To treat their tuberculosis, 1,200 Inuit were forced to stay at Sanatorium on the Mountain
This weekend, more than a dozen Inuit elders are going on a historic healing trip to Hamilton to visit the site of the old sanatorium where they were held in isolation and abused mentally in the 1950s and 1960s.
Naomi Tatty helped plan the trip from Nunavut to Hamilton for her 80-year-old mother, Ida Atagoyuk, and 14 other elders. They will arrive in Hamilton on Sunday.Tatty works for the SeeChange Initiative, which helps communities on the margins deal with their own health problems.
“The elders have been waiting for this for a long time,” Tatty said. “They’re getting more and more upset. I think they’re a little bit scared.”
For personal reasons, Tatty and her mother can’t make the trip to Hamilton’s Sanatorium on the Mountain anymore. However, they keep pushing for the Canadian government to help survivors as well.
Rachel Kiddell-Monroe, the founder and executive director of SeeChange, who is based in Montreal, says that this is the first time Inuit will go back to the sanatorium where they were treated for tuberculosis. She has talked to elders during workshops on healing, and she hopes that the trip will help them keep getting better.
Kiddell-Monroe said, “There’s a lot of that feeling of shame that they did something wrong, that it was their fault, and that they shouldn’t talk about what happened.” “They’re finally ready to talk.”
Inuit families torn apar
The sanatorium used to be on Sanatorium Road, near Scenic Drive, near the edge of the cliff with a view of the city. It was torn down to make room for new buildings, but a huge Cross of Lorraine that used to shine brightly still stands.
As part of Canada’s colonial policy, about 1,200 Inuit were sent to Hamilton’s sanatorium to get treatment for tuberculosis.Prime Minister Justin TrudeauHas since said they’re sorry. Their families didn’t know where they went or if they died or not.
Atagoyuk was sent to a sanatorium in Moose Factory, Ontario, near James Bay. Tatty said that Atagoyuk’s tragic situation was similar to that of people who were forced to stay in Hamilton.
Atagoyuk was 21 years old when a government ship checked her health. Tatty said that she tested positive for tuberculosis and was told she would be treated in southern Canada.
Atagoyuk was still nursing her baby, so she was able to bring her with her, said Tatty, who hadn’t been born yet.But when Atagoyuk and her daughter got to Toronto, the baby was taken away from them and given to a foster family. They were apart for about three and a half years while Atagoyuk was in the sanatorium.
Atagoyuk wasn’t allowed to get out of bed, but she got to know the other patients and made friends with them.
Tatty said, “They tried to make the best of it, but it was very hard and tough.” “They had only each other.”
When Atagoyuk was finally set free, she went back to Nunavut to be with her daughter. However, the damage had already been done.
“My sister was afraid of my mother because she thought she was a monster,” said Tatty. “She didn’t usually hang out with Inuit. She had forgotten how to speak, so they couldn’t talk to each other. Both of them were shocked.”
At an art gallery, there will be a party for the publi
Tatty said that her mother was in the front row in 2019 when Trudeau apologized. It included the start of the Nanilavut initiative, a database that will help Inuit find the graves of family members who didn’t make it, and money to help them visit those graves.
Kiddell-Monroe said that trips like the one to Hamilton can’t be paid for by the federal government. SeeChange and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, which is the legal representative of the Inuit of Nunavut, instead backed it.
The group will go to the site of the old sanatorium and the cemetery where Inuit who died of tuberculosis were buried. They will also take part in healing circles and workshops with trauma counselors. They also want to find any doctors, nurses, or family members who worked at the sanatorium.
“And it’s not to get even,” Kiddell-Monroe said. “There’s no reason to be mad. It’s just to be able to see them, share the experience, and kind of close the circle.”
They will also look at old photos of patients from the McMaster University archives and Inuit art made by sanatorium patients from the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
On Tuesday, from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. ET, the public is invited to the Art Gallery of Hamilton for a reception and movie showing.