Unity Riders’ healing journey across Westman for ’60s Scoop survivors draws community support

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This article was published 22/08/2017 (2963 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

KEESEEKOOWENIN OJIBWAY FIRST NATION — The Unity Riders’ healing journey for ’60s Scoop survivors proved a community-wide event at Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation, where several people waited along their route on Monday to join the horseback riders on foot.

Eagerly waiting at the end of her driveway to join the Unity Riders as they passed by on the way to a public ceremony, Caroline Kenny said that journeys of healing such as this are integral to her community’s sense of well-being.

“Everybody’s pretty well related in this community,” she said.

The Unity Riders set out on horseback during their cross-Westman journey from Waywayseecappo First Nation yesterday morning, arriving at Keeseekoowenin by the evening, where they took part in a ceremony with the community.

A group of healing riders made up of members from various Westman First Nations, this week’s ride is primarily in recognition of the ’60s Scoop, although its members also spent some time devoted to addressing missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Chief Norman Bone invited the riders to the community, and said that fostering a greater public awareness is important not only for Indigenous peoples, but all Canadians.

There’s “this whole awakening” that has been happening during recent years, which he said needs to continue in order to affect real change.

Assisting in fostering this awareness on Monday were a handful of ’60s Scoop survivors who shared their stories with those in attendance.

Keeseekoowenin member Beverly Jones, whose birth name was Rita Bone, was one of these survivors, having been taken from her home community as an infant.

She has chronicled her story in a documentary titled “Policy Baby: The Journey of Rita Bev.”

Jones said that she identifies as a “Policy Baby” because it was the policies of the Indian Act that took her from her home community and stripped her of her culture and identity.

She had a child at the age of 18, another child at the age of 19, and sobered up by the time she was 24.

It wasn’t a coincidence that she began to reconnect with her culture at the age of 24, she said, adding that it was at this point in her life that everything in her life began to click.

“I’ve had dreams all my life as a little girl and I never told anybody, because they would have committed me or something,” she said, adding that this “blood memory” had been passed down to her, which prevented her new culture from making too much sense to her.

She said that her father was a medicine man and that it was “because of his image that I was given strength to put the bottle down, put the needle down, to come off the streets.”

Waywayseecappo member Lisa Makwebak said she shares in this idea of carrying a “blood memory.”

She was taken at birth and place in a Mennonite family’s household in southern Manitoba.

“It’s a total loss; you’re ripped from your family, ripped form your community, your language, your culture; all of your identity,” she said.

One day, while working with her foster mother in the garden, she posed the question of how they should thank the land for what it had offered them.

Her foster mother answered by telling her about Thanksgiving, which she said wasn’t what she was looking for.

When at the age of 23 she reconnected with her biological family, along with their ceremony and culture, she got a clearer picture of the insight she sought.

Retaining one’s culture is integral to maintaining one’s sense of self, she said, adding that while she was lucky enough to have been taken in by a family that carried a lot of love, she was never fully understood; particularly in her new community as a whole.

This is why this week’s Unity Riders effort is important, she said, adding that these are stories that need to be shared.

The Unity Riders are continuing their journey on horseback, arriving at Rolling River First Nation today, Long Plain First Nation and Dakota Tipi First Nation on Wednesday and Swan Lake First Nation on Thursday.

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