"Children Like Us": Brittany Penner on the Sixties Scoop and Walking Home

In this episode of Native Circles, Drs. Farina King and Davina Two Bears meet Dr. Brittany Penner to discuss her memoir, Children Like Us: A Métis Woman’s Memoir of Family, Identity, and Walking Herself Home (Regalo Press, 2025), recently named one of Indigo’s Best Books of 2025. Penner, a family physician of Anishinaabe, Cree, and European settler lineage, was adopted at birth into a white Mennonite family during what is known as the Sixties Scoop in Canada, an era of state-sanctioned Indigenous child removal that remains central to Indigenous Studies conversations about kinship disruption, settler colonialism, and cultural continuity across North America.

Together, they explore what it means to “walk home” in an Indigenous sense, not simply a return to place, but a return to story, lineage, language, community, and relational accountability. The conversation engages questions of adoption, survivance, and belonging while also considering the ethical and intellectual work of reclaiming Indigenous identity. This episode invites listeners into a powerful dialogue about home, healing, and Indigenous futurity.

Resources:

Brittany Penner's website

Learn more about Brittany Penner's new book Children Like Us: A Métis Woman's Memoir of Family, Identity, and Walking Herself Home (2025)

"The Sixties Scoop" educational resources shared by the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at the University of British Columbia

"Exploring Identity: Who are the Métis and what are their rights?" (2019 CBC article)