Published On: October 6, 2020Categories: Art, Film, News, Online Activities

“We grew up in white homes, speaking only English and with no connection to our people or our culture. Though we were loved, we were outsiders in families that had grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins that were not ours.” Betty Ann Adam

Birth of a Family: Virtual Film Screening hosted by Woodland Cultural Centre October 18, 2020 at 7PM

 

Teióia’ks iakwateró:roks “We watch movies” is a film series hosted monthly by the Woodland Cultural Centre, dedicated to discussing important Indigenous topics and bringing the community together to learn and experience these films together.

The film Birth of a Family shares a familiar story for many Indigenous Canadians who underwent separation from their families during the infamous sixties scoop. This film shares the story of three sisters and one brother who reunite for the first time after decades of being separated. Through their story, we learn of the racial prejudices held against the 20, 0000 Indigenous children who were placed in non-Indigenous homes between 1955 and 1985. In efforts to reconnect to their Indigenous culture and with each other, the story of these four siblings is a heartwarming and moving experience for its audience

In this deeply moving feature-length documentary, three sisters and a brother meet for the first time. Removed from their young Dene mother during the infamous Sixties Scoop, they were separated as infants and adopted into families across North America.

Betty Ann, Esther, Rosalie, and Ben were only four of the 20,000 Indigenous Canadian children taken from their families between 1955 and 1985, to be either adopted into white families or live in foster care. As the four siblings piece together their shared history, their connection deepens, and their family begins to take shape.

Meeting all together for the first time, they spend a week in Banff, Alberta, sharing what they know about their mother and stories about their lives and the struggles they went through as foster kids and adoptees. As the four siblings piece together their shared history, their connection deepens, bringing laughter with it, and their family begins to take shape.

Director Bio – Tasha Hubbard:

Tasha Hubbard (Cree) is an award-winning filmmaker and an Assistant Professor in the University of Saskatchewan’s Department of English. Hubbard won a Gemini Canada Award for her first solo project, Two Worlds Colliding, an exposé of the infamous “starlight tours,” whereby Saskatoon police were abandoning Indigenous men in freezing winter conditions.

With her acclaimed 2017 documentary Birth of a Family, made in collaboration with journalist Betty Ann Adam, Hubbard parses the Sixties Scoop legacy: a practice that saw more than 20,000 Indigenous babies removed from their birth families and placed in foster homes or adopted.

Hubbard speaks and writes widely on racism and Indigenous media both in Canada and abroad.

 

 

Watch the Trailer for the Film Here

 

Admission for this event is based on a donation, with a suggested donation amount of $5. To see more details and get registration info CLICK HERE NOW. Limited seating available in the zoom so register for your spot early.

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