The Sixties Scoop survivor using beading as a tool for education

Source: Jamie Dowsett/CTV News

WINNIPEG -

A Sixties Scoop survivor has turned to beading as a tool to educate others on residential schools.

Ken Little didn’t grow up with Indigenous teachings. However, he taught himself to bead a few years ago.

“I just imagine if I would’ve learned, to try to pick it up 30 years ago, where I’d be in my beading right now,” Little said.

He said when the remains of 215 children were found at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., he decided to bead an orange heart for himself and his wife. Then, after witnessing a healing ceremony, he decided to make 215.

Little said he wants the people who wear the hearts to educate others about residential schools, adding that he’s also doing it for himself as a way to heal from being a Sixties Scoop survivor.

“It’s helping me,” he said.

“Every little heart I do, I’m thinking about what went on and how close I came to being one of those kids.”

Little takes about an hour and a half to complete each heart and hopes to have all 215 finished in the next few weeks.

He noted that he won’t be charging any money for the hearts.

“I’m not doing it to make a profit,” he said. “This is all coming out of my own pocket.”

More information about the beaded hearts can be found online.