| Dick Estell The Radio Reader Public Radio's Reading Program |
| (non-fiction) |
| Airs September 4 thru October 8, 2007 |
In this riveting tale of Canadian bureaucracy and cultural arrogance, British
journalist Melanie McGrath tells how in 1953 a handful of Inuit families were
coerced from Hudson Bay’s eastern shore and relocated 1,500 miles north to
bitterly rocky and icy Ellesmere Island.
Sold as a humane attempt to provide a livelihood for the Inuit when the fox pelt
prices plummeted, the scheme was, in fact, callously political. Canada wanted to
plant the flag, and some people, on the uninhabited and largely impenetrable
island.
The author’s account of inhumane deprivation is based on contemporary
documents and astonishing interviews with survivors, who, after decades of
pleading to be repatriated to their homeland, finally forced public hearings and the
1999 creation of Nunavut, the world’s only self-governing territory for indigenous
people.
journalist Melanie McGrath tells how in 1953 a handful of Inuit families were
coerced from Hudson Bay’s eastern shore and relocated 1,500 miles north to
bitterly rocky and icy Ellesmere Island.
Sold as a humane attempt to provide a livelihood for the Inuit when the fox pelt
prices plummeted, the scheme was, in fact, callously political. Canada wanted to
plant the flag, and some people, on the uninhabited and largely impenetrable
island.
The author’s account of inhumane deprivation is based on contemporary
documents and astonishing interviews with survivors, who, after decades of
pleading to be repatriated to their homeland, finally forced public hearings and the
1999 creation of Nunavut, the world’s only self-governing territory for indigenous
people.
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