By Benjamin K. Musampa
On Jan. 26 , Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott announced a drastic six-point planto grapple the ghastly overrepresentation of Indigenous children in Canada’s child and welfare services, an imbalance that draws its roots in Saskatchewan’s “Adopt Indian and Métis” campaign during the Sixties Scoop era.
Throughout the 60s, provinces across Canada adopted the Child Removal System funded by the federal Department of Health and Welfare. On April 1, 1967, Premier Ross Thatcher’s Saskatchewan government launched its Adopt Indian and Métis AIM program. This project was intended to remove many Indigenous children from their respective families and place them in non-Indigenous environments.
This period was referred as the Sixties Scoop era.
Raven Sinclair, a professor of social work at University of Regina, asserts that although she had a positive experience with her adoptive family, she was aware of the differences between her and others in her new surroundings.
Ms. Sinclair is Métis, born in Saskatchewan, and counts among the 20,000 Indigenous children who were apprehended in the 1960s across Canada and placed in non-Indigenous homes.
“I knew I was different from my adoptive family because of my skin complexion but I did not know that I had native roots until during my teenager years,” said Sinclair.
“After reconnecting with my biological family, it took me 30 years to recover my relationship with them since we had to start from scratch,” she added.
The AIM program was initially run as a pilot project from 1967 to 1969. Its primary objective was to find out if advertising Indigenous children on television, radio and newspapers across Saskatchewan would entice non Indigenous families to adopt First Nations children.
Source: CBC Digital archives
Allyson Stevenson, a Métis adoptee and lecturer at University of Regina asserts that the AIM propaganda campaign was crafted to make indigenous children appealing to Euro-Canadian Saskatchewan families.
“This imagery of the commercials and messages aimed to promote the AIM program through social meetings, broadcast and print platforms successfully stimulated interest in transracial adoption as planned” said Stevenson.
“Many Euro-Canadian Saskatchewan families were quick to embrace the idea that Indian children were no different than any other child,” she added.
This advertising campaign was the result of an increased number of indigenous children into child welfare and Post-war policies of citizenship and integration.
Helen Allen, a reporter for the Toronto Telegraph, was instrumental to the success of this AIM ads campaign. Through her Today’s Child column, she helped find new homes for 11,000 Saskatchewan native children who were without parents or relatives.
“Indigenous people, in general, were furious and strongly opposed that their children being advertised without their consent,” said Stevenson.
The AIM advertisements were vehemently contested by the Métis Society. This organization was created in 1971 and led by prominent Métis figures like Howard Adams and Nora Thibodeau Cummings. Their main objective was to demonstrate that the AIM propaganda campaign was detrimental to the Métis community as a whole.
The group argued that adoptive parents failed to recognize the Métis identity of adopted children while raising them in a non-indigenous society.
In 1969, Indigenous people made up 7.5 per cent of the population of that province. Although, 41.9 per cent of all children in foster homes were Indigenous children, according to the Government of Saskatchewan.
The overrepresentation of Indigenous children in the province of Saskatchewan’s child welfare system is the combination of several historical factors including a provincial child welfare legislation that unfairly targeted Indigenous families and a paternalistic professionalism of social welfare experts.
Philpott stressed the urgency to tackle the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in Canada’s child and welfare services while addressing First Nations and governments officials during the Children and Families Together conference in Ottawa.
“We must find ways for the removal of children in such extraordinary numbers to be stopped. Effective approaches to family reunification should be expanded. Children should remain with their families and their kin whenever it is humanly possible” said Philpott.
Piece #1
Newspaper Columns of the Past- Today’s Child- Helen Allen
What is the documentation?
This is a clipping of Helen Allen Today’s Child column illustrating one of her advertisement campaign to help adopt Indigenous children.
How did you find/obtain it?
I found this clipping on a blog called Lindaseccaspina . She posted this archive in honor to Helen Allen.
Why was the documentation helpful?
It was a prime example of Helen Allen works during the Sixties Scoop era.
Piece #2
http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/adoption-agency-seeks-homes-for-indian-and-metis-children-in-1968
What is the documentation?
This is a video from the CBC Digital archives describes the Adopt Indian and Métis (AIM) advertisement campaign success at placing Indigenous children in new homes.
How did you find/obtain it?
During my interview with Allyson Stevenson, she suggested that I look at the CBC digital archives website in order to find a video footage about the AIM campaign.
Why was the documentation helpful?
This video clearly illustrates how the AIM campaign was broadcasted on television.