At once a devastating tale of an Indigenous family ripped apart by the Canadian government’s “Sixties Scoop,” and a deeply moving moment of hope and resilience.

Synopsis

When is a family reunion not a reunion? When your family has never met. Three sisters and a brother, adopted as infants into separate families across North America, meet together for the first time. Removed from their young Dene mother’s care as part of Canada’s infamous Sixties Scoop, Betty Ann, Esther, Rosalie and Ben were four of the 20,000 Indigenous children taken from their families between 1955 and 1985, to be either adopted into white families or to live in foster care. Now all in middle age, each has grown up in different circumstances, with different family cultures, different values and no shared memories. Birth of a Family follows them through the challenges, trepidations and joys of their first steps towards forming their family.