he wasn’t a survivor of a residential school. but he was adopted away from his birth family as part of the sixties scoop. being separated from his family and his community were experiences he understood. our parents, white professionals, wanted to adopt a child. and, at the time, when luc was offered up, they thought they were fulfilling the wishes of his birth mother.
he was a very placid and happy baby, they were told by the caseworker. once our parents adopted him, however, doctors found evidence he’d been neglected in his foster setting. his baby teeth were chalky and crumbling due to his early malnourishment. as he got older, other health and emotional issues emerged. of course, we know now about inherited trauma. so many of his challenges were the legacy of generations of traumatic experiences carried forward into his body and mind.
our parents weren’t given any guidance on how to be the white parents of an indigenous child. they thought that loving him exactly the way they loved their birth child was what they were supposed to do. this was a different time.
consequently, it seems shocking now that the first time he was immersed in indigenous culture was when, as a young adult struggling with addiction, he went to stay in a rehab facility specifically designed for first nations people. it was revelatory for him but he was never completely comfortable with that identity either.