'I am found' Sixties Scoop victim reunites with biological family after a life long absence
“I feel like I am found. For the first time I really feel like I know who I [am].”
Kevin Broadbent is going back home – for what really is the first time in his life
The 41-year-old London, Ont. man is moving to his home reserve of Rainy River First Nations in northwestern Ontario to live near his biological mother and family he'd only recently met.
"I feel like I am found," he said. "For the first time I really feel like I know who I [am]."
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Broadbent was among thousands of Indigenous infants and children who were forcibly taken from their families between the 1960s and 80s and placed in non-Indigenous households.
Infamously known as the Sixties Scoop, Broadbent said the practice is a part of Canada's historical mistreatment toward Indigenous people – many of whom were brought up to assimilate with western culture.
"I didn't have any connection with my culture or where I was from," said Broadbent, who was raised by a British family in Timmins, Ont. before moving out and eventually ending up in London.
He had brushes with the law and admits he had trouble with anger at times.
"I knew I was different…I lay awake sometimes thinking that I was an alien baby and that someday someone was going to come back for me [because] I've always felt like something was missing."
The first hug
Everything changed two years ago when Broadbent received his adoption papers.
After a few online messages and shared phone calls, both Broadbent and his mother felt it was finally the right time to meet.
That's when the Atlohsa Native Family Healing Centre in London – where Broadbent was attending a program – jumped in to act as host when the two met for the first time at the centre two years ago.
"It was one of the most powerful things I've been fortunate to witness," said Dennis Whiteye, manager of community support and outreach services at Atlohsa.
"This is one of many cases in this country… Here's a quiet man involved in the program who eventually started sharing more and more about being Indigenous and being adopted."
And for Broadbent, "that first hug, I didn't want to end."
His initial meeting would set off an alarm for Broadbent – who immediately knew it was time to pick up his life in London, and finally go home to reclaim his identity.
The homecoming
Since then, the mother and son have been inseparable – keeping in touch online and sometimes in person through a few visits to the reserve. Broadbent travelled with his five children to visit the grandmother and family they never knew they had.
Now the children, aged 8 to 14, are off to start a new life – more than 1,500 kilometres away from where they have called home in London.
"I'm kind of nervous, sad and excited at the same time. I don't know what to expect. I'm sad I'm leaving all my friends but I'm excited to move to a new opportunity, a new start," said 14-year-old Nate Broadbent, Kevin and Haley's eldest son.
"I know there are some elders out there who can teach me and my family more about the traditions that we have."
As for Haley, who played an integral role in her husband's family reunion, although she's leaving her extended family behind across southwestern Ontario, she recognizes the importance of her own family clenching onto their roots.
"It's a new chapter, so it's kind of scary but I'm excited to take Kevin home to his family," she said. "I also think it's important that my children know that Canada has a history of trying to make that side of [their life] disappear. Had we not found Kevin's family and his reserve, they would still not know."
The family began the 32 hour, three-day trip north in their 1994 GM camper van on Saturday – and will settle this week in their new two-storey home on the Rainy River First Nation.
Broadbent believes he can give his children an upbringing rooted in culture and values – something he didn't have growing up.
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