mother, Kim gave me up when she was a teenager and as a result, we didn’t have a traditional relationship and she never told me about where I really came from. She told me about the lawsuit and what it meant. She told me that I was illegally adopted by the people I thought were my parents, and she told me that a lot of my childhood was a lie that was wrapped in an alleged compassion.

I would meet a group known as the 60s Scoop Legacy of Canada and that would prove to be an amazingly transformative experience. I would learn about the true horror of the scoop but most importantly, I would learn that I was not alone, and that my story was not unique. I had brothers and sisters who were united in a painful experience that was considered completely legal and only spoken about in hushed tones, hidden in plain sight.

This is where I would begin my journey in earnest and I would talk to elders, advocates, politicians and others in asking hard questions but chiefly among them,

“Why?”

A lawsuit would be filed against Canada and it would be settled and it was determined that our stolen childhoods, cultures and languages were worth a paltry $25,000.  Our very identity was determined to be worth less than the poverty level for a single family of two.  This hardly seems fair but then again, when has Canada ever been fair to the country’s original inhabitants?

I decided that my trauma could be something I could harness and use to fight back for a better tomorrow for my people. We have a belief in our culture that speaks of seven generations and that our actions will echo forward seven generations. There is an opportunity to rebuild, grow and change the future of our shattered cultures and fractured relationships. I look back at all the wrongs that have been done, and I have promised that I would not willingly allow that to happen to another person again regardless of what colour their skin was.

My Indigenous spirit name translates to “Heart of the river” in Ojibwe.  My name means that I build community and like the river, I can connect all things and be the flow of life itself. Water connects all living things and is the essence of life, it is necessary to all things and it is necessary to build successful communities.

We can’t change the past but we can change what happens in the future and we can promise that we won’t willingly visit those wounds upon future generations.

O'dah ziibing indizhinikaaz. I am Heart of the river. I am a Sixties Scoop survivor and I want you to consider building a better future for the next seven generations.

Mike "O'dah ziibing / Heart of the river) Ashkewe is from Neyaashiinigmiing, Ontario. Mike is a disability and Indigenous activist in the city of Guelph. Mike has had a career in the media since 2007 in a variety of different roles such as commentator, reporter and podcaster.

 

He also wrote:

WHAT IS THE 60s SCOOP: https://www.parrysound.com/news-story/10806584-what-is-the-sixties-scoop-the-story-of-indigenous-children-taken-from-their-families-across-canada/

Solid Victory for 600 residential school survivors in Ontario

By Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com (August 18, 2011)

Nishnawbe Aski Nation  - 



Nishnawbe Aski Nation Deputy Grand Chief Mike Metatwabin said that adding Cristal Lake Residential High School and Stirland Lake Residential High School to the official list of residential schools paves the way for similar decisions to be made elsewhere in Canada.



About 600 former Aboriginal students at a pair of Northern Ontario residential schools are now eligible to seek compensation for being ripped from their homes and forced to attend the institutions.

The decision, rendered by Chief Justice Warren Winkler of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, adds Cristal Lake Residential High School and Stirland Lake Residential High School to the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, in what Native officials are calling a precedent-setting case that will outline the parameters to add further schools to the list.
The two schools had earlier been rejected by the federal government.
Students who attended the remotely located schools will now be permitted to apply for reparations for the time they spent at them, under the Common Experience Payout program.
The program pays $10,000 to each student for their first year of attendance at the school, and $3,000 for each additional year. Former students also receive an official apology from the institution.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Deputy Grand Chief Mike Metatawabin on Thursday called it a solid victory for both the students who attended Stirland Lake and Cristal Lake residential high schools, as well as First Nations across Canada.
“This landmark decision paves the way for other First Nations people who have been institutionalized to be included in this national settlement and we hope they too will continue to fight for justice,” he said in a release issued through NAN’s communications department.
Several other schools have yet to have a decision rendered about their residential school status. The two Ontario schools are the first in Canada to be added to the IRSSA.
Stirland Lake High School, also known as the Wahbon Bay Academy, was opened in 1971 by Northern Youth Programs Inc., a Mennonite-based organization, in the tiny community, located about 275 kilometres north of Sioux Lookout.
It was funded by Indian Affairs, and could house and educate up to 20 boys at one time. Students lived at the school for 10 months of the year.
Cristal Lake opened five years later, in an equally remote area, and was built to house Aboriginal girls.
The two schools merged in 1986, and the joint operation closed its doors in 1991.
Windigo formally requested the two schools be added to the list of recognized residential schools in October 2007, after a unanimous endorsement by NAN chiefs. The request was rejected the following spring, sending their quest to the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario.
The decision is welcome news for the council chairman of Windigo First Nations council, who spearheaded the court challenge.

“The former students of Stirland Lake and Cristal Lake Residential High Schools will now be able to begin their healing journey through the Common Experience and Independent Assessment processes offered by the IRSSA,” said Frank McKay, Council Chair of Windigo First Nations Council, who spearheaded this court challenge.

Students who were physically or sexually abused may also seek further compensation under the independent assessment process.

Susan Vella the legal counsel for both WIndigo and NAN, said they will help applicants anyway they can.

“We are ready to assist these former students with pursuing their legal rights under the IRSSA. We are grateful to the Court for rectifying the oversight in the IRSSA’s failure to include these schools in the original schedule of Indian residential schools.”

Source: http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=159806