only drunks and children tell the truth
Teacher:
Course Code: ENG4
Student:
Sixties Scoop Still Hurts
What is the Sixties Scoop? The term Sixties Scoop was coined by Patrick Johnston in his 1983 report Native Children and the Child Welfare System. It refers to the Canadian practice, beginning in the 1960s and continuing until the late 1980s, of apprehending unusually high numbers of children of Aboriginal peoples in Canada [against the Native parents’ will] and fostering or adopting them out, usually into [medium-class]white families. An estimated 20,000 aboriginal children were taken from their families,” (1). The Sixties Scoop refers to a particular phase of a larger history, and not to an explicit government policy. Although the practice of removing Aboriginal children from their families and into state care existed before the 1960s (with the residential school system, for example), the drastic overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in the child welfare system accelerated in the 1960s, when Aboriginal children were seized and taken from their homes and placed, in most cases, into middle-class Euro-Canadian families. This overrepresentation continues today (2). In his play, Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth, Drew Hayden Taylor manifests how Janice’s life is greatly impacted by the scoop-up leading to the loss of culture, identity crisis, and lack of sense of belonging.
When an individual faces the reality of being adopted, life can become dreadful and disconcerting. Firstly, as part of Janice’s loss of culture, she will encounter herself struggling to connect with her roots by not being able to understand or speak Ojibway (native language). For instance, when Janice says “...What was that she [Amelia] said to me in that language?”, (Taylor, 80). This part expresses Janice’s desire to know and learn more about her culture. However, learning about it after thirty-six years of
Course Code: ENG4
Student:
Sixties Scoop Still Hurts
What is the Sixties Scoop? The term Sixties Scoop was coined by Patrick Johnston in his 1983 report Native Children and the Child Welfare System. It refers to the Canadian practice, beginning in the 1960s and continuing until the late 1980s, of apprehending unusually high numbers of children of Aboriginal peoples in Canada [against the Native parents’ will] and fostering or adopting them out, usually into [medium-class]white families. An estimated 20,000 aboriginal children were taken from their families,” (1). The Sixties Scoop refers to a particular phase of a larger history, and not to an explicit government policy. Although the practice of removing Aboriginal children from their families and into state care existed before the 1960s (with the residential school system, for example), the drastic overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in the child welfare system accelerated in the 1960s, when Aboriginal children were seized and taken from their homes and placed, in most cases, into middle-class Euro-Canadian families. This overrepresentation continues today (2). In his play, Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth, Drew Hayden Taylor manifests how Janice’s life is greatly impacted by the scoop-up leading to the loss of culture, identity crisis, and lack of sense of belonging.
When an individual faces the reality of being adopted, life can become dreadful and disconcerting. Firstly, as part of Janice’s loss of culture, she will encounter herself struggling to connect with her roots by not being able to understand or speak Ojibway (native language). For instance, when Janice says “...What was that she [Amelia] said to me in that language?”, (Taylor, 80). This part expresses Janice’s desire to know and learn more about her culture. However, learning about it after thirty-six years of
Cited: 1. Wikipedia: The free Encyclopedia Last modified on 30 July 2013. Web. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixties_Scoop 2. Hanson, Eric. “The Sixties Scoop & the Aboriginal child welfare.” The University of British Columbia: indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca. 2009 http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/home/government-policy/sixties-scoop.html 3. Taylor, Drew Hayden. Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth. Vancouver, B.C.: Talonbooks, 2012.Print