Miss-Delectable
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Rhoda Idlout feels left out in the cold
A Taloyoak couple is gearing up to fight for compensation from the Indian Residential Schools Settlement.
Jesse and Rhoda Idlout want to see the Edmonton School for the Deaf, which Rhoda attended from 1961-68, added to the list of eligible schools as designated by Indian and Residential Schools Resolution Canada (IRSRC).
"She lost her language and her culture," her husband Jesse said. "She lost her mother when she was out there, and because they didn't have telephones back then she didn't find out until a month later when a letter came from her brother. She lived alone, there was no family.
"Something has to be done for these people who are hearing impaired, they should be included in the compensation package," he said. "Some of them went through the same things that the rest of us went through, maybe even worse for some of them. It's not fair."
Rhoda lost her hearing when she was two-years-old, after contracting a nearly fatal bout of meningitis.
She was the only person in her family who was hearing impaired or deaf.
When she was 11, she was sent from Taloyoak to the Edmonton School for the Deaf. After her schooling was complete she remained with a foster family for a couple of years to work at a local library.
Upon returning to Taloyoak, she worked at the local Hudson's Bay post, where a sign language system had already been devised to speak with unilingual traders.
The American Sign Language she had been taught down south was different than the Inuit Sign Language already existing in the community, Jesse said.
"She lost her language equivalent," he said.
More importantly, Rhoda had not been instructed in any of the traditional activities like other young women in the community.
"Because there was nobody to teach about women's work, like making clothing, she lost her culture," he said.
According to Jesse, Rhoda said she remembered meeting a number of deaf First Nations students while she was there.
"People with disabilities have always been left out of things," said Jesse, who is a board member of the Nunavummi Disabilities Makinnasuaqtiit Society. "So if there's more people who hear about our fight, maybe if more people get pissed off, then maybe something can be done about it,"
The couple is currently seeking advice from a number of sources about whether to take the matter to court.
Jesse is requesting that the Edmonton School for the Deaf be added to the list of eligible institutions, and it's currently listed on IRSCR's website as a school under review.
More than 400 requests for additions were filed by mail and by Web ahead of the Sept. 19 deadline, according to Valérie Haché, a spokesperson for IRSRC.
The national administration committee is now reviewing the results and research, and will recommend changes to the courts by mid-November (60 days later).
Haché declined to comment on why schools for the deaf were not considered part of the original list.
According to the resolution, the criteria for adding an institution includes that the child must have been placed away from family for the purposes of education, that the institution was federally owned or that Canada stood as a parent to the child.
If the request is denied, the requestor can take the matter to court.
According to the current principal of the school, which is now called the Alberta School for the Deaf, the institution opened in 1955, but provincial responsibility for its programs was transferred to the Edmonton Public School Board in 1995.
She said she was not aware of any investigation, as the school does not hold any of the past records.
A Taloyoak couple is gearing up to fight for compensation from the Indian Residential Schools Settlement.
Jesse and Rhoda Idlout want to see the Edmonton School for the Deaf, which Rhoda attended from 1961-68, added to the list of eligible schools as designated by Indian and Residential Schools Resolution Canada (IRSRC).
"She lost her language and her culture," her husband Jesse said. "She lost her mother when she was out there, and because they didn't have telephones back then she didn't find out until a month later when a letter came from her brother. She lived alone, there was no family.
"Something has to be done for these people who are hearing impaired, they should be included in the compensation package," he said. "Some of them went through the same things that the rest of us went through, maybe even worse for some of them. It's not fair."
Rhoda lost her hearing when she was two-years-old, after contracting a nearly fatal bout of meningitis.
She was the only person in her family who was hearing impaired or deaf.
When she was 11, she was sent from Taloyoak to the Edmonton School for the Deaf. After her schooling was complete she remained with a foster family for a couple of years to work at a local library.
Upon returning to Taloyoak, she worked at the local Hudson's Bay post, where a sign language system had already been devised to speak with unilingual traders.
The American Sign Language she had been taught down south was different than the Inuit Sign Language already existing in the community, Jesse said.
"She lost her language equivalent," he said.
More importantly, Rhoda had not been instructed in any of the traditional activities like other young women in the community.
"Because there was nobody to teach about women's work, like making clothing, she lost her culture," he said.
According to Jesse, Rhoda said she remembered meeting a number of deaf First Nations students while she was there.
"People with disabilities have always been left out of things," said Jesse, who is a board member of the Nunavummi Disabilities Makinnasuaqtiit Society. "So if there's more people who hear about our fight, maybe if more people get pissed off, then maybe something can be done about it,"
The couple is currently seeking advice from a number of sources about whether to take the matter to court.
Jesse is requesting that the Edmonton School for the Deaf be added to the list of eligible institutions, and it's currently listed on IRSCR's website as a school under review.
More than 400 requests for additions were filed by mail and by Web ahead of the Sept. 19 deadline, according to Valérie Haché, a spokesperson for IRSRC.
The national administration committee is now reviewing the results and research, and will recommend changes to the courts by mid-November (60 days later).
Haché declined to comment on why schools for the deaf were not considered part of the original list.
According to the resolution, the criteria for adding an institution includes that the child must have been placed away from family for the purposes of education, that the institution was federally owned or that Canada stood as a parent to the child.
If the request is denied, the requestor can take the matter to court.
According to the current principal of the school, which is now called the Alberta School for the Deaf, the institution opened in 1955, but provincial responsibility for its programs was transferred to the Edmonton Public School Board in 1995.
She said she was not aware of any investigation, as the school does not hold any of the past records.