By François Bellemare
In the heart of Kuujjuaq, the “capital” of the Quebec Arctic, is a house that oozes all the familial feel of any other family home you might find in town. With its view of the beautiful Koksoak River, it houses an original institution: a foster home for adults with reduced autonomy, supervised by the Ungava Tulattavik Health Centre, the regional hospital for eastern Nunavik.
Since it opened in 2022, this institution carries a name that fits it like a glove: Isurrivik, which in Inuktitut means “place of comfort.” We met with its director, Jeannie May.
It was generally recognized that the array of social services offered by the hospital was incomplete when faced with the specific needs of adults who are 18 years of age and over, but not yet elderly, who had seen their capacities diminish: because of a stroke, for example, or due to depression, or another pathology. Six residents live at the home: four on a permanent basis, and two on a short-term basis – a respite for their families who otherwise would have to care for them full-time. They have access as needed to nurses and doctors from the hospital. But Isurrivik is above all a way of life.
The residence’s director, Jeannie May, has an interesting résumé. A native of Old Fort Chimo (Kuujjuaq’s old name), she went to the town’s grade school, then its secondary school, studying a curriculum which for two decades had included instruction in Inuktitut. Her generation was after that of the community’s historic leaders – Charlie Watt, Mary Simon, William Tagoona – who in the 1950s were in the first school classes of what we still call le Nouveau-Québec. Inuit children of this era attended the Fort Chimo federal school, which functioned entirely in English and forbade the speaking of Inuktitut.
“My father still didn’t have access to the school,” Jeannie underlines, since his father was an English Canadian from the south. “My grandfather taught his kids at home, with educational materials in English. Half of it was by correspondence course, just like my aunt Mary Simon (the Governor General of Canada). But by the time the next generation came around, all the children of the village went to the same school, which brought a lot of families closer.”
The Call of the North
A good student who was at ease in both English and Inuktitut, Jeannie May completed her high school in the north before traveling “down” to Montreal for her Cegep. Graduating in Social Sciences from John Abbott College in 2003, her plan was to study psychology in university. Like a lot of Inuits who move south, she could have become an Anglophone Quebecer of indigenous origin, like so many Montrealers. But she was called back to the north.
“It was Minnie Grey (1) who asked me to study management, a program offered in partnership with McGill University, then to come back to Kuujjuak to work for the Inuit organizations created by the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA). In a few years, we had to create social services equivalent to those that French Quebec took over a century to build. Quite the challenge!”
For 19 years she has pursued that career: four years at the Makivvik Corporation (2), then at the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services. And from there she went to become to program manager at the Tusaajiapik Elders Home, as well as at the Suqatsivik Day Centre. Now Jeannie talks about the new resource that in 2024 is in its third year:
“We want the least institutional sort of atmosphere possible, a real home. For example, we have a resident in his 40s who used to live in an elderly residence – and therefore wasn’t really in the right place. Now that he’s at Isurrivik, he’s with residents in his own age range. In short, in a milieu adapted to his history, his reality.”
The Ingredients of Success
“All along their journey,” she continues, “our residents enter and leave, they get visitors. The program of activities? Fishing trips by boat, or along the shores of the river, where there’s a fishing cabin. In winter there’s snowmobiling, or there’s art, bingo nights, excursions to see local culture… Our residents also volunteer, like handing out Christmas baskets; that also allows them to contribute to the community. And you know what? Over the last two years we’ve seen our residents regain some of their autonomy: in their mobility, their sociability, their eloquence – notably in Inuktitut.”
In fact, Isurrivik is a success story. Other local villages would love to have this same resource, whose strength is in its community roots. But any expansion would carry enormous challenges: construction of a building (in the north, all construction is very costly), sustainability of financing, personnel recruitment, etc. Jeannie concludes elegantly:
“Of course having more local personnel who master the language would be a huge advantage for opening up other similar residences. In an ideal world we’d see an Isurrivik in each village; all of Nunavik could be a place of comfort for our clientele.”
- (1) Minnie Grey ran a number of Inuit organizations including the Ungava Hospital and the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services. She was also involved in negotiations on self-governance.
- (2) Makivvik manages the funding handed over by Quebec and its crown corporations in exchange for the exploitation of James Bay hydroelectric resources. Controlled by the Inuits of Nunavik.
The author received a grant for this project from the Association des journalistes indépendants du Québec (AJIQ). Approaching the 50th anniversary of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA) from which the current Nunavik authorities originate. Photo of Jeannie May by François Bellemare.
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