A 60s Scoop survivor reflects on taking risks, telling stories and finding allies – CBC

Nov 29, 2024

David Smith, a member of Metepenagiag First Nation, is working on a novel

Late in the evening of Jan. 30, 2022, I clicked the resign button on my job of eight years. I had spent 23 years in tech support talking to people who did not want to talk to me. The quiet in my mind following this click was dwarfed only by the anxiety edging behind my eyes as the evening closed.

This was death.

I knew it as a ten-year old when I lost the only mother I knew. I knew it as a one-year-old laying on the floor lifeless. This click of the mouse was final. When I awake in the morning, I told myself, things will be different.

It wouldn’t be until June 1, six months after that click, that I would open my mouth and speak my story for the first time, in front of 80 strangers: Front line team members in the tourism industry. The jaggedness of my speech, uncertainty of my demeanour and awkward laughs were telling.