Winnipeg Richardson International Airport became the site of an emotional reunion last week as three siblings separated decades ago by the '60s Scoop finally met face to face for the first time. Joseph Lambert and Donna Morin waited anxiously for their sister Melody Roberts, who flew in from Oregon, and the moment she landed the three embraced amid tears of joy.
"I'll probably just be crying, it's hard to say what's going to happen because I'm in shock still," Morin said before the arrival. Roberts, visibly moved upon landing, described the overwhelming feeling: "The heart is just bursting, bursting with happiness."
The siblings are survivors of the '60s Scoop, a government policy spanning the 1950s to the 1980s that removed thousands of First Nations, Metis and Inuit children from their families and placed them with non-Indigenous adoptive parents. Recent studies suggest around 20,000 children were taken under these practices.
Lambert and Morin had only connected with each other a year earlier through a service provider, and they quickly built a close bond that included spending last Christmas together. "It's fun, you know," Lambert explained. "I can be open with her and I want to be open with her. It's no time now for silly lies and stories; that ain't happening. Everything's straight up. It's love — there's a lot of love between us, I think."
Roberts learned of her Indigenous heritage from her adoptive family but was never told about the '60s Scoop itself. "My adopted family told me I was Indigenous, I was adopted when I understood what it meant, but they never told me about the '60s Scoop. I'm not even sure they knew about it when I was taken from the hospital," she said.
The reunion was arranged with assistance from the Hope Centre and the '60s Scoop Alliance of Manitoba. Staff at the Hope Centre reviewed post-adoption records and conducted research that eventually located Roberts in Oregon. During the visit, the organizations hosted a lunch allowing the siblings to connect with additional family members and share photographs of relatives.
"Just figuring out a lot of stuff about my family," Roberts noted. "It's warming to see the resemblances, and finding a little information about them and where they're at and what they did, it's been wonderful."
Susanna Tasse, community outreach coordinator with the Hope Centre, emphasized the importance of sharing such stories. "I think their story needs to be told," Tasse said. "It's heartbreaking that the parents aren't here. I know the mother died of a broken heart but they have each other and I think they'll live through that and I do hope we honour the parents even though they passed on. They never got to be here, to see this and to unite their children."
Roberts covered the cost of her own travel to Winnipeg. Coleen Rajotte of the '60s Scoop Alliance of Manitoba pointed out that a former repatriation program in the province once helped survivors return home but no longer exists. "There used to be a repatriation program in Manitoba that funded Sixties Scoop survivors to come back home and that no longer exists," Rajotte said.
Rajotte and the alliance are now lobbying for renewed government funding and resources to support family reunifications. "We need funding and resources to get '60s Scoop survivors back to their families. There's so much more work to be done. People have lost their language and their connection to family and community and that needs to be rebuilt," she added.
The siblings plan to maintain regular contact after Roberts returns to Oregon and hope to arrange a future visit south of the border. "It's going to be great, I don't have a worry about it. We're going to keep in touch, it's going to be great," Roberts said. Lambert expressed particular interest in traveling to Oregon, noting the fishing opportunities and the pictures Roberts has already shared.
Officials and advocates continue to stress the long-term effects of the '60s Scoop on families and communities across Canada. The recent gathering in Winnipeg highlights both the personal resilience of survivors and the ongoing need for support programs to help reconnect those still separated from their roots.