Often there are instances as a result of the Sixties Scoop, Residential Schools and so forth where Indigenous people are forced to leave their reserves for circumstances that are beyond their control. Raven Sinclair states that, “the Sixties Scoop describes a period in Aboriginal history in Canada in which thousands of Aboriginal children were removed from birth families and placed in non-Aboriginal environments” (65). The Sixties Scoop was an event that affected many Aboriginal people across Canada, including Garnet in Keeper’n Me. At a young age, Garnet Raven was removed from his home on a reserve and placed in multiple foster homes, which causes him to lose a sense of who he is. The Sixties Scoop was the reason why Garnet did not have the connections to home that he now needs to work towards. In Richard Wagamese’s Keeper’n Me, the notion of home is shown through the way the protagonist Garnet finds himself by …show more content…
Garnet was overwhelmed with emotions but expresses feelings of nervousness before seeing his mother. Importantly, Garnet seems to believe that because he was taken from the reserve at such a young age, he no longer classifies as an Indian. Wagamese suggests, “I’m scared that she won’t like me because I’m not like you guys. Not Indian. I grew up different” (68). This is significant because a part of Garnet coming home is also getting to know his family. As a result of being gone for so long, he did not feel like he was an Indian anymore and could not bare to see how his mother would react to him showing back up after all these years. Thus, this demonstrates how Garnet is discovering who he was as an Indigenous person prior to being taken to foster homes. By reconnecting with his family, he is able to learn more about his Indigenous roots that he did not have the knowledge about