Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services
Iqaluit (Feb 12/01) - One of the first registered Inuk nurses, Pauline Paton worked aboard the government hospital ship, the C.D. Howe, until it stopped operating in the North in the 1960s.
She helped treat thousands of Inuit stricken with tuberculosis, influenza and other illnesses.
News/North: What is the most important thing you have accomplished?
Pauline Paton: The most important thing? I was the first nurse in Salluit, Northern Quebec, the first Inuk nurse and it was very, very hard at first. It was very hard to be accepted but finally I made it. At the very end the Inuit came down with a bad, bad flu. There was about 150 of them at the same time; real, real bad in the early 1960s.
Right in the middle of the bad flu this woman went to deliver. They were all in the school and this woman went into labour and she delivered twins and in those days nursing stations didn't have much, no incubators. They were about four pounds and so I didn't have time and people were so sick and they needed to be kept warm so I swaddled them up in two caribou skins and kept them warm until the plane came. One was named Pauline after me and one was named Yakka after my husband. That was one of the most fulfilling experiences.
News/North: What was life like growing up?
Paton: In Labrador it was very hard, growing up. Everybody got sick and there was hardly anybody there to take care of you. You either died or got better.
News/North: Is that why you decided to be a nurse?
Paton: In those days there weren't many choices. You either were a nurse or a teacher and I wouldn't like teaching.
News/North: Where did you go to nursing school?
Paton: In Newfoundland, St. John's. I went to St. John's General Hospital at that time.
News/North: What were some of your tougher duties nursing back then?
Paton: I found it hard pulling teeth. You have to pull lots of teeth in the North. In those days you have to live with a toothache and it's bad.
Once this man came in and he was young and big and tall. Great big set of beautiful teeth and the very last one he wanted out. It was the first time I had to deal with teeth.
He was such a tall guy and when he was sitting down I had to reach up. I told him to lay on the floor. So, he laid on the floor and I put my knee on his chest. Just when I was doing that (the bishop) came up and said, "the nurse if murdering somebody!" (laughter).
News/North: What did you do after you left Salluit?
Paton: Well, after they had the flu, the influenza, I was exhausted. I went to Puvirnituq and worked there, in Northern Quebec. I found it really hard because they lived in iglus and they were really sick there. The worst thing was trying to crawl in with dogs around. They are scary. I was bitten by a dog when I was four years old.
News/North: What was it like working on the C.D. Howe?
Paton: I really enjoyed it. I did it for two summers. I had to oversee everything.
In those days, (Inuit) were being branded like cattle. It was the government way of doing things. They were given a number, the same number on a piece of paper and the same number on the hand. It was stamped like at a dance, just for the day. That person got to have an X-ray, see the dentist and the doctor and anything else.
News/North:: Why did they put numbers on their hands.
Paton: It was easier. It was easier to look at the number.
News/North: What did you think of it?
Paton: Everybody had numbers at one time. The number depends on how many people. This area (Iqaluit) was probably E-9 and Pond Inlet would be E-5. In between there might be E-8s, it depends on the community. I remember there was E-71 so he was the first person in that community. People got used to it.
News/North: What kind of stories do you have from working on the C.D. Howe, about people you saw?
Paton: There were lots of deliveries and there was one from Cape Dorset and years later that boy from Cape Dorset gave me his first seal.
News/North: What's the saddest thing you saw?
Paton: The sad thing was the TB (tuberculosis). Those people were on the ship for about two or three months going to the hospital. But the bad thing was taking these people away to sanatoriums down south. That was really sad. Sometimes they never returned. They are buried somewhere but you don't know where. You have to try and sort graves out down south.
...I was the only Inuk in the Montreal General Hospital and I was there in the late 1950s. I didn't know that much Inuktitut and I still don't know that much Inuktitut but I can get by; I can get by more than some of linguists on the C.D. Howe.
So, anyway, I was in Montreal six to eight years and the government who sent Inuit there never had any interpreters, nothing. So, they used to call on me to interpret and tell them what was happening.
I really felt good about that. I really felt I had done something. Even though I didn't know that much Inuktitut I got the message through to a lot of people. They remembered and when I went on the C.D. Howe they remembered me and were so happy to see me. They made me feel welcome all over.
News/North: When did you come to live in Iqaluit?
Paton: I came to Iqaluit in 1964. My husband came here to work for the government.
News/North: What are the biggest changes you've seen here since then?
Paton: There is a lot more technology in the North. When the hospital first opened it was full, full, full and there weren't many nurses.
Now I do volunteer work, candystriping and sometimes people still remember me from the C.D. Howe.
