Intimate Integration by Allyson Stevenson.edited.docx - 1...

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“INTIMATE INTEGRATION” BY ALLYSON STEVENSON
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Book Review: Intimate Integration by Allyson Stevenson
Introduction
“Intimate Integration," also referred to as “ A History of the Sixties Scoop and the
Colonization of Indigenous Kinship," is a 2020 novel written by a Canadian novelist and
historian, Allyson Stevenson. The book makes substantial advances to the historiography of
colonialism and imperialism in Canada by providing insights into the complex factors behind
continuing socioeconomic inequities in child care. It constantly privileges the Canadian
indigenous perspectives and experiences by critically examining the growth and decline of North
American biracial adoption efforts, such as the "Adopt Indian" and "Métis Project" and also the
"Indian Adoption Project." In "Intimate Integration," Allyson contends that integrating adoptive
Indian and “Métis” kids paralleled the innovative orientation in “post-war Indian” issues and
policy programs. Throughout the book, Stevenson incorporates existing literature and interviews
in explaining how the displacement of Indigenous Canadian kids from their households and
societies took on growing sociopolitical importance, resulting in what is termed the "Sixties
Scoop." This essay provides a detailed book review of Stevenson’s “Intimate Integration” with
its central thesis on the exclusion of indigenous kids and breaking up their households to
eradicate indigenous people's sovereignty.
Book Summary
From the onset of the book, Allyson Stevenson shows that in Canada, like in any other
white colonial country, the administration has tried to eradicate aboriginal people's ownership of
the land, group membership, traditions, and sovereignty by removing Indigenous children from
their families and separating them from their families. The "Indian Residential School Settlement
Agreement" (IRSSA), the "Truth and Reconciliation Commission," and also the "Sixties Scoop

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Settlement" are among the moves that Canada has implemented, similar to those that Australia
has implemented, to recognize this heinous abuse and also to create some recourse for it
(Stevenson, 2020, p. 27). The author shows that the aforementioned efforts were long past due
and befitting, particularly in the context of historiography based in America, where
acknowledgment of, and recourse for, the adverse effects of Indian schools, as well as other
aboriginal child separation, sound like a pretty distinct chance.