Spanish Flu Shook Labrador Inuit For Generations. I'm Not Sure We're Ready For COVID-19.
As COVID-19 reaches Newfoundland and Labrador, where my fellow Inuit and family live, I wonder if we are ready.
There are new reports every day. At least 135 cases have been confirmed in Newfoundland and Labrador. At least one case has been linked to Happy Valley-Goose Bay — a town Inuit from the coast must pass through when travelling most anywhere in the region.
Inuit across Canada’s Arctic fear COVID-19. We have learned what pandemics can do to communities not prepared for such events. The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 taught us that. Today’s novel coronavirus is every bit as scary, as it could repeat history.
In the last week of October 1918, Inuit from camps surrounding Okak, N.L. began gathering in town anticipating the arrival of the SS Harmony, a ship owned by the Moravian Church. The vessel would arrive from St. John’s on Nov. 4 with supplies for the churches and stores.
It also brought mail. For the mission stations it serviced — Hebron, Nutak, Ramah, Nain (where I’m from), Hopedale and Okak — the ship was also a source of information. The First World War had just ended, and residents of Okak hadn’t heard any news from the outside world.
Unknowingly, one of the ship’s crew had the Spanish Flu, and carried it with them from ship to shore. The Harmony’s crew loaded up on supplies from Okak — char, cod, seal fur, seal oil and whale oil — and sailed off into the sunset. Likewise, several families that camped near Okak left the community for their winter camps.
There, nobody at that time knew about the global Spanish Flu pandemic. In less than a week, people started getting sick and dying. There were no clear symptoms. Because of this, nobody knew who was sick and who wasn’t. The flu seemed to hit older people in Okak in particular.
Survivors say it was a frightening time. Those with the flu would often seem to stop working, first, then just die. Their dogs roamed, starving. They would break into homes and eat the dead bodies inside.
My...
