Indigenous Studies

This guide provides OC Library and web resources related to the Sixties Scoop and Millennium Scoop as well as search strategies on this and related topics. 

The following information comes from "The Sixties Scoop: A Literary Review"

The Sixties Scoop refers to a time when Indigenous children were removed from their homes and communities to be fostered and/or adopted into "predominantly white, middle-class families or institutions." With the slow discontinuation of residential schools in the early 1950s, there was an amendment to the Indian Act to enable provincial jurisdiction over Indigenous child welfare services. The term Sixties Scoop "embodies all references to Indigenous child welfare services from the early 1960s to mid-1980s."

"Child apprehensions were approved at the discretion of the social worker who was not required to receive any formal, professional training and was often unfamiliar with the complex history of colonialism and its impacts on the socio-economic conditions present in indigenous communities (Henson n.d.). As a result, while some cases of apprehension were in the 'best interest of the child', often children were removed simply because of race or poverty (McKenzie and Hudson 1985). These apprehensions took place with or without the consent of the parents or community: prior to the 1980s, child welfare services were not required to notify the band when an infant or child was apprehended into care (Henson n.d.)."

"To this day, there continues to be an overrepresentation of indigenous children in provincial care, prompting many to suggest that the Sixties Scoop has simply evolved into the Millennium Scoop."

From the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society: The Manitoba government established a Review Committee on Indian and Métis Adoptions and Placements in the wake of allegations from First Nations and Métis communities that their children were being fostered and placed in out-of-province homes for the purposes of adoption in large numbers. Judge Edwin C. Kimelman chaired the Committee and found in 1984 that the province of Manitoba had the resources to meet the needs of all the children placed out of province, but failed to do so. It was found that virtually all the children placed for adoption outside of the province were First Nations or Métis. Kimelman reported that this amounted to cultural genocide.

• No Quiet Place - Part 1
• No Quiet Place - Part 2

"In 2007, the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations filed a complaint against the federal government of Canada, alleging that child welfare services provided to First Nations children and families on-reserve were flawed, inequitable and discriminatory...The Tribunal ruled in favour of the plantiffs finding that First Nations children were being discriminated against." [Child Welfare Research Portal]

These articles can be found in the OC Library catalogue by clicking the title links. Descriptions of the articles come from the article itself, either from the abstract or body of the text. The last link in the list connects to the University of Manitoba Libraries MSpace.