Far-flung '60s Scoop siblings — one in Texas, one in New Zealand — meet Manitoba uncle

Through laughter, Lori Brem tells the story of the meeting that brought her brother Jonathan Hooker, a New Zealand resident, and her Uncle Darryl Flett from northern Manitoba together for the first time. 

The three relatives met in Texas in November 2024. Brem, a resident of China Spring, Texas, and Hooker, of Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, share the same birth father and Flett is their uncle.

"To hear them all talking," Brem chuckles.

"Jonathan speaks so fast and Darryl speaks real slow. And then we have our drawl, like we say 'Y'all.' Hearing all the different accents was just so funny to me."

How do the roads between three communities on opposite sides of the world converge in Texas? 

Brem and Hooker are survivors of the Sixties Scoop, where First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were removed from their homes and placed with non-Indigenous foster or adoptive parents between 1951 and 1991, and lost their cultural identities as a result.

Brem was taken from Swan River, Man., along with her siblings. Hooker was taken from Moose Lake, Man.

Brem and Hooker's adoptions, like so many others, tore them from their families and their roots. 

Hooker was adopted by a couple from the U.K. who spent time in Canada and eventually settled on New Zealand's North Island. He said he always know he was adopted because he didn't look like his fair-skinned parents.

"It was really obvious that there was some job going on there, having black hair and dark skin," he said.

"I was really too young to realize the enormity of what had happened to me."

During the 2024 reunion, Flett sat down with Brem and Hooker to discuss the family history and the Sixties Scoop. Hooker said it was "a shock to the system" to hear how authorities would go to reserves and remove children.

Brem said she learned her story when she spoke to her birth mother.

"I was just blown away that she came home from work one day and we were just gone," Brem said.