Cast and crew members discuss the history of the Sixties Scoop and the true stories behind “Little Bird.”
And a man and his wife, white people, they were talking to my mom and dad.
And that man, finally, he said, “Would you like to come and live with us, little boy?”
– “Little Bird” is a miniseries about one womans experience after being abducted from her home in Saskatchewan and being adopted into a Jewish family in Montreal.
The story follows her journey of discovery to uncover the truth of her past about who she is.
– This role hits very close to home, because my dad being a member of the Sixties Scoop changed my entire life.
There was a level of compartmentalization that had to happen, where it was like, I need to separate my own personal experience and put that aside so that I can focus on the work and do the work because stories like this need to be told.
– With “Little Bird,” its one of those stories, the family unit thats been taken apart.
There are thousands of us taken across the country, theres still thousands that are out there in the world right now, lost.
– You have to think to yourself, Im saving these children from a life of poverty.
– When youre telling any Indigenous story, the process of authenticating all of the threads of the story is very complex.
You need a circle of advisors, and those advisors are essential to the authenticity and integrity of the story.
And then we brought in actual survivors of the Sixties Scoop to help us really shape the experience through the lens of being adopted.
– Your adoption file is sealed, but there is a note on your file that you have a sister, a Dora Mueller, who wishes to be contacted.
The thought to me that there was a genocide that wasnt known was just stunning and heartbreaking.
Im using my Jewishness in order to like, get the minutiae of being a part of a specific community.
– I dont know why you try so hard to fit in with these boring people.
Yes, we make stories for global audiences, (crowd cheering) but we really make these stories for our people.
– Im giving a voice to, you know, to my grandmothers story, and her sister, and many other people in my family that have gone through this.
Learn more about residential schools and their ongoing impact as explored in “Little Bird” and “Little Bird: Wanna Icipus Kupi (Coming Home).”
I Want My Mom | November 16 | 9 p.m. Esther goes back to the prairies to continue her investigation into her history. It’s difficult to mend the severed bonds of a broken family. After a tragic event, Esther comes to the realization that she is most dependent on her mother Golda.
Little Bird, which recently took home the coveted Audience Award at the 2023 Series Mania Festival in Lille, France, was filmed in and around Winnipeg, as well as in the Treaty 1 territories of Brokenhead Ojibway Nation and Sioux Valley Dakota Nation.
At the age of five, Bezhig Little Bird is taken from her Long Pine Reserve, Saskatchewan, home and adopted into a Montréal Jewish family, where she grows up to become Esther Rosenblum. Now that she is in her 20s, Bezhig is desperate to find the family she lost and will stop at nothing to do so. Her quest takes her to the Canadian Prairies, a place completely different from her familiar surroundings. As she starts looking for her siblings, she solves the mystery surrounding her adoption and learns that the reason for her arrest was a racist government initiative that is now referred to as the “Sixties Scoop.” Bezhig’s sense of self is destroyed, and she is forced to consider her identity and her goals.
Germaine Sweet, managing director of content acquisitions at PBS Distribution, described the story as “a powerful narrative that not only engages and pulls on your heartstrings, but also educates on a profoundly disturbing time in North American history that is rarely portrayed.”
Little Bird: Coming Home, a 90-minute companion documentary, is currently available for streaming on Nine PBS Passport. It delves into the relationships between the groundbreaking movement for Indigenous narrative sovereignty and the effects of the child welfare system, as seen by the Indigenous creatives, crew, and Sixties Scoop advisors involved in the series.
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