Sixties Scoop survivors journey home to N.W.T. to reunite with family, reconcile past

Three sisters who call Fort Providence, N.W.T., home are on a journey of reunion. 

The sisters are survivors of the Sixties Scoop, a government practice in Canada from the 1960s to 1980s of removing Indigenous children from their homes and placing them in foster care or putting them up for adoption. The sisters grew up in separate parts of the country and didn't know about each other until their adult years. 

Delphine Gargan, Sariah Stanley and RavenSong Gargan, now in their late 50s, met as a group for the first time on Aug. 30 to travel together from Edmonton to their home community – where their mother grew up and where Delphine was born – to reconnect with family, the land and their pasts. 

For RavenSong, it's a chance to experience a piece of what was stolen from her.

"We hopped in the truck and we went looking for buffalo this morning and we said if we had grown up here we would have done that together as teenagers," she said.

"We're doing some of the things we've never done. Jumping on beds and things like that."

RavenSong said there is something different about being on her own land. The noise and vibrations she feels in the city stop when she comes home to Fort Providence. 

RavenSong, now living in Richmond, B.C., is the founder of a non-profit called the Sixty Scoop Indigenous Society of B.C. It focuses on reintroducing survivors to ceremony and tradition as a form of healing.  

The society secured funding from the 60's Scoop Healing Foundation to pay for travel expenses to bring survivors home. That's something RavenSong says the society hopes to do more of, and her board of directors decided that as president, she should have the experience of going home before she helps other survivors do the same. 

"I couldn't do it if my sisters weren't willing," she said. "It hasn't been easy for any of us to make commitments to anyone because of who we are and to make a commitment to do something this big with not knowing each other, that was a big thing. It was scary."

Sariah, the middle sister, said she's now in a place in her life where she can explore her past. Sariah has been sober for five years and is living in Drayton Valley, Alta., working as an industrial medic. She first learned about her sisters in 2004. She was living in Windsor, Ont., at the time and got a call from RavenSong introducing herself and telling her about their other sister Delphine. It turned out Delphine was living just six blocks away. 

"It was surreal," she said. 

But life got in the way, Sariah moved for work, and she lost touch with her sisters. This time, she said, keeping in touch with her sisters will be for real.

"And it will come from a genuine place because of where I am in my life. I'm balanced and I'm settled and I think I'm in a good spot to be able to just keep in touch," she said.