Georgina Martin says she is still searching for answers about the treatment of her mother.
Martin was born at the Coqualeetza Indian Hospital in British Columbia after her mother was confined there with tuberculosis. Martin grew up with her grandparents in Williams Lake First Nation, or T’Exelc, in that province, while her mother remained hospitalized.
The professor and chair of Indigenous/Xwulmuxw studies at Vancouver Island University says she does not have a complete picture of her past, despite asking repeatedly for records.
“My birth in an Indian hospital was my first experience of trauma, which was then compounded by being reared without the closeness of a mother,” Martin wrote in a coming memoir.
“There is no information in the limited literature available about the effects of these hospitals on the Secwepemc people in my community,” wrote Martin, whose research focuses on intergenerational trauma linked to both residential schools and the health-care system
“What I am aware of is that I was born there. I made some effort to obtain my birth records; so far I have not been able to locate where I can find them or know if they even exist.”
The federal government established “Indian hospitals” across Canada from the 1930s, expanding them widely after the Second World War. They were originally created to treat Indigenous Peoples who contracted, or were suspected of having contracted, tuberculosis.
They later became segregated hospitals for Indigenous Peoples that treated all manner of conditions, including pregnancy, burns and broken bones. They had all closed or amalgamated into the mainstream health system by 1981 after concerns were raised over how the patients, including children, were forcibly confined and treated within their walls.
Some patients who died at the hospitals were buried in unmarked graves because the government often refused to pay the costs of sending their bodies home to their families.
Now communities are looking for answers.
The Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations has signalled it would be willing to open the records related to the former “Indian hospitals” as part of any response to a $1.1-billion class-action lawsuit filed in 2018 on behalf of Indigenous Peoples who received treatment at those institutions.
A Federal Court judge certified the class-action lawsuit in January 2020.
“Survivors recount stories of sexual violence, physical abuse, forced confinement, including being tied to a hospital bed for prolonged periods, forced isolation from families, surgeries without anesthesia,” said Adam Tanel, a lawyer with Toronto-based Koskie Minsky, one of two law firms involved in the action.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
“First Nations people deserve an effective and reliable method to access their own historical records — both on an individual and a community level,” Tanel said.
Kyle Fournier, a spokesperson for the Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations, said Ottawa is “working collaboratively with the parties toward a meaningful resolution” to the class-action lawsuit. Fournier suggested the federal government would be willing to provide access to the long-sought files.
“Ensuring the availability of records to former patients and their families will be considered as part of any resolution discussions,” said Fournier.
“Research to collect relevant documents from various archives is ongoing.”
tags: