Adam North Peigan, shown, is among the survivors featured in the exhibit which is being shown at the North Battleford Library until 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 8. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW)

By Angela Brown

National exhibit

Exhibit on Sixties Scoop shares survivors painful stories

Oct 8, 2021 | 5:03 PM

A moving exhibition visited the North Battleford Library Friday focusing on the impact of the Sixties Scoop. The Sixties Scoop was a painful period in Canada’s history when Indigenous children were taken from their families, often by force, and adopted into mainly non-Indigenous homes, far from their own communities.

Called “Bi-Giwen: Coming Home – Truth Telling from the Sixties Scoop,” the national exhibit wrapped up its tour of Saskatchewan this week.

Adam North Peigan, of Piikani First Nation in southern Alberta, is president of the Legacy of Hope Foundation, a national Indigenous charitable organization, which produced the exhibition.

He said the project is about 12 courageous survivors of the Sixties Scoop, telling their heart-wrenching stories.

The exhibit has been on tour in Alberta, so the organizers wanted to also let the people of neighbouring Saskatchewan see it as well.

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North Peigan is also a Sixties Scoop survivor included in the project.

He was taken from his home by the Child Welfare system shortly after turning one year old in the 1960s. His siblings were also removed and placed into separate homes.

“We were all scooped and taken and put into non-Indigenous foster homes and children’s shelters all over southern Alberta,” North Peigan said. “We weren’t allowed to come home to our community. As a result, I lost my culture, my language, my identity. I didn’t have any sense of community. I didn’t know who my family was. I didn’t know who my parents were. I was bounced from home to home.”

North Peigan said many Indigenous children were removed from their homes in the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s in First Nation, Métis, and Inuit communities across Canada.

“We were forcibly removed as part of the assimilation process, and a continuation of the residential schools,” he said.

He said when he reached the point of aging out of the Child Welfare system, he returned to his birth community, “and experienced culture shock like you could not imagine.”

Sharon Gladue-Paskimin of Thunderchild First Nation is also featured in the exhibition. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW staff)

Colin Evans of Lakeland Library Region said the Library invited the show here to help raise awareness of the Sixties Scoop and its impact on Indigenous people. The library hosted the event in partnership with the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Alberta.

Sharon Gladue-Paskimin of Thunderchild First Nation is among the survivors from Saskatchewan included in the exhibit.

In her story, she tells about remembering being tricked through a gift of chocolate to get into the vehicle that came to take her away from her home. She was just four years old.

“I remember jumping into the back seat and looking out the rearview window, and I see my dad standing there on the doorstep,” she wrote.’ “When I tried to take a breath of air, the chocolate lodged into my throat and I started choking… To this day, I can’t eat chocolate.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow