Contact brought death from TB

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Throughout history, aboriginal peoples around the world have felt the sting of contact with white people. Consequences have ranged from changes in their traditional ways of life to disease, death and even annihilation.

The National Film Board's Coppermine chronicles the devastating effects of contact with the outside world upon the lives of the Copper Inuit. Up until the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913-18, few outsiders spent much time in the region.

Expedition leader Viljalmur Stafansson, fearing for the future of the Copper Inuit, pleaded with the Canadian government to protect them from contact with outsiders. But his pleas were ignored, and over the ensuing years, a steady stream of white traders, prospectors and missionaries pour into the areas.

In response, the Canadian government hired a young doctor, Russell Martin, to establish a medical post in Coppermine. In August 1929, the Hudson's Bay Company ship Baychimo docked at the mouth of the Coppermine River on Coronation Gulf. On board were the doctor and two Oblate priests coming to build a Roman Catholic mission. Also on board and gravely ill with tuberculosis was Uluksak, an Inuk hunter who had been discharged as incurable from the Aklavik hospital and sent home.

Dr.. Martin initially observed, "No active sickness of any sort is seen. All Natives appear healthy." Eighteen months later, after numerous unheeded requests for help, Martin reported to his superiors in Ottawa that tuberculosis had reached epidemic proportions. Some 50 per cent of the population was dead or infected with tuberculosis.

Blending rare archival footage and still photographs with dramatic re-enactments and present-day interviews, Coppermine poignantly documents Dr. Martin's struggle to bring medical care to the Copper Inuit, with scant support from the government that hired him.

The film premiered in October in the central Arctic community of Coppermine, where the story took place.

"We felt that the people whose lives were affected by this tragedy should be the first to see the film," said producer Jerry Krepakevich.

Coppermine was directed by Ray Harper and is a production of the National Film Board, North West Centre.