Sixties Scoop survivors reclaim their heritage with Pow Wow 101

Nicholas Choquette attended the powwow with his mother and sons. He said taking his children to these events is important so they 'know where they come from.' (Giacomo Panico/CBC)

For participants of the Pow Wow 101 program, eight months of work and practice all culminated on May 25, when they attended the Odawa Native Friendship Centre's 45th annual powwow.

On this overcast Saturday, they danced for a cheering crowd, showing off colourful personalized regalia with broad smiles.

They all joined Pow Wow 101 because their families never got a chance to pass down their culture to them.

Many were separated from their birth families — and their traditions — at a young age by Canadian child welfare authorities, and the children were largely adopted into white families. It's a period known today as the Sixties Scoop.

The Pow Wow 101 Program at Odawa Native Friendship Centre aimed to gently reintroduce those "scooped" children to the Indigenous community.

Through teachings from elders and by learning to dance, sing, drum and make regalia, survivors of the Sixties Scoop and their descendents could reclaim their heritage.

Kim Blanchet, right, wearing teal and white, joins other participants in dance at the Odawa Native Friendship Centre 45th annual powwow. (Giacomo Panico/CBC)

'Around them, but not with them'

The Sixties Scoop refers to the period from 1960 to 1990, when up to 20,000 Indigenous children were removed from their families. Many of these children were adopted inside Canada and the U.S., but some were sent overseas.

Carol Gauthier was one of those children taken from her family. She was adopted by French Canadian parents and became disconnected from her Ojibway community, the Batchewana First Nation in northern Ontario.

"I grew up around them, but not with them," she remembered.

Colleen Hele-Cardinal is another Sixties Scoop survivor who, like Gauthier, described watching the Indigenous community from the outside.

"I've always wanted to powwow dance, but I didn't know how to learn," she said.

Gauthier and Hele-Cardinal both joined the Pow Wow 101 program alongside their children and grandchildren.

Jennifer Kohoko attended the Odawa Native Friendship Centre 45th annual powwow in regalia. (Giacomo Panico/CBC)

A 'gentle' reintroduction

The first class involved "a lot of tears, a lot of disconnection," said the organizer, Jennifer Kohoko. "People had been adopted out and weren't connected to their community."

Kohoko is healing and wellness co-ordinator for the Odawa Native Friendship Centre. She applied to the Sixties Scoop Healing Foundation for funding to develop the program, which lasted from October 2023 to last month.

She wanted it to be a "gentle" way to reintroduce survivors to the Indigenous community that they may otherwise have never known.

Gauthier's son Nicholas Choquette introduced his mother (and his own children) to the program, but said this wasn't his first effort to reconnect with his Indigenous heritage. Gauthier said he had started to "go back to the culture" on his own.

When the mass grave at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C. was discovered, sparking public outrage across the nation, Choquette said he was "jolted" into action.

Choquette said he wanted to ensure that "there won't be another generation that doesn't know where they're from."

"I wanted my sons to know where they were from," Choquette said. "Because I didn't grow up knowing where I was from."

The start of something new

Hele-Cardinal said now that she's learned more about powwows, her experience attending one is much different. Before, she felt like an observer and was uncomfortable going up to talk to the dancers.

Now, "I feel special," she said. "I feel like I belong."

Like Choquette, Hele-Cardinal was also reflecting on the next generation.

"They'll always remember this," she said of her grandkids. "It's like a core memory with them, right? So their introduction into this life is important."

Two grandmothers and survivors of the Sixties Scoop, Katy Rankin, left, wearing yellow, and Colleen Hele-Cardinal, right, in blue, performed during the Odawa Native Friendship Centre's 45th annual powwow. (Giacomo Panico/CBC)

And when it was over, the feeling was bittersweet.

"It's a bit sad for me, because it's like an ending, but it's also like a beginning," she reflected.

Kohoko does plan to take advantage of the momentum she's built up in the program, making this the beginning to something more "hardcore." She said her deadline to submit the new proposal is June 10.

"This time it's a little bit different," she said. "We're going deeper. This is just surface stuff."

Monthly ceremonies, sweat lodge visits, star teachings and naming ceremonies are all part of her plan.

She wants to be able to give Sixties Scoop survivors the "bundle" that Indigenous people can be born with, but they "did not have access to." That includes their spirit name, clan, colours, knowledge of medicine and language.

As for the group she just worked with?

"It's the beginning of their journey in the powwow circle," Kohoko said. "It's a different life now."