Scenes from the Nanaimo Indian Hospital: Reawakening Hul’q’umin’um’, Nuu-Chah-Nulth, Kwak’wala Languages Through Theatre
November 23, 1 pm performance at the Malaspina Theatre
Tickets are free, but booking with link to the right is essential. Space is limited.
About the production:
The three main Indigenous language families of Vancouver Island—Hul’q’umin’um' (language of the Coast Salish), Nuu-chah-nulth (language of the Nuu-chah-nulth), and Kwak’wala (language of the Kwakwa’kawakw)—each cover vast land and marine territories in their respective regions and are all in precipitous decline. While the residential school system is widely known as a vehicle of assimilation and ethno-genocide in Canada, another tool of colonial policy emerged in the 1940s–60s: the Indian Hospital system, which separated Indigenous patients—especially those with tuberculosis—from the rest of the population. The Nanaimo Indian Hospital, which operated from approximately 1946 to 1967, was one of 22 federally run Indian Hospitals across Canada, established by the Department of National Health and Welfare. Located directly across the street from what is now Vancouver Island University, the hospital has become associated with significant trauma, neglect, and medical experimentation as reported by Survivors and their families. The script, Scenes from the Nanaimo Indian Hospital, features the growing friendship between three little girls from each of the previously mentioned language families of Vancouver Island: Hul’q’umin’um', Nuu-chah-nulth, and Kwak’wala. The girls engage in a running comparison of each of their own languages which result in humorous dialogue. With the introduction of the relationships between key medical staff, their concerns are revealed for keeping secret a parallel system of medical experiments on Indigenous bodies. The close administrative relationships between the residential school and Indian hospital authorities are also revealed through dialogue of the medical authorities. There are ten characters in the play and of these six are Indigenous from various points on Vancouver Island while the medical staff comprise the rest. While there is extended dialogue in Kwak’wala in the opening scenes, the translation for a live audience is projected on a screen above the stage via animation.