Nakuset

Last updated

Nakuset (b. 1970) is a Cree Indigenous activist, living in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. [1] Nakuset is a survivor of the "Sixties Scoop," when Canadian government policy lead to many Indigenous children being forcibly and purposefully adopted into non-Indigenous families. [2] Nakuset reclaimed her Indigenous identity and status as a young adult. [2] She earned a Bachelors of Applied Science from Concordia University in Montreal. [3] Nakuset has worked for the Native Friendship Network of Montreal, and as the Executive Director for the Native Women's Shelter of Montreal. [4] [5] She has earned a number of recognitions and awards for her work, advocacy and activism, and has been the subject of a number of media reports and documentaries. [6] [7] [8]

Contents

Early life

Nakuset was born in Thompson, Manitoba, Canada in 1970. [1] Her Cree community is located in La Ronge, Saskatchewan. [9] Nakuset was taken from her Cree parents and siblings at age three, was put up for adoption, and was legally adopted and raised by a Jewish family in Montreal, Quebec. [10] Her adoptive parents adopted her through Jewish Family Services [9] out of a catalogue of First Nations Children created by the Government of Canada to place First Nations children from "problematic homes" into non-Indigenous families. [2] Nakuset's adoption occureed during a period in the 1960s and 70s in Canada known as the Sixties Scoop. As part of the Sixties Scoop, she was one of the 20,000 Indigenous children and youth who faced forced adoption. [11] Nakuset's adoptive parents changed her name to "Marci." Nakuset's adoptive family already had an adopted son who was nine months older than her. After her adoption, her adoptive parents had their first biological child, a girl. [9]

In her teenage years, Nakuset struggled with her Indigenous identity and with accepting herself. [10] Her grandmother whom she lovingly calls "Bubby" played a very important role in her life. In a documentary on her life created by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, she mentioned that her grandmother "was like the anchor, the only person that I could talk to and feel comfortable with." [2] When no one believed in her, including herself, it was her "Bubby" who gave her motivation to live life. It was her grandmother who helped her to connect with her biological family (her biological mother and sister). [2] In her late teens, with the help of her Bubby, Nakuset contacted and eventually visited her biological family. She later got her Indian status and changed her name to Nakuset. [2]

Nakuset was a consultant for the TV Series "Little Bird," and much of the story in that series was based on her life and experiences. [8]

Nakuset is now a mother of three boys. [9]

Career and education

Nakuset began her career as a support worker with the Native Friendship Network of Montreal. [5] Soon after, Nakuset enrolled in Concordia University and graduated with a Bachelors of Applied Science (BAsc) and a degree in Human Relations. [3] While a student, she joined the Native Women's Shelter, an Indigenous organization that provides support, shelter, and empowerment exclusively to Indigenous women and their children. [12] Her initial role was as a front line worker and after years of service, she became the Executive Director of the Native woman's shelter in 2004. [12] [13]

One of the projects Nakuset spear-headed early in her career was a cultural manual for non-Indigenous families who adopted or fostered Indigenous children, to encourage a strengthening of the adoption process and provide adequate support to Indigenous children. [5] [14]

She is also the co-founder of Resilience Montreal, a community-led outreach project created in 2019 to support homeless people in the Cabot Square area of Montreal. [15]

Distinctions

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buffy Sainte-Marie</span> American musician

Buffy Sainte-Marie, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and social activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grey Nuns</span> Canadian Roman Catholic institution

The Sisters of Charity of Montreal, formerly called The Sisters of Charity of the Hôpital Général of Montreal and more commonly known as the Grey Nuns of Montreal, is a Canadian religious institute of Roman Catholic religious sisters, founded in 1737 by Marguerite d'Youville, a young widow.

Open adoption is a form of adoption in which the biological and adoptive families have access to varying degrees of each other's personal information and have an option of contact. While open adoption is a relatively new phenomenon in the west, it has been a traditional practice in many Asian societies, especially in South Asia, for many centuries. In Hindu society, for example, it is relatively common for a childless couple to adopt the second or later son of the husband's brother when the childless couple has limited hope of producing their own child.

Lori Campbell is a Two-Spirit Cree-Métis educator and advocate from Treaty 6 territory in Northern Saskatchewan and a member of Montreal Lake First Nation. She was appointed the inaugural associate vice-president Indigenous Engagement in 2021 at the University of Regina. From 2017 - 2021, she was the Director of Shatitsirótha' Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre at the University of Waterloo and an adjunct lecturer in Indigenous Studies at United College. Campbell holds undergraduate degrees in Indigenous Studies and Psychology and a master's degree in Adult Education from First Nations University of Canada and the University of Regina. Her MA thesis, completed in 2016, was titled Nikawiy: A Cree Woman's Experience. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Sealed birth records refers to the practice of sealing the original birth certificate upon adoption or legitimation, often making a copy of the record unavailable except by court order. Upon finalization of the adoption, the original birth certificate is sealed and replaced with an amended birth certificate declaring the adoptee to be the child of his or her adoptive parents, "as if" born to them. Many states, provinces and countries adopted this practice in the early to mid-20th century with the aim of protecting the adopted person from the shame of an illegitimate birth. Sealed or closed birth records are generally associated with closed adoption. Open records is generally referred to as the practice of opening original birth records to adult adoptees, and should not be confused with open adoption, which can occur with or without sealed records, depending on the laws of the state or province in which it is carried out.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond</span> Canadian judge and academic (born 1963)

Mary Ellen Elizabeth Turpel-Lafond is a Canadian lawyer, law professor, judge, and legislative advocate for children's rights.

The Baby Scoop Era was a period in anglosphere history starting after the end of World War II and ending in the early 1970s, characterized by an increasing rate of pre-marital pregnancies over the preceding period, along with a higher rate of newborn adoption.

Mommy Mommy is a 2007 documentary film directed by Sylvie Rosenthal about a Montreal lesbian couple's five-year-long struggle to have a child.

The Sixties Scoop, also known as The Scoop, was a period in which a series of policies were enacted in Canada that enabled child welfare authorities to take, or "scoop up," Indigenous children from their families and communities for placement in foster homes, from which they would be adopted by white families. Despite its name referencing the 1960s, the Sixties Scoop began in the mid-to-late 1950s and persisted into the 1980s.

Ellen Gabriel, also known as Katsi'tsakwas, is a Mohawk activist and artist from Kanehsatà:ke Nation – Turtle Clan, known for her involvement as the official spokesperson, chosen by the People of the Longhouse, during the Oka Crisis.

Julie Flett is a Cree-Métis author and illustrator, known for her work in children's literature centered around the life and cultures of Indigenous Canadians. Flett is best known for her illustrations in books such as Little You, and When We were Alone, as well as for her written work in books such as Birdsong. Many of Flett's books are bilingual, and written in a combination of English, Michif, and Cree, and serve as an introduction to Michif and Cree for English-speaking readers. Flett's works are critically successful and have been awarded the Governor General's Literary Award and the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award.

Forced adoption is the practice of forcefully taking children from their parents and placing them for adoption.

Lily Nie is the founder of Chinese Children Adoption International, which has overseen the international adoptions of over 10,160 Chinese children. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2008.

Tasha Hubbard is a Canadian First Nations/Cree filmmaker and educator based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Hubbard's credits include three National Film Board of Canada documentaries exploring Indigenous rights in Canada: Two Worlds Colliding, a 2004 Canada Award-winning short film about the Saskatoon freezing deaths, Birth of a Family, a 2017 feature-length documentary about four siblings separated during Canada's Sixties Scoop, and nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, a 2019 Hot Docs and DOXA Documentary award-winning documentary which examines the death of Colten Boushie, a young Cree man, and the subsequent trial and acquittal of the man who shot him.

Raven Sinclair (Ótiskewápíwskew) is Cree/Assinniboine/Saulteaux and a member of Gordon First Nation of the Treaty#4 area of southern Saskatchewan and member of the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Saskatchewan. She is a survivor and expert on the Sixties Scoop, the practice of taking Indigenous children from their families and placing them in foster care or adopting them out to white families. She is a critic of the current child welfare system in Canada, especially as it relates to Indigenous peoples. She is a professor, film maker, author and facilitator. Sinclair is also a founding editorial member of IndigenousVoices in Social Work (UHawaii), and a regional editor for AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples.

Ma-Nee Chacaby is an Ojibwe-Cree writer and activist from Canada. She is most noted for her memoir, A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder.

Carol Rose GoldenEagle is a writer and broadcaster, from Saskatchewan.

Lillian Shirt was a Cree women's rights activist from Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6 Territory, Alberta, Canada who was known for her political initiative against the discrimination towards Indigenous women and their inadequate access to housing, employment, and human rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blake Desjarlais</span> Canadian politician (born 1993)

Blake Desjarlais is a Canadian politician who has represented Edmonton Griesbach in the House of Commons since 2021. A member of the New Democratic Party (NDP), Desjarlais is of Cree and Métis descent, making him Alberta's only Indigenous member of Parliament (MP). He is also the first openly two-spirit individual to serve as an MP.

Little Bird is a Canadian drama television series, which premiered on Crave and APTN lumi on May 26, 2023. Created by Jennifer Podemski and Hannah Moscovitch with the participation of Jeremy Podeswa as an executive producer, the series centres on a First Nations woman who was adopted into a Jewish family during the Sixties Scoop, as she attempts to reconnect with her birth family and heritage.

References

  1. 1 2 Suburban, Joel Goldenberg The (2023-09-20). "Na'kuset to be inducted on Human Rights Walkway Sept.27". The Suburban Newspaper. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Anderson-Gardner, Victoria; Nakuset; Justrabo, Felicity; Roher, Daniel.(2020), Becoming Nakuset (Documentary), Loud Roar Productions, retrieved 2024-03-18
  3. 1 2 "Linkedin".
  4. ↑ "Nakuset: Surviving the 60s Scoop in Montreal". Roads & Kingdoms. 2019-11-11. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  5. 1 2 3 "Concordia University News".
  6. 1 2 3 "Nakuset - 2022 Woman of Distinction - Inspiration Award". Women's Y Foundation. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  7. 1 2 3 Suburban, Joel Goldenberg The (2023-09-20). "Na'kuset to be inducted on Human Rights Walkway Sept.27". The Suburban Newspaper. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  8. 1 2 Carpenter, Lorraine (2023-06-16). "Indigenous activist Nakuset on seeing her Sixties Scoop story told in Little Bird". Cult MTL. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Memories to Sonya – Part 1". WIOT. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  10. 1 2 Dunlevy, T'Cha (Dec 30, 2020). "Montrealers to watch in 2021: Nakuset gets things done". The Gazette. Retrieved March 18, 2024.
  11. ↑ Gilmour, Matt (September 27, 2023). "Indigenous activist Nakuset inducted into human rights walkway". CTV News Montreal. Retrieved March 18, 2024.
  12. 1 2 "What we offer". The Native Women's Shelter of Montreal. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  13. ↑ Maratta, Alessia (December 24, 2019). "Nakuset talks about Montreal's Indigenous community,changes she wants to see in the next decade". Global News.
  14. ↑ "Cultural manual for foster and adoptive parents of Aboriginal children" (PDF).
  15. ↑ "About Us". Resilience Montreal. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  16. ↑ "'Her life's calling to make a difference': Na'kuset inducted into human rights walkway - Montreal | Globalnews.ca". Global News. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.