"Scenes from the Nanaimo Indian Hospital": Rewriting the colonial script

As a residential school and Indian hospital survivor, Laura Cranmer wrote the play "Scenes from the Nanaimo Indian Hospital" based on her three years at the hospital as a child. Life on Gabriola TV's Althea Rasendriya interviews Cranmer and others, actors and production crew members to learn more about how revisiting this dark past has affected them all, and the play's place in an ongoing language reclamation project.

A brief history: The Nanaimo Indian Hospital operated from the 1940s until the 1960s. it was a former military hospital with 220 beds -- the second largest in western Canada. The hospitals were intended to isolate Indigenous tuberculosis patients from the general public. Although oral drug treatments to cure the disease were later introduced, the Indian hospitals continued their experimental treatments on patients and it was made a crime for an Indigenous person to leave a hospital before being discharged.

"Scenes from the Nanaimo Indian Hospital" features three little girls, representing the three Indigenous language families of Vancouver Island, as they grow their friendship and share memories in each of their own tongues. In the interview, the creators discuss the production process, their background and involvement, healing, revisiting and unveiling this supressed history, what it means to "rewrite the colonial script," and the crucial significance of language reclamation.

Highlights:
[🌐] The play features three girls representing diverse Indigenous languages on Vancouver Island. The importance of preserving these languages.
[🎭] Choice of theatre for storytelling. Aiming to reach a wider audience and make history come alive.
[🤝] How cast and crew's diverse backgrounds contribute to the project.
[🔍] Addressing trauma triggers, sensitivity, and personal connections to historical events.
[🔄] Reclaiming cultural identity through art.
[🌈] Healing journey: Personal reflections on rediscovering cultural pride, overcoming shame, and the therapeutic aspects of the project.
[📚] Using art as a tool for language reawakening, storytelling, and teaching future generations.

Life on Gabriola TV is generously sponsored by:
The Gabriola Arts Council
The Haven, Gabriola Island