Sixties Scoop survivor returns home to Manitoba 50 years later – Winnipeg

A survivor of the Sixties Scoop who was taken from his home in Northern Manitoba 50 years ago, is returning for the first time.

Jonathan Hooker was taken from Moose Lake in 1975 when he was just 18 months old and adopted by a New Zealand couple.

His journey to reconnect with his roots began when he took an ancestry test and was contacted by his half-sister.

Hooker says he was never really aware of his journey until a few years ago.

“I always knew I was adopted. I guess up until a couple of years ago, I didn’t really fully understand how it all played out,” said Hooker. “I didn’t know anything about the Sixties Scoop until about five years ago and then in the last year or so, really learned how it all played out.”

Hooker met his biological mother for the very first time as he arrived at the airport. He now heads to Moose Lake to participate in cultural healing and reconnection.

“It will be really about hanging with family and getting to know people and learn about the culture,” Hooker said of the trip. “I know nothing about my Indigenous heritage, so it will be good to start learning and start filling in some of the blanks.”

The Sixties Scoop was a government practice in Canada from the 1950s to 1980s in which thousands of Indigenous children were removed from their families and placed in non-Indigenous homes across the country and abroad.

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