Light is about to be shed on a darker part of Canadian history. The Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Alberta is bringing its travelling exhibit Bi-Giwen: Coming Home- Truth Telling From the Sixties Scoop to the Town of Peace River on May 2nd.
The Sixties Scoop was a government practice in Canada from the 1950s to the 1980s. During those years, an unknown number of First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were taken from their parents, families and communities and placed with non-Indigenous families.
The exhibit will bring together the stories of 12 survivors. SSISA President Adam North Peigan hopes the stories will bring awareness to a traumatic part of his and others’ pasts.
“Our hope is that it’s going to raise awareness with mainstream Albertans that you know what, this is a part of our story, this is a part of our history as Indigenous people; and that mainstream Albertans can be a little bit more understanding to the trauma and the atrocities that we have had to endure in our Indigenous communities.”
The display will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Museum Archives and Mackenzie Centre.