Reflections on Indigenous Displacement: Truth Telling from the Sixties Scoop w/ Crystal Semaganis

The Huron County Museum welcomes guest speaker Crystal Semaganis to speak about her family’s history and highlight of her own activism work. The presentation will be held in the theatre at the Museum starting at 4:30 p.m. The talk is free, and registration is not required, but please note that seating onsite is limited.

Semaganis is a Plains Cree/Chippewa Cree from the Little Pine First Nation, Treaty No. 6 in Saskatchewan. A third- generation descendant of Poundmaker, Crystal is an activist, writer and artist whose areas of interest include the Sixties Scoop, intergenerational trauma, families and survivors of the residential schools, the creative arts including the Pow Wow and Regalia Making, combatting Indigenous identity fraud and community building. Today, she makes her home in Northern Ontario.

Semaganis has written for CBC, New Lines Magazine, and is best known by her colonial name, Christine Cameron, and for the 2018 CBC podcast Finding Cleo, which focuses on her family’s search for her oldest sister, Cleo Semaganis Nicotine. The podcast also explores the Sixties Scoop, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and intergenerational trauma. She was recently longlisted for the 2023 CBC non-fiction prize for kisâkihitin, an essay exploring language, belonging and family.

 Artwork and beadwork created by Semaganis will be available for purchase at the Museum throughout the day. She will also be hosting an art workshop at the museum earlier in the day: space in that event is limited and pre-registration is required.