Manitoba became Canada's first province to offer an apology to children of the 60s Scoop. Here Premier Greg Sellinger, center, is joined by Assembly of Manitoba Grand Chief Derek Nepinak, left, at the ceremony.
WINNIPEG, MB-Manitoba became the first Canadian province to offer an apology to thousands of Indigenous children who were taken from their homes during the 1960s and adopted out to families-mostly non-Native, and a majority of whom went to the United States.
Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger offered a formal apology on June 18, to the survivors of the '60s Scoop and their families.
"Today, I would like to apologize on behalf of the province for the imposition of this practice," the premier said in the provincial legislature in downtown Winnipeg. Survivors, family members and aboriginal leaders looked on from the visitors' gallery in the rotunda of the capitol building. "I am deeply sorry for the harm it caused and continues to cause for survivors, their families and descendants," the premier stated.
The premier said by recognizing the existence of the practice-which saw an estimated 20,000 Canadian indigenous children taken from their homes in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and sent as far away as the southern United States and Europe-the Manitoba government has taken "a small step toward healing."
According to the Winnipeg Free Press, two '60s Scoop survivors shared their stories before an audience of survivors, family members and dignitaries.
"Today is a very historic day and a day that I'm honored to be a part of," said journalist and filmmaker Coleen Rajotte.
"We really deserve to be heard, understood and recognized for everything that we have lost, and we have lost a lot," said Rajotte, who only as an adult began to connect with her birth family.
"I know the feeling of not fitting in while growing up, the feeling of being alone in a crowded room, of being uncomfortable and ashamed... (about) not knowing anything about my culture," she said.
According to the newspaper, Marlene Orgeron, another adoptee, talked of being taken away from her Manitoba Aboriginal community and sent to live with a New Orleans family. She had been orphaned after her parents were killed in a car accident, but she had relatives in Manitoba who were looking after her at the time she was taken.
In her U.S. adopted home, "I grew up wanting to die, wanting this pain to end," she said. She spoke of years of physical and mental abuse.
