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

 Siblings planning trip to Manitoba next year

Stefan Richard · CBC News · March 10

A family gathering. Jonathan Hooker, Lori Brem, Lori's daughter Eva Dawn and Darryl Flett. (Submitted by Lori Brem)

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.

KEEP READING:  https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/60s-scoop-texas-new-zealand-manitoba-1.7477466 

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

• New series tells story of Sixties Scoop survivor learning about her past

 

From Russia to Tauranga: Adoptee Kat Clark’s hunt for birth family

 NEW ZEALAND

Tauranga's Ekaterina (Kat) Clark is in a documentary about adoptees seeking their birth parents. Photo / Alex Gilbert, I'm Adopted

Ekaterina Clark began her search for her birth mother knowing there could be a tragic reason behind her adoption.

But she was unprepared for what she discovered.

The Tauranga woman, known as Kat and born in Russia as Ekaterina Ivanova Popovskya, appeared in an episode of the documentary series An Adoption Story.

 HER STORY: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/from-russia-to-tauranga-adoptee-kat-clarks-hunt-for-birth-family/PAWGNTC4EFFADMRYZR4CPMFIKQ/

 

New Zealand: Stolen Generations 2016

Removal
REMOVAL: The law change scrapping priority placement of tamariki (our children) with whānau (family) is 'Stolen Generations 2016'. We will fight this racist NZ Government position. Our tamariki deserve whānau, whānau deserve our tamariki. PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION to support https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/hands-off-our-tamariki-1?bucket&source=twitter-share-button #HandsOffOurTamariki NO REMOVAL For more information Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Hands-Off-Our-Tamariki-680110502158407/?hc_location=ufi
Posted by Fires of Kiwa on Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Colonization is an Act of Genocide

The following appplies in North America but since it is not taught in schools, apparently Native People are not considered to be the colonized. I beg to differ... Trace

Maori and Indigenous Analysis Ltd

Colonisation is an act of Genocide

Màori researcher Dr Leonie Pihama says the use of the term holocaust is an
appropriate and valid description of the impact of colonial genocide on Màori. A
Radio New Zealand panel featured Taranaki Màori academic Keri Opai using the
word holocaust to describe colonisation for Màori. The NZ Jewish Council said
his use of the term was "diminishing and trivialising of the Jewish Holocaust
experience". Dr Pihama says the NZ Jewish council are "basically incorrect" in
their response. She states "The term holocaust refers to deliberate acts of
genocide and ethnocide against groups of people, and that is exactly what
occurred here in Aotearoa. There was a deliberate and planned process of
colonisation that sought the extermination of our people. That is clear and well
documented".

United Nations conventions define genocide as "any of the following acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group , as such: as killing members of the group;

(i) killing members of the group;

(ii) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(ii) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(iii) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(iv) forcibly transferring children of this group to another group

The definition of genocide by the United Nations is clearly one that reflects
the experience of Màori people and there needs to be a greater awareness of the
reality of the history of this country and of other Indigenous Nations. "There
is clear historical evidence of acts of genocide that were undertaken by
successive white settler Presidents in America. Hitler modelled many of his
oppressive acts on the forced removal and murder of Native Amerian people and
the imprisonment of thousands in concentration camps" states Dr Pihama.

Dr Pihama notes that Màori use of the term 'holocaust' should not be viewed
as in any way diminishing the experience of Jewish people and others that were
targeted by Hitler and Nazi Germany. She says clearly that Maori have always
actively acknowledged that history and the impact of it. Dr Pihama explains
"This is not about comparing experiences. The reference by Mr Opai is directed
to the historical trauma and post traumatic stress experienced by our tupuna and
generations of our people who continue to live with that impact on our own
land".

http://www.scoop. co.nz/stories/ PO1202/S00076/ colonisation- is-an-act- of-genocide. htm

Closed adoptions are a form of cultural genocide... Trace