This podcast was originally submitted as a school project for my 4th year honours-level university history class – I got an A on it.

In the 1950s, one-third of the Inuit population in Canada was infected with Tuberculosis. This was the peak of not only Inuit TB infections, but also the peak of hospitalization for Inuit TB patients, and the peak of mortality rates among Inuit populations. Indeed, in the mid-1950s, an estimated 7-10% of Inuit populations were hospitalized with TB, in sanatoria far away from their home communities, separated from their families. And in the 1950s, the mortality rate among Inuit populations infected with TB was about 30 times higher than in non-Inuit populations.

Today on The VCalla Show, I want to look at this history, specifically, the way that the Canadian government dealt with it, and ask: was this a colonial project? Furthermore, I want to look at it from the perspective of how we remember this today, and reflect on how we can do better in our remembrance of this history.

We’ll specifically look at the treatment in Sanatoria, mostly in southern Canada, beginning with how Inuit patients got there and what life was like in treatment. We’ll look at some letters from patients to better understand their perspectives, and then fast forward to more recent years, examining efforts to try making amends for this troubled history, while many Inuit populations themselves continue to live with the impacts and subsequent treatment in the Sanatoria.

Executive Producer: Vincenzo Calla

Editing: Vincenzo Calla

The VCalla Show is a VCalla Production in association with CrossCut Digital Strategies.