Adoptionland: Canada's Dark Secret, A Documentary by Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera: Canada’s Dark Secret

In Adoption, Adoption Survivor, Adoption Trafficking, Canada, Indigenous Communities, Long Lost Family, Rights, Videos by Adoptionland News

Al Jazeera | Canada’s Dark Secret | Featured Documentary

“In 1996, the last residential school in Canada was closed down, bringing to light horrifying stories about the methods used to sever indigenous children from the influence of their families and to assimilate them into the dominant “Canadian” culture. Over more than a century, tens of thousands of families have torn apart as children were kidnapped or forcibly removed from their homes

Residential schools were part of an extensive education system set up by the Canadian government and administered by churches with the objective of indoctrinating Aboriginal children into the Euro-Canadian and Christian way of life.

Bud Whiteye, a survivor of the Mohawk Institute Residential School, was “picked up” and taken to the school along with four other children as they walked along a public road to visit his grandmother.

“I’m ashamed to say I’m Canadian because of what my government has done.” Ron Short, former RCMP officer

“They didn’t put us in a room and indoctrinate us all day long or anything like that,” he explains. “It was in the routine of the place.

“You didn’t speak anything but English. You went to the white man’s school. You went to the white man’s church. You wore white mens’ clothes. All those were built in. It wasn’t a classroom-type lecture. It was ingrained in the system.”

In 2008, the Canadian government launched the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which finally enabled survivors to give their testimonies on life in residential schools. Abuse – mental, physical, and sexual – was rife and, although research and statistics vary, it is estimated that 6,000 children died in these schools. Some evidence puts the casualties at three times that number.

After its formation, the TRC traveled around Canada for six years, gathering testimony from thousands who bore witness to the tragedies of the residential schools. Numerous “Aboriginal healing” programs were put in place to help those affected to move on with their lives.”

Adoptionland: From Orphans to Activists

A Global Movement

For the first time in adoption history, families of adoption-loss from all over the world unite, each sharing a unique perspective. The anthology’s contributors are emerging, educated, and established writers, promoting the right to original family.

Adoptionland: From Orphans to Activists

Experts from Adoptionland

Our anthology, Adoptionland: From Orphans to Activists condenses the topic of adoption–a global movement of children–into a revealing look that identifies and acknowledges a crisis specific to orphans who have been torn and isolated from our first families.

Families separated-by-adoption face unique concerns, rarely recognized by the mainstream. Some of the issues we face include forced and coerced relinquishment, child trafficking, reassigned identities, falsified birth records, inaccessibility to one’s family lineage, lack of citizenship, void of cultural connection, belittling of the trauma caused by adoption, resistance toward reunions with family, denial against justice.

All humans—including orphans—should have a right to know and have access to our first family and to ancestral roots. The demand-driven adoption market ignores childrens’ rights.

"Janine presents a compelling, rational, highly-researched foundation for advocating an evolutionary appraisal of the adoption world, followed by an equal inclusion of adoptee voices in creating positive change in the system. What makes her collection so compelling is the deeply personal revelations of the writers regarding their unique experiences, the profoundly troubling reports (much understated) of mental and physical abuse, as well as the startling recognition of how severely adoption procedures and practices are weighted in favor of existing, profit-motivated institutions as opposed to adoptee rights and consideration."

Joel R. Dennstedt

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Adoption Researcher

International multi-award recipient and gold-medalist author, Janine Myung Ja, Ph.D., is an adoption researcher, and a rights-based activist for people adopted and long-lost families.

Adoption Truth and Transparency Worldwide Information Network

A Community for Human Rights

Devoted explicitly to the needs of adopted people, progressive activists, artists, educators, and grassroots human rights organizations and all other long lost family members who want to know the history of the adoption institution and is built around progressive discussion. Thanks for joining! Direct login is here

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