Page 92 - EarthHeroes

the British in 1763, and many of the Indigenous peoples – those who had lived in the country before the British arrived – were driven from their land by the new settlers. From the 1870s, for over a century, many Indigenous children were forced to go to residential schools far away from their communities. The government wanted them to grow up in the new Canadian culture, rather than their own traditions and language.
Over eight years, Sheila went to three different schools, returning home only in the holidays. She often felt terribly homesick and missed her family. However, she gradually adapted to her new life and worked hard in school. Each time she came home, she was sad to realise that she had lost much of her Inuktitut language. Sheila wanted to become a doctor, to help her community, but her science and maths weren’t good enough, so, aged 18, she finished school and returned to Kuujjuaq. She immersed herself in her native language again, relearning everything she had forgotten, and became a translator for doctors and patients in the hospital.
Over the next 20 years, while raising her own family, Sheila worked for both the health and education services, helping Inuit communities. Through her work, Sheila realised how badly Inuit had been affected by the loss of their traditional ways of life. They were now much more likely to suffer unemployment, mental health problems and to live in poor housing. Both the children who had
been sent away to school and their parents had been deeply affected by the experience, and this hurt was passed from one generation to the next.
Then, in her early forties, angry about how Inuit were suffering, and realising she needed to find a way to bring about real change, she ran for election to a local organisation representing Inuit and became their corporate secretary. In the same year, she was invited to become president of the Canadian branch of
the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC),
an organisation which brings together representatives of Inuit from all the different countries in which they live. Sheila wasn’t someone who naturally enjoyed being in the spotlight, but she was determined to speak up for her people.
92