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Today’s Blog Post
Paul Watson introduced me to Rynee and Martha on November 30, 2009. I was sitting in McDonalds not far from my home when I met them. It is an odd meeting in that Rynee and Martha are from the far north, Nunavut to be exact.
From what I could figure Rynee has lived in Griese Fiord but was originally from Inukjuak. Martha now lives in the Ottawa area where she works but also came from Inukjuak. She was headed for Griese Fiord to live with her mother Rynee. She was unruly and because of that she was sent to residential schools in a number of places. One of which was Carcross, Yukon – a million miles from her home and family! (similar to the distance from Newfoundland and British Columbia)
Now this means nothing to you as you sit in your home in the lower part of Canada. Many of you have never ventured very far from your original home setting… the family farm, the small community you were born in, the city that you were raised in. Sure you have had long holidays – even perhaps overseas. But if you think back to 1955 – you hadn’t traveled far at that point.
I was 11 years old at that time. Most vacations were to the original family farm. However at 11 or 12 was my first big trip to the USA that I remember. From Saskatchewan we traveled all the way to Iowa and Illinois, USA – the origin of both of my families’ grandparents. My dad and mom took us to see their relatives showing off their family. That was about a three day journey south by car. It was amazing to travel that approximate 1000 miles from home – and back.
At the same time we were taking our family holiday to the USA, Martha and her family were forced(with very gentle and subtle persuasion) to move 1200 miles (2000 Kms) further north – to a ‘foreign to them’ land. Yes they were Inuit, but the area they had traditionally lived in Inukjuak, had been their home from the start of time. 1200 miles north of their home was not home. They had little or no idea of where they were going or how to live there.
To help you understand… try to recall where you lived at 5 years of age. Now imagine a big tough Cop coming to your home and telling your father that you need to move from your home to another place far away. ‘Far away’ for you is your Grandma’s House at the edge of the village.
Imagine forcing your family on to a huge Steel Boat that was very noisy and cold. You are placed in a huge steel room that was cold and damp – ‘the hold’. The Boat you are on is caught in a very bad storm and even the Crew thinks that it is very dangerous. Everyone around you is vomiting and very sick. That is what will happen when you travel in a Ship’s hold and you cannot see anything.
My imagination has tried to comprehend what Martha and her siblings went through as they traveled north.
One the way the Ship stopped at Churchill, Manitoba. For some reason Martha’s sister was showing signs of sickness. She was examined and found to have pulmonary tuberculosis. The authorities took her from her mother. Mary was her name and she was 3 years old. Rynee with her son Peter and daughter Martha went on without Mary to their new home. She would not see her again until two years has gone by.
Mary was taken to a sanitarium where she stayed for six months. Then with no parents and only 4 years old, not being able to speak English and no one speaking Inukitut, she was sent to Montreal until the same ship she had been on was ready to go north again. On the way the crew mistakenly dropped her off at the home village of Inukjuak – the place that her mother and siblings had left – 1200 miles south of where her mother now lived.
Finally she was reunited with her mother – but she had forgotten how to speak her language. She didn’t want to live with her family as she longed to live with the “white people”.
Rynee suffered through this horror like no parent I have ever met. Her husband lost his self-respect as well as his children – then he lost his mind. ‘By the 1970s he was always pacing and whispering to himself. Going silent, and blank, when his wife tried to help him.’
On Monday when I left the McDonald’s restaurant my life was not the same. I have not stopped thinking of Rynee, Martha, Mary, and Peter. I cannot really tell you the deep sadness that I feel with the way that they were treated by the Canadian Government and authorities and the RCMP and the people that could care less about humanity in 1955.
How dare these people do this kind of thing to a small family that has simply lived happily in their home village – forever.
Rynee, Martha, Mary and Peter… you will never likely read this. But I need to say how sorry I am for what you were subjected to. While I was living happily in my home village, you were having your lives destroyed by people that could care less. Worse yet – I trusted them to do the right thing and believed in them.
Yes there needs to be justice done. But the best that I can do is scream loudly with this simple Blog posting – does anyone care?
Paul Watson, your article touched me deeply. The stories of the High Artic Exiles will not be forgotten. Thank you.
PLEASE READ THE LINKS BELOW!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/732447
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/732446
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