Gathering in Works for 60s Scoop Foundation
- EFN Staff | January 10, 2022
The Saskatoon Indian and Metis Friendship Centre plans to have a three-day gathering for 60s Scoop Survivors once the weather warms up.
The friendship centre was only one of eight organizations across Canada selected to receive funding from the Sixties Scoop Healing Foundation (SSHF) 2021 Pilot Grant Program.
Melissa Parkyn, the friendship centre’s Resolution Health Support Worker, said the plan is to host an event they are calling, Healing the Generational Line.
“It will be for the 60s Scoop Survivors, their families and their descendants,” she said. “It going to help them with their cultural loss (and) their identity.”
Parkyn said the centre is still in the planning phase, but is looking forward to what they will be able to do for those who have been impacted by the 60s Scoop, which includes First Nation, Metis, Non-status and Inuit people.
“We want to have workshops and we want to have ceremonies,” she said.
Parkyn, who is also a survivor, is looking forward to the planning phase because she wants to duplicate the healing gathering she attended in Ottawa a few years ago.
“I went to Ottawa, where I learned how to make drums,” said Parkyn. “I learned about our culture. I learned about other 60s Scoop Survivors.”
Ideally, she would like to be able to provide survivors access to traditional teachings in an inclusive environment that will appeal to all ages. Parkyn would like to have elders on site, jigging demonstrations, ribbon skirt making workshops and sharing circles with as many survivors as possible, but to do so will take a lot more planning.
In a news release, Jacqueline Mary Maurice, SSHF CEO, said the pilot program is the start of the Foundation's legacy of investment into healing and serving Sixties Scoop Survivors and this initial grant process will shape the foundation’s future funding streams.
Her message to other Survivors, in a prepared statement, is “you are not alone” and her vision for the Foundation includes the concept of Survivors helping each other on the path to healing.
Parkyn said it was an honour to be accepted for the first-time grant because as an adoptee and a long-time advocate it’s good to see so much hard work finally come to fruition.
The SSHF was created by Survivors and the federal government as part of the Sixties Scoop Class Action Settlement agreement. Fifty million was set aside to establish the independent Indigenous healing foundation to support projects focused on healing, wellness, language, culture, and commemoration.
Other communities receiving the inaugural funding Include: First Light St. John's Friendship Centre, Native Council of PEI, Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health Ont., Mamarsavik Tungasuuvingat Inuit Ont., De Dwa Da Dehs Nyes Aboriginal Health Ont., Brandon Native Friendship Centre and the Vancouver Aboriginal Health Society.