Sixties Scoop survivor hopes new book will help readers understand his trauma
James Peters has released an autobiography called Broken Circle
A Caldwell First Nations man has released an autobiography detailing his life as a Sixties Scoop survivor growing up in the Canadian foster care system.
James Peters' book Broken Circle highlights his experiences, the pain he suffered and what he did to turn his life around after years of depression and homelessness.
"I'm hoping that people will learn the real truth," said Peters. "That they would hear our history and what we went through and that's how we're going to find truth and reconciliation from the past."
Peters grew up in the Goderich area. Both of his parents were residential school survivors, but he was placed in the foster care system at the age of four.
"They told me to cut my hair. You couldn't speak in my language, you know what I mean, wear suits, the white shirt, black tie, hard shoes, go to church and be who they wanted me to be," said Peters.
"I've never felt any freedom in that because somewhere I think in all of us, we know in our spirit, who we really are.
Peters did not meet his real mother until he was in his late twenties. He never knew his real father however, he was led to believe his father had been dead for several years.
"But he wasn't and I found out years later, all those years he was looking for me. So he did love me. But all the years I grew up thinking, why they didn't look for me so they didn't care about me," said Peters.
Meeting his wife
Throughout the book, Peters details the abuse he experienced growing up in the foster care system. He has since suffered from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, the effects of alcohol abuse and homelessness.
Peters said it wasn't until he met his wife, Christine, at the age of thirty, that he turned his life around.
"If I didn't have my wife, I'd probably be dead," said Peters. "She just talked to me realistically and said, you know, James, this stuff is not healthy. The creator has a different lifestyle for you than this. This is not who you are."
Peters said the recent discovery of 215 bodies of buried children found in the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, B.C. hurt.
"It makes me cry," said Peters. "To know that we can treat another human being like they were just garbage," said Peters.
Peters hopes his book will enlighten readers on the experiences he and other Indigenous people have faced over the years.
"I want people to get along. I want the world to have unity. I want us to not always fight over childish stuff. A lot of it's just childish stuff, it's not mature stuff at all," said Peters.
With files by Katerina Georgieva