The Sixties Scoop in Canada Essay Sample

During the 1960’s, Indigenous children were taken from their homes, families or birth and communities in record high amounts (Sinclair and Dainard). This period of time, referred to as the “Sixties Scoop”, remains as a dark shadow in Canadian history. The government has failed to implement meaningful policy changes and compensation to assist Sixties Scoop victims who were traumatized due to these “scoops”. In order  to correct this, the Canadian Government must improve the overall living conditions of Indigenous communities.

One of the many unfortunate results of the Sixties Scoop is all of the Indigenous families that were torn apart. The government in the 1960’s saw taking children from their homes as a fast and easy way to solve the issue of children living in poverty (Dart). The social workers employed to scoop children lacked training and were ignorant of the lifestyle of Indigenous people (Sinclair and Dainard). Many Indigenous communities were living in poverty. Hence, alot of Indigenous households were deemed as inappropriate living environments and the children were thus taken away. Furthermore, many single Indigenous mothers were coerced into giving up their children, with the false promise that it would only  be a temporary arrangement (Dart). As a result, Indigenous adoptees and welfare children lost their sense of cultural identity, had low self-esteem and often felt lonely and confused (Sinclair and Dainard). This had a very negative impact on their mental health. Those who only learned about their true heritage later on would undoubtedly feel frustration and emotional distress, and were unable to form a healthy Indigenous identity. Indigenous children were forced to grow up in an environment separated from their language and culture, an experience not very different from living in residential schools. Due to the rapidly spreading process of the Scoop, Indigenous children became greatly over represented in child welfare systems across Canada. In the 1950’s, Indigenous children represented one percent of  children in protective services. By the 1960’s however, they represented over half of children in protective services (Sinclair and Dainard). The government has to be held accountable for the damage that its poor policy-making has caused, and needs to fix its mistakes.

The Sixties Scoop started to slow  in the 1980’s. Thanks to the Johnston report and protests made by Indigenous communities, priority for adoption of Indigenous children now went first to extended family, then to other Indigenous families and lastly non-Indigenous families (Sinclair and Dainard). According to the Government of Canada, several changes have been made in the past few years  in terms of child protection policies of each province and territory, which focus on the preservation of Indigenous culture and rights. In the 21st century, many provincial governments issued formal apologies to Sixties Scoop survivors. In Saskatchewan, for example, several sharing circles were organized in order to help with the survivor’s healing (Sinclair and Dainard). Although rather late in making amends, both the federal and provincial governments seem to be sincere in their apologies. A cash settlement of $750 million was set aside by the federal government for Indigenous people who were taken away from their families and put into non-Indigenous homes (Deer). Tens of thousands of people applied for compensation (Craig). It is promising  that our government is trying to make amends for its past mistakes. Up to this point, however, the Canadian government still has not gotten to the root of the problem of why so many Indigenous children were forcibly removed  from their families.

To this day, Indigenous children continue to be extremely overrepresented in child welfare systems, remaining an issue of concern. A 2016 census showed that despite making up only 7.7% of children in Canada, Indigenous children represented 52.5% of children in foster care, an incredibly disproportionate percentage (Sinclair and Dainard). The amount of Indigenous children in welfare systems is directly related to the living conditions of Indigenous people. Harsh government policies resulted in many Indigenous children being taken away from their families in the 1960’s due to the poor living conditions of their birth home (Sinclair and Dainard).  In order to stop such a scoop from happening, the overall living conditions of Indigenous households must be improved. The government should put more money into the infrastructure of Indigenous communities, such as adequate sustainable housing and clean drinking water. Indigenous people need to have access to community infrastructure such as school and vocational training centres so families can break the cycle of poverty. Accessible roads and highways to nearby towns should be built to encourage trade and allow for commuting. Furthermore, local Indigenous businesses besides art are not promoted enough, making the Indigenous unemployment rate higher than that of non-Indignous (Joseph). 

To make amends for the aftermath of the Sixties Scoop, the government must do far more than simply offer settlement cash and change several policies, and work harder on improving Indigenous living conditions. The Sixties Scoop tore apart so many Indigenous families, and affected the mental health of victims all the way into their adulthood. The government started taking action to stop the scoop in the 1980’s, however besides a few changes in policy regarding the preservation of Indigenous culture and a small compensation fee for survivors of the scoop, not much else had been done. As the poor living conditions of Indigenous people is the reason for the Sixties Scoop, this issue must be solved before simply putting children into foster homes in hopes of taking them out of poverty. Only this way can Indigenous children not be overrepresented in child welfare systems. The Sixties Scoop is a very devastating event in Canada’s history, and only further proves the importance of upholding Indigenous rights in Canada. From the Sixties Scoop we learned that we need to get to the root of an issue in order to solve it; this issue being Indiginous living conditions.