"You Don’t Just Get Over What Has Happened to You": Story Sharing, Reconciliation, and Grandma’s Journey in the Child Welfare System

  • Autumn Varley Nipissing University

Abstract

This article "You Don’t Just Get Over What Has Happened to You": Story Sharing, Reconciliation, and Grandma’s Journey in the Child Welfare System highlights the memories of the strong Anishinaabekwe, or Indigenous women, in my family circle, most notably my grandmother, mother, aunt, and sister. My maternal grandmother, Marie Brunelle, lived through the child welfare system in the late 1940s and became part of what is known today as the “Sixties Scoop.” This article emphasizes the legacies and the intergenerational impacts of the child welfare system in our family through storytelling. By examining our stories of resilience, healing, and reconciliation, we can understand our family’s history, our displacement from Anishinabeg traditional territory, and the strength and resilience of the women in my family.

Author Biography

Autumn Varley, Nipissing University
Autumn Varley is a graduate student in the Masters of Arts History program at Nipissing University. While she calls Southern Georgian Bay home, her family hails from Kitigan Zibi Anishinaabeg. Autumn engages in oral history research and Indigenous methodologies, both of which have been central to her current scholarship. Primarily, Autumn’s research has focused on Indigenous issues in the Canadian context, tracing the historical narratives that have led to the current socio-economic issues that face Indigenous communities. Her graduate research focuses on her maternal grandmother's experiences as an Indigenous woman in the Child Welfare system and the ways in which these experiences contributed to their family's identity and understanding of themselves as Indigenous people. This research will contribute to a growing body of work that discusses Indigenous women, family relationships, connection to land, identity shaping, and reconciliation. This research promises to reshape our understanding of the relationships between Indigenous people and major cultural and political institutions. Her previous study, entitled “Selling Ourselves: Indigenous Interpreters at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons”, is a critical look at the experiences of Indigenous peoples working as costumed interpreters. This research has been presented locally in university classrooms, provincially to the Union of Ontario Indians, and internationally at a conference in Curacao. She is also a leader in the Office of Aboriginal Initiatives at Nipissing University; helping other students with their work, suggesting directions for their research, and helping Indigenous students navigate academia. She is the recipient of the S.S.H.E.R.C. Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship and most recently the Dave Marshall Leadership Award. In the future, she hopes to pursue a PhD and continue to encourage other Indigenous youth to pursue their academic goals.
11(2)
Published
2017-01-19
How to Cite
Varley, A. (2017). "You Don’t Just Get Over What Has Happened to You": Story Sharing, Reconciliation, and Grandma’s Journey in the Child Welfare System. First Peoples Child & Family Review, 11(2), 69-75. Retrieved from https://fpcfr.com/index.php/FPCFR/article/view/306
Issue
Vol. 11 No. 2 (2016): Special Issue: The "Sixties Scoop" and Indigenous Child Welfare
Section
Articles