Sudbury chef bids farewell to find peace with her Indigenous family in Saskatchewan

A well-known Sudbury business woman is packing her bags and leaving the downtown to explore and connect with her Indigenous heritage in rural Saskatchewan.

Tammy Maki, 59, owner of Raven Rising-Global Indigenous Chocolates on Cedar Street, says she'll close the doors to her shopfront at the end of the summer and someone else will take over the lease.

A child of the Sixties Scoop and member of White Bear First Nations, a community located about 210 kilometres southeast of Regina, Maki says she wants to reconnect with her Indigenous relatives after spending most of her life in Sudbury.

"I've never had a chance to experience my culture, my relatives, my people, ceremonies," she said. "I feel like an interloper in my own heritage."

The sudden loss of her only daughter last year and her grief became a catalyst for her to explore where she belongs, and is the final push for her departure. 

"This shop, we came to look at it together when I was looking for a place to lease. She worked here, she sat in the chair. It's always her, her, her in my mind," said Maki.

The chocolate shop won't be closing forever. Instead, the e-commerce business will be running out of White Bear First Nations.

Reconnecting with biological family

Maki was taken from her birth mother in the 1960s and a Sudbury family adopted her at a young age.

In the last five years, Maki found out she had three brothers and she was 56 when she saw a picture of her biological mother for the first time. 

"It's so weird, you go through life and you wonder, 'oh, do I look like anybody?" she said.

The Department of Indigenous Affairs indicates that the number of Indigenous children adopted between 1960 and 1990 was more than 11,000. However, more recent research suggests upwards of more than 20,000 First Nation, Métis and Inuit children were removed from their homes.

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, the number of children taken away from their birth families varied by province, but the practice was most common in the Prairies.

In Saskatchewan, there were specific programs designed to facilitate adoptions.

"I'm going back with the attitude of not what my First Nation can do for me, but what I can do for them, and hopefully I find some peace there as well," said Maki. 

Looking forward to the move

While personal soul searching is the prime reason for the move, Maki says it's also been challenging to operate a business in Sudbury's core.

She says major changes need to be made to address the issues of homelessness connected to the toxic drug crisis.

"To tell me that I need to have a storefront downtown Sudbury in order to create foot traffic is fine, but when people are worried about coming here, then what does that do for me?"

Maki says she's looking forward to living in rural Saskatchewan where she says she feels like she can finally breathe, and where she has scattered some of her daughter's ashes.

"As sad as it's going to be, it's also very exhilarating and I'm really looking forward to experiencing that Indigenous side of myself, that side that's been just crying for years," she said.