Colonial Violence in Sixties Scoop Narratives: From In Search of April Raintree to A Matter of Conscience

According to Patrick Johnston, several factors have contributed to the recent resurgence of interest in the Sixties Scoop: the fact that the TRC has characterized it as a legacy of the residential school system; the formal apology by former premier Greg Selinger in the Manitoba legislature in 2015; the tireless efforts of Cindy Blackstock (Gitxsan), executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society; increased activism by those affected; and a series of class-action lawsuits launched in five different provinces. [...]April's growing closeness to yet another powerful white man, who wants to marry her, makes Henry Liberty's opportunity to stay connected with Indigenous culture and community unlikely, particularly considering Winnipeg's unconcealed racism. [...]as Fee explains, "April takes the baby from Nancy and her mother, who have clearly helped raise him successfully so far, in what could be seen as a reenactment of the social workers taking April and Cheryl from their parents" (225). [...]the relationship between Edward and his African Canadian nurse, Jim, at the mental institution demonstrates how kinship and relationality are more important than colonial notions of "Indian blood" According to TallBear, "[L]ike many other Americans, we are transitioning in Indian Country away from blood talk to speaking in terms of what 'is coded in our DNA' or our 'genetic memory.' According to Cherokee scholar Daniel Heath Justice, "[I]n the face of a powerful colonial society that rewrote Indigenous loss as a story of innate Indigenous deficiency rather than intentional settler violence, betrayal, and subterfuge, Indigenous peoples have storied our experience to empower the struggle of the present and to make the truth of struggle clear to future generations" (118).