Coming Home (Wanna Icipus Kupi) reveals impacts of the Sixties Scoop, Indigenous resilience and narrative sovereignty

Coming Home (Wanna Icipus Kupi) reveals the impacts of the Sixties Scoop and explores Indigenous resilience through narrative sovereignty; as lived by the Little Bird series’ Indigenous creatives, cast, crew & community members. The documentary delivers a hard-hitting reality check for viewers unfamiliar with the Sixties Scoop, providing insight into the policies that were created to separate Indigenous children from their heritage, and the systems that continue to dismantle Indigenous families today. Coming Home is the feature directorial debut from Cree/Ojibway filmmaker, Erica Daniels of Peguis First Nation.

From 1951 to 1984, the Sixties Scoop was an assimilation project led by Canadian federal and provincial governments that attempted to erase Indigenous identity. More than 20,000 Indigenous children were forcefully taken from their families, and displaced into foster care systems throughout North America and abroad.

Daniels crafts a visual tapestry to evoke a profound sense of homecoming related to family, culture, traditions, values, community and connection to the land. The communities of Brokenhead Ojibway Nation and Sioux Valley Dakota Nation are at the heart of this documentary.

Coming Home entwines profound interviews of personal recollections from Sixties Scoop survivors, accompanied by glimpses of on-set moments of the Little Bird drama series and archival footage from news sources. The layering of these elements creates a rich and emotional exploration of the devastating impacts the Sixties Scoop has had on Indigenous peoples, and the creative team’s essential work of narrative reclamation through storytelling from an Indigenous lens.