MELODY WOOD

INDIGENOUS SYSTEMS CO- ORDINATOR AT SASKATCHEWAN INDIGENOUS CULTURAL CENTRE

I was part of [ something called] the Sixties Scoop. People often describe it as the second wave of colonisation.

First Nations kids whose parents couldn’t take care of them were purposefully put in white homes by the government — rather than with other First Nations families — so they would be assimilated.

The people who were adopting were not even aware that was the intended purpose. My parents just wanted a child to love, but for the government it was an agenda.

It started in the 1960s and continued into the late 1980s.

My mother was an alcoholic and wasn’t able to care for me so I was put in foster care, adopted and grew up with my white adoptive parents. They are amazing and

I love them, but some of the kids put through the Sixties Scoop suffered terrible experiences.

Where I grew up there were only two other First Nations people and they were both like me, with white parents. My parents were supportive and took me to a camp that was for indigenous kids who were adopted into white families, and to the library to learn the Cree language.

I was never much of a dater growing up and it wasn’t until a girl first kissed me when I was 28 that I thought, “I like this and I want to explore it more.”

My first love was at 32 and that went on for seven years, but I didn’t identify as two- spirit until I started working at the Saskatchewan Indigenous Culture Centre three years ago and started learning what that term meant.

The centre exists to revitalise the 74 First Nations communities in Saskatchewan, to bring back the languages and culture. The organisation was launched in 1972, but this is the first year we are going to do research and work on the issue of two- spirit people.

When I first started working here I felt apprehensive about bringing the subject up, but now we have an awesome president who sees the need to research, talk about and work with the two- spirit community.

The first stage is to interview elders to learn how two- spirit people were integrated into the community. It is all oral history and we have to record it because the elders will soon pass on to the spirit world.

I have participated in ceremonies and taken the male role of the helper where I smoke the pipe. I know there are First Nations people out there who wouldn’t agree with that, but I think that comes from not having all the information. I never felt fear before, but I would be careful with sharing who I was with people. Now people are open to it, and I feel more free.

FIRST NATIONS KIDS WERE PUT IN WHITE HOMES BY THE GOVERNMENT SO THEY WOULD BE ASSIMILATED