Canada's 'Sixties Scoop'

Your students will enter the larger story of the 'Sixties Scoop' through the experiences of Nakuset, who was taken from her home in Thompson, Manitoba at the age of three and adopted by a wealthy Jewish family in Montreal. As a young woman, Nakuset leaves home and, with the help of her adoptive father's mother, traces her birth family, is reunited with them and reclaims her heritage. (If this sounds familiar, it's likely because you've seen the APTN limited series 'Little Bird', for which Indigenous activist Nakuset served as a consultant; 90% of the show's main character's experiences were hers, as well).

After learning about Nakuset's experience, told in the CBC documentary Becoming Nakuset, your students are given 3 choices of assignments (or you may assign them to students) to gain greater insight into the plight of the estimated 20,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children taken away from their families, cultures and identities.

This product was created specifically for the BC SS 10 course; if you're a non-BC teacher, there's a second title slide for you.

For those of your students who undertake the mural assignment, they may benefit from my Graphic Recording product; if they choose to create an infographic, my Infographics With Pizzazz! product provides lots of useful information and pointers on how to create a really great one!

May 23, 2024 - Here's a story from CBC News, about an Inuit teenager who was placed in 64 different foster homes in less than 10 years; the Quebec Court judge who issued the 'scathing' ruling said, ""The child had been so cut off from her culture that she found herself in a very advanced process of assimilation."