National Indigenous Peoples Day Speaker Series Event with Colleen Cardinal

Join us for this honest and insightful presentation into the realities of enduring the 60s Scoop, the failures of Canadian welfare policies regarding Indigenous children, and the incredible work being done to support survivors and families of the 60s Scoop on their journey to healing.

About the Presenter: Colleen Hele Cardinal
Colleen Hele Cardinal is nehiyaw iskwew (Plains Cree) from Saddle Lake Cree Nation, AB, but was adopted and raised in Sault Ste Marie ON. She is a community organizer, social justice advocate, student, author and kokum. Her work includes organizing six national 60s Scoop gatherings in Ontario, raising the issue of the 60s Scoop at an international level to the displacement and loss of identity survivors have experienced.

Colleen also speaks publicly and candidly about MMIW2SG and the impacts of the 60s Scoop, drawing critical connections between colonial child welfare removal policies and her lived experiences and those of women in her family. Colleen continues to volunteer with several initiatives, including Families of Sisters in Spirit, Blackbird Medicines and the Nobel Women’s Initiative Sister to Sister Mentorship program to address gender-based violence, while giving context on the making of Canada, treaty relationships and the dehumanization of Indigenous people through policy and media.

She is the author of the Ohpikiihaakan-ohpihmeh (Raised somewhere else): A 60s Scoop Adoptee’s Story of Coming Home as well as spearheading the GIS mapping initiative Mapping the 60s Scoop Diaspora, and being awarded the Ontario Premier's Award for Outstanding Community Service. Currently, Colleen is a Trauma Informed Resolution Health Support worker and Lead Facilitator for the Sixties Scoop Network / Edbendaagzijiig (e dben daag zi jig).

Agenda

• 9 – 10 am: Elder Barry and local Indigenous drummers will lead the opening drumming on Mishomis Ashage Dwegan (Blue Heron), the Campus’s Grandfather Drum.
• 10 – 11 am: Keynote by Colleen Hele Cardinal

In this presentation:

• Contextualization of Indigenous child removals within Canada and insight into the current circumstances of the 60s Scoop.
• The differences between Residential schools, day schools, the 60s Scoop, and current child welfare policies
• The newly developed GIS mapping tool to identify and connect 60s Scoop survivors
• Insight into the needs of 60s Scoop survivors and intergenerational trauma survivors
• The Sixties Scoop Network - based in Ottawa.

This presentation will take place at the Algonquin College Pembroke Campus. The presentation will be streamed live to the Algonquin College Community, and members of the public are invited to tune in online or in person.

Locations:

• The Ottawa Campus – Mamidosewin Centre Room E122 (1st Floor, Student Commons, E Building)
• The Perth Campus – Student Commons
• The Pembroke Campus – The Common

Registration is required for this event.

Brought to you by Local Immigration Partnership - Lanark & Renfrew, Algonquin Student's Association, Mamidoswin Centre, and the 60s Scoop Network