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Fifty years later...

Forced relocation continues to haunt Grise Fiord resident

Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services


Grise Fiord (Jan 13/03) - Tears aren't far away when Larry Audlaluk remembers his family's relocation from Inukjuak to Grise Fiord in 1953.

It's been 50 years since the federal government forced his family and dozens of others to move from their homes to remote High Arctic hamlets, but Audlaluk remembers the trauma.

NNSL Photo

Grise Fiord resident Larry Audlaluk was relocated to the High Arctic from Inukjuak, Nunavik in 1953 by the federal government. He and other relocated families will commemorate the pain-laden move this summer. - Kerry McCluskey/NNSL photo


He still lives in Grise Fiord, and continues to fight back the bitterness he feels, but Audlaluk has managed to overcome his addiction to alcohol.

N/N: Where were you living when you hit bottom?

LA: I was living in Grise Fiord, but travelling a lot. I was drinking everywhere and anywhere.

News/North: How long have you been sober for?

Larry Audlaluk: Seven or eight years.

It was a big decision and scary, too -- the first step -- but I was determined. And then I started to apply divine intervention. I learned about God because my mother was a strong Christian. When my drinking hit the bottom, I reached out for the help I had known about all my life.

N/N: How did you know you had hit bottom?

LA: I was at the stage where I thought I was controlling my drinking. Everything in my life has been trial and error. I'm glad the errors never killed me. People were praying for me by the time I hit bottom. There was a time when I sobered up for a year and a half. I joined our church for that period, but I went back down drinking and unfortunately, it got worse. Then one day, just before I sobered up, I was in this establishment. I planned to be there just for five or six beers. That was normal for me.

The next day, I met some of the people I had been with that night. One of them said it was an embarrassing night, that I embarrassed her. I started to wonder what had happened. I was having black-outs.

N/N: That must have frightened you.

LA: It really scared me. The other thing was my system started to rebel every time I would drink. My heart would go fast, I would have difficulty breathing properly and the next day, everything would be scary. I'm not talking about regular hangovers. These episodes of fear and anxiety were frequent.

N/N: Did you start drinking because of the relocation issues you had to deal with?

LA: I was born in Inukjuak (Northern Quebec) in 1952. I was just a really young boy when my family was moved to the Grise Fiord area. I was just a toddler.

N/N: Was there a lot of alcoholism among people who were relocated?

LA: One of the facilitators who helped us put together the story of the relocation coined the phrase 'relocation syndrome.' If you've known anyone who was involved directly or are descendants of people who were relocated, they have a history of abuse in their lives, whether it be alcohol or drugs or family violence. That syndrome is very real.

One of the reasons I used to want to drink was so I could express myself and what was inside of me. I thought I could talk more. The grieving process would also accompany that. I would grieve and cry and that never went away. That's one thing I learned about being sober -- when you express yourself and talk about things that bother you, it's very healthy.

N/N: What is it about relocation that causes the syndrome?

LA: Facts that are denied by the people who instigated this, people who worked at the (federal) government. The historical records -- you can't hide them. Our verbal testimony is there from the hearings that evolved in the mid 1990s. You can see this through the Freedom of Information Act, you can put together the story of the relocation. The facts are there. The government did things that are not right. We know that. The government will not acknowledge it and say, 'We're sorry.'

N/N: The government paid a settlement to the people who were relocated, didn't they?

LA: The government wanted to make up for what they did, but there was no apology, unlike our fellow Canadians who are Japanese descendants and who were apologized to. Is it political? Is it because they hold more weight as a group? Is it because we're not worth worrying about because at election time we don't make that much difference?

N/N: What are the symptoms of the relocation syndrome?

LA: People whose lives were directly touched, like my parents and uncles, the heads of the families -- they had moments where they suddenly erupted into violence without reason. Anything would trigger it. I hear other stories when I talk to people who are my age and grew up in Resolute Bay. Their parents were unusually quiet, too quiet. I think they were reflecting on the hopeless feelings.

N/N: What caused the hopelessness?

LA: The promise was broken.

N/N: What was the promise?

LA: (The promise was) two years and they could all go back (to Inukjuak and Pond Inlet). The government of Canada through the Royal Canadian Mounted Police made that promise. (They said) you are going to have all the things you need, don't bother to bring much because we'll provide for you. They didn't say we were going to the High Arctic. They said, 'Would you like to go to a place?' Speaking to my mom and my relatives, they said it was so appealing when they made all those promises. The people moved from Pond Inlet, the two-year promise is documented.

For the Inukjuak people, the government says there is no evidence (of the two-year promise), but we know what they said.

The other broken promise was there was no shelter provided that was adequate to face the climate. We had to fend for ourselves literally for two years.

N/N: What happened at the end of two years?

LA: After two years we finally got enough scrap wood to build a shelter. We spent the first year in a tent. We got some old buffalo hides from the RCMP for insulation and any other things we could get for lining the tent.

N/N: Why did the federal government do this?

LA: I used to wonder why I was in Grise Fiord when my mom would always talk about Inukjuak. I started to do research. Over time, the reasons from the government have changed. I knew one Co-op manager who lived in Grise Fiord whose father remembered the newspaper headlines and the government announcement that they were relocating Inuit for sovereignty reasons.

At the same time, the Americans were getting concerned about defending themselves against the Russians. They noticed the shortest route for the enemy was through the North Pole. Ottawa was being pressured by Washington to do something about the North. Our government was scrambling and they were under tremendous pressure to do something about their backyard.

N/N: How many people were relocated?

LA: There were 82 people involving three communities. The people from Kuujjuaq moved to Churchill. We didn't know until we left Pond Inlet in late August in 1953 that we were going to be separated. We always assumed we would all be together.

The government had plans to put people in Grise Fiord and to put people near Resolute. People in Resolute had it really hard, too. They had better housing conditions than us because the dump was full of old wood they could collect and make themselves nice houses. But the problem they had was apartheid -- the Inuit were separated from the Qallunaat there. They (Inuit) were watched like prisoners by the RCMP. It was really bad. They would go to the dump looking for leftover food.

N/N: Describe what a typical day would be like after you were relocated?

LA: I have some good memories -- after the dark season when the sun comes up and you go out to play. It was great. When the sun would set, I would go home to eat. During the dark season when I was smaller, I can remember waking up in the dark and I didn't go out too often. I remember when our little hut was so small and barely adequate. Listening to my mom cry was hard and there were times when she would talk to herself. She would be so lonely.

My father died 10 months after got moved. He was only 56. He died of a heart attack. He developed pains right after we moved there. He was a very strong man, a hunting man, in Inukjuak.

N/N: How do you live with this pain?

LA: I can't do anything to turn the clocks back. I look at the healing process.

I tell my kids about what happened, but I tell them not to get angry or bitter or let it destroy their lives. It's bad what happened, but there are ways to handle this. The big outstanding issue is the apology from the government.

N/N: Why are you going to Ottawa today?

LA: We have this trust fund we administer. We talk about it every year. The fund helps the people who were affected. It's a private thing so I can't talk about it. Instead of pursuing it in the court, the government settled it out of court.

N/N: Was that the $10 million settlement?

LA: Yes, that was in 1994 or 1995.

N/N: That's the money you're discussing in Ottawa?

LA: Yes, with the other trustees. There are four of us from the four communities affected -- Inukjuak, Pond Inlet, Resolute and Grise Fiord. It's something we don't talk about.

We talk about ways this money can help the people. Our lives were affected and many of us are still hurting. I want to see us continue to heal.

N/N: Are relocation syndrome symptoms intergenerational like residential school symptoms are?

LA: I hope not. In my children, maybe two of five kids are affected. I hope it stops. I hope it never gets my younger kids.