Sixties Scoop

Question 1

What does the term ‘cultural genocide’ refer to?

Answer 1

• Systematic effort to erase cultural identity
• Elimination of cultural practices and traditions
• Disruption of cultural knowledge transmission

Question 2

What was the purpose of the residential school system implemented by the Canadian government?

Answer 2

• Educate Aboriginal children to Euro-Canadian and Christian values
• Assimilate them into mainstream society
• Forcible removal from families, prohibition of language and culture

Question 3

What is the Sixties Scoop in Canada?

Answer 3

• Practice in the 1960s of taking Aboriginal children for adoption or fostering
• Approximately 20,000 children affected
• Disruption of cultural continuity and lasting impacts on communities

Question 4

Why did the Canadian government close the compulsory residential school system in the 1950s and 60s?

Answer 4

• Belief that Aboriginal children would benefit from a better education in public schools
• Consequences of residential schooling, including community disruption

Question 5

What empowered provincial agencies like the Children’s Aid Society (C.A.S) to take Aboriginal children away from their families during the 1950s-1980s?

Answer 5

• Government belief in better education opportunities outside Indigenous families
• Empowerment of provincial agencies to remove children without consulting band offices
• Thousands of Aboriginal children placed with white, middle-class, Euro-Canadian families