The legacy of the Sixties Scoop
Summary
TLDRThe discussion features Cindy Blackstock, an advocate for Indigenous youth, and Raven Sinclair, a professor and survivor of the '60s Scoop, exploring the historical and ongoing trauma of Indigenous child removal in Canada. Blackstock highlights three phases of state removal of Indigenous children, from residential schools to today's underfunded child welfare system, while Sinclair shares her mixed experiences and emphasizes the need for healing from emotional and psychological trauma. Both advocate for systemic reform, increased public awareness, and prevention of further harm to Indigenous children.
Takeaways
- 👥 Cindy Blackstock and Raven Sinclair share their unique perspectives on indigenous child welfare in Canada.
- 🕰️ The state removal of indigenous children in Canada occurred in three phases: residential schools, the 60s Scoop, and current child welfare policies.
- 📚 Raven Sinclair, who was taken from her community, shares her mixed experiences, highlighting both positive aspects like travel and negative ones like racism and isolation.
- 🗣️ Cindy Blackstock discusses the systemic issues leading to the removal of indigenous children, including inadequate social worker training and underfunded services on reserves.
- ⚖️ A recent ruling found that the federal government's underfunding of child welfare has contributed to ongoing mass removals of First Nations children.
- 💔 Raven mentions that despite some benefits, the loss of family, community, and culture is irreplaceable and can't be compensated fully.
- 💰 Raven hopes that the lawsuit will lead to proper support for survivors to deal with trauma and that financial compensation may alleviate some challenges.
- 🔄 Cindy emphasizes the need for public awareness that the removal of indigenous children is not just a historical issue but a continuing one today.
- 🏫 Improvements in social work education include mandatory Native Studies classes, but biases and prejudices still impact decisions regarding indigenous children.
- 🔄 Both Cindy and Raven advocate for preventing future harm to indigenous children by learning from past mistakes and reforming the child welfare system.
Q & A
Who are the two guests mentioned in the interview?
-The two guests are Cindy Blackstock, an advocate for Canadian Indigenous youth and families, and Raven Sinclair, a professor of social work at the University of Regina.
What personal experience does Raven Sinclair bring to the discussion?
-Raven Sinclair shares her personal experience of being taken from her community as a child, providing insights into both the positive and negative aspects of that experience.
What challenges did Raven Sinclair face growing up after being removed from her community?
-Raven Sinclair faced racism, ostracism, bullying, and the absence of her family, community, and culture, which left her unprotected from these negative experiences.
What historical context does Cindy Blackstock provide regarding Indigenous child removals in Canada?
-Cindy Blackstock explains that the removal of Indigenous children happened in three phases: the residential school system, the 60s Scoop, and ongoing underfunding of child welfare services, leading to mass removals of Indigenous children.
What was the role of the residential school system in Indigenous child removals?
-The residential school system, acknowledged as cultural genocide, was the first phase of child removals. These schools also acted as child welfare placements before being replaced by provincial child welfare systems.
How does Cindy Blackstock describe the impact of inequitable services on reserves?
-Cindy Blackstock highlights that the inequitable services on reserves, combined with untrained social workers and multigenerational trauma, led to mass removals of Indigenous children that could have been prevented.
What does Raven Sinclair hope to see as a result of the current lawsuit?
-Raven Sinclair hopes that the lawsuit will lead to emotional and psychological support for those affected and reforms in the Child Welfare system, ensuring that Indigenous children are better protected.
What does Cindy Blackstock believe is crucial for moving forward in Indigenous child welfare?
-Cindy Blackstock believes that public awareness about the ongoing state removals of Indigenous children and learning from 60s Scoop survivors are crucial to preventing further harm.
Has the training of social workers improved since the 1960s and 1970s, according to Raven Sinclair?
-Yes, Raven Sinclair notes that social workers are now more knowledgeable about Indigenous history due to mandatory Native Studies classes, but there is still work to be done in addressing biases and prejudices.
What is the significance of the January ruling by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, as mentioned by Cindy Blackstock?
-The January ruling by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal stated that the federal government's underfunding of child welfare services for Indigenous children was a significant factor in the mass removals, reinforcing the need for systemic reform.
Outlines
🎙️ Introduction to Indigenous Child Welfare Advocates
The video introduces two experts, Cindy Blackstock, an advocate for Canadian Indigenous youth and families, and Raven Sinclair, a social work professor at the University of Regina. Both bring personal and professional insights on the subject of Indigenous child welfare. Raven begins by sharing her personal experience as one of the children taken from her community, detailing both the positive and negative aspects of her journey, especially the challenges of racism, ostracism, and losing connection with her family and culture.
📜 Historical Context of Indigenous Child Removals
Cindy Blackstock provides historical context for the removal of Indigenous children in Canada. She explains that this issue unfolded in three phases: the residential school system, the '60s Scoop, and the modern underfunded child welfare system. While the government acknowledged the cultural genocide of residential schools, this system laid the groundwork for the '60s Scoop. Provincial child welfare agencies took over when residential schools closed, leading to further harm due to untrained social workers and systemic trauma. Today, inequitable funding of Indigenous child welfare continues to cause preventable harm.
⚖️ Personal Impact of Child Removal and Positive Aspects
Raven reflects on her personal experience, acknowledging that while she had opportunities to travel and do things her birth family, due to poverty, couldn’t afford, these experiences did not compensate for the deep loss of family, community, and culture. She emphasizes that no material gain can replace the emotional and cultural damage inflicted by such separations.
🏛️ Hopes for Change and Systemic Reform
Raven expresses hope that the ongoing lawsuit will provide the necessary emotional and psychological support for Indigenous people who have experienced trauma due to child welfare practices. She acknowledges that financial compensation may help with some challenges but stresses the need for reform in the Child Welfare system itself. She envisions a system that avoids repeating the mistakes of the past.
👥 Public Awareness and Prevention of Future Harm
Cindy Blackstock stresses the importance of increasing public awareness about the ongoing legacy of state-led removals of Indigenous children. She emphasizes that the harm inflicted by these removals continues today with over 163,000 children still affected. Preventable harm is being done, and Blackstock calls for learning from the courageous stories of survivors to stop the cycle of harm.
📚 Improvements in Social Work but Ongoing Challenges
Raven discusses how the education of social workers has evolved since the '60s and '70s, with Indigenous history now a required component of their training. However, she notes that while knowledge has improved, personal biases and prejudices still affect the decisions made regarding Indigenous children. More work is needed to address these biases within the child welfare system.
✨ Closing Remarks and Hope for Change
The video closes with a sense of hope that the increased attention from the ongoing court case may lead to meaningful changes in the child welfare system. Both Raven Sinclair and Cindy Blackstock express their gratitude for the opportunity to share their insights, highlighting the need for continued public engagement and systemic reform to protect future generations of Indigenous children.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Indigenous Child Welfare
💡60s Scoop
💡Residential School System
💡Cultural Genocide
💡Trauma
💡Multigenerational Trauma
💡Racism
💡Underfunding of Child Welfare
💡Reform
💡Compensation
Highlights
Cindy Blackstock is an advocate for Canadian Indigenous youth and families, providing historical context on the systemic removal of First Nations children.
Raven Sinclair is a professor of social work and a 60s Scoop survivor, sharing her personal experience of being taken from her community.
Raven's childhood involved both positive and negative experiences, including racism, ostracism, and the absence of her family and culture.
Raven emphasizes the long-term impact of losing her family, community, and culture, and questions whether positive experiences can ever fully compensate for that loss.
Cindy discusses three phases of state removal of Indigenous children in Canada: the residential school system, the 60s Scoop, and modern-day underfunded child welfare systems.
The first phase involved the residential school system, which Prime Minister has acknowledged as cultural genocide.
The second phase, the 60s Scoop, began as residential schools closed, and provincial child welfare systems were introduced on reserves.
Cindy points out that undertrained social workers, multigenerational trauma, and inequitable services on reserves contributed to mass removals of Indigenous children.
The third phase continues today, with a 2016 human rights tribunal ruling that the federal government underfunds child welfare services for Indigenous children, leading to further removals.
Raven highlights the importance of addressing emotional and psychological trauma caused by child removal policies and systems.
She also notes the common Canadian response of financial compensation for historical wrongs, but emphasizes the need for systemic reform in child welfare.
Cindy stresses the urgency of raising public awareness about ongoing harm to Indigenous children, even after the residential schools and 60s Scoop era.
She calls for proactive prevention to avoid raising future generations of Indigenous children who must recover from childhood trauma.
Raven observes some progress in social work education, where students are required to take Indigenous studies courses, but believes more work is needed.
She calls for introspection among social workers to challenge their biases and ensure more equitable decisions for Indigenous children in child welfare systems.
Transcripts
well we're joined Now by two people who
have unique perspectives on this Cindy
Blackstock is an advocate for Canadian
indigenous youth and families she's in
Ottawa tonight Raven Sinclair is a
professor of social work at the
University of Regina specializing in
this area and she joins us from
Saskatoon and Raven let's begin with you
you were one of those children taken
from your community tell us a little bit
about your story my story is a mix of uh
positive and negative
experiences um there was some real
challenges on a daily basis I
experienced racism and ostracism and
bullying and uh I didn't have my family
my community my culture to to insulate
any of those
experiences um as a result I sort of
went on a quest to learn about uh this
this system indigenous child welfare and
it's become an area that uh my it's my
work and Cindy put this in some
historical context for us were there
good intentions was it badly managed was
it paternalism was it a bit of all of
that I think it's a bit of all of that
and we need to realize that really this
state removal of First Nations main Inn
children really happened in three phases
in Canada the first phase was a
residential school system for which uh
the Prime Minister has acknowledged was
cultural genocide but there was layover
with the 60 scoop because as residential
schools they were used as child Ware
placements too but as a began to close
the Federal Government invited
provincial child welfare systems on
reserve to take uh to take that place
and what happened is we had social
workers were not trained very well we
had families on reserve suffering
multigenerational trauma and that not
being addressed or acknowledged and then
we had the inequitable services on
reserve which created a whole Cascade
where Mass removals of these kids would
happen and then if we FASTT track up
until today we have the January ruling
by the Ken human rights tribunal saying
that the federal government's
underfunding child Ware so significantly
about 70 cents on the dollar compared to
other kids that that is leading to
another phase of mass removals of First
Nations children from their families
that could often be prevented so there's
three phases to this very tragic story
Raven you talked about how for you it
was both uh filled with good and bad
experiences the bad we've heard a little
bit about in what way was it good for
you as a child um well I had the
opportunity to travel a bit and um you
know do things like um that I might not
have otherwise been able to do because
uh my my birth family lived in h a
certain level of
poverty um you know so those were good
things I don't know that in the long run
it compensated for what I lost uh I I
don't know that anything can compensate
for the loss of family community and
culture High Hopes I know for a lot of
people about this this lawsuit Raven for
you what do you hope comes out of it
well my primary interest is in seeing
people uh given the supports necessary
to deal with the emotional
psychological uh um trauma that came
from it um in Canada you know when when
a wrong is committed then often the the
uh compensation is financial um so that
might help people to deal with some of
the obstacles and the burdens that
they've they've had to contend with I
would really like to see the Child
Welfare system reformed and Cindy what
about for you what what what does
success look like for you well I think
the Canadian public becoming more aware
that this story of the state removals of
indigenous children is not yesterday's
story it's not over with the residential
schools in fact we're seeing the legacy
of it today in the 60 scoop and the
creation of that same harm with 163,000
children today so the public awareness
about what is happening to First
nation's children and the fact that we
could prevent much of this harm going
forward is really critical to ensuring
that we do not have to raise another
generation of First Nations Main and
innu children that have to recover from
their childhoods we don't have to do it
it's preventable but we need to learn
from these courageous 60 scoop survivors
and make it stop and Raven you get to
see young social workers social workers
in training and I assume that things
have changed a lot in 2016 from what
they would have been in the 1960s or 70s
but but in what ways has it improved if
indeed it has I think it's changed in
certain respects I think that social
workers are a little bit more uh
knowledgeable about indigenous history
because of requirements to take IND uh
Native Studies classes um but I think
that there's still quite a bit of work
that needs to be done in terms of people
looking at their own um prejudices and
and biases and how these might play out
in the decisions they're making in
relation to indigenous children well a
lot of people are hoping that at the
very least the attention that this court
case brings will will lead to to some of
those changes Raven Sinclair and Cindy
Blackstock thank you very much thank you
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