It was a whirlwind of emotion for Sixties Scoop Survivor Jonathan Hooker upon his return to the province where he was born. “It’s the first time I’ve actually laid eyes on my mother’s,” Hooker said. “It’s all a little bit overwhelming to be here today, so yeah, it’s pretty cool.” It was a return five decades in the making. Hooker was taken from his birth family in Moose Lake First Nation in 1975. At the time, the 18-month-old child was one of an estimated 30,000 Indigenous children taken from their homes in what became known as the Sixties Scoop. Hooker was adopted by a family in New Zealand and has not returned to the province until Wednesday afternoon. “I didn’t know anything about the Sixties Scoop until probably about five years ago,” Hooker said. “In the last year or so I really learned how it all played out. It’s been a bit of a journey.” At Winnipeg Richardson International Airport, Hooker’s return was an opportunity to reunite with his birth mother and extended family from northern Manitoba. He is set to return to Moose Lake First Nation for a three week stay. His long way home began with a discovery from a simple ancestry test gifted by his mother-in-law. Watching him arrive in the terminal, Hooker’s mother was overcome with emotion. “I’m happy to see my son, I thought I would never see him again,” said Patsy George, Hooker’s biological mother. “He was only two months old when they took him away from me,” she said. Sixties Scoop advocate Colleen Rajotte said Hooker’s return shows more effort is needed to reunite the thousands of Indigenous families that were separated years ago. “Many people don’t realize that up to 3000 of our children were sent out of Canada and around the world, and we need to make sure that every one of those children can come back home,” Rajotte said, who is also a Sixties Scoop Survivor. For Hooker, he’s hopeful his story will be an inspiration to others looking for answers about their own past. “Hopefully somebody else again will see this and hopefully maybe start looking for their family or give them the clues to reach out and help,” Hooker said.
