Nanilavut Visit to St. Albert Cemetery

On June 24, the Kitikmeot Inuit Association (KIA) and the Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) hosted a Commemoration Event at the St. Albert Cemetery in Alberta. The Nanilavut Visit offered a group of Kitikmeot Inuit the chance to visit the burial place of family members, and, hopefully, assist in the healing process. The solemn and moving event was strengthened by a powerful and remarkable address from KIA’s Acting President James Eetoolook. St. Albert cemetery‘s dark past dates to 1947, when an annual tuberculosis vaccination and X-ray program was launched, at first along the Alaska Highway in the Yukon. Eventually these programs were brought to many (at the time) remote communities by air, including places like Spence Bay (Taloyoak) and Cambridge Bay in what now is the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut. Many of those removed from their communities were taken to Camsell Hospital in Edmonton and ended up in the burial ground on the site of what was, at the time, the Edmonton Residential School. Anyone who would like to visit the burial place of a relative in the south is encouraged to contact Joanasie Akumalik of the NTI at JAkumalik@tunngavik.com or 867.975.4951.