Decades after being forced to leave, these Labrador Inuit got to return home
Inside a church in Hebron with a rock in hand, Silpa Obed sat in a circle among other evictees from the community.
That's where she released all the emotions she had bot‐ tled up for decades.
"After so many years, I didn't think I was so full of anger and resentment, but my body couldn't hold it. I just had to share it," the 68year-old elder said.
She's among roughly 40 Inuit elders part of a trip to Hebron and Nutak in northern Labrador last month, organized by the Nunatsiavut government and the Royal Canadian Navy, with funding from the Arctic Inspiration Prize.
For some, this was the first time they've been back since they were evicted as children.
Lena Onalik's grandparen‐ ts, on both sides of her family, were displaced from Hebron and Nutak/Okak Bay. So being part of the organiz‐ ing committee for this re‐ union was personal to her.
"Many of these people were children when they were forced to leave. Now they're going back as elders," Okalik said.
"It's been a very healing journey for people, and has really brought out the child in them."
Inuit were forced out of their homes from Nutak and Hebron in the late 1950s. In Hebron, officials made the announcement inside a church, where people could‐ n't protest.
The provincial govern‐ ment ordered those reloca‐ tions to consolidate northern communities in larger cen‐ tres down south.
But it caused a painful loss to the Inuit way of life.
Pain not talked about for years
Sarah Townley was just three months old when she was pushed out of Hebron, though her parents didn't talk about that experience until she was a teenager.
"It was only afterwards that I started to realize why they were hurting so much, and why they had started drinking, and why many peo‐ ple started getting into trou‐ ble," Townley said.
"They were missing all kinds of food, like wild food, because we never had a hunting area in Makkovik."
It was a similar story for Onalik's grandparents. Over‐ time, she pieced together parts of her family history.
One such story passed onto her was how her grand‐ mother was sent to Saint An‐ thony, N.L., to get treatment for her broken hip, where she contracted tuberculosis.
Upon her release, she found out her mother had passed away and her family was no longer in Hebron.
Hebron and Nutak to‐ day
Sabrina Nash, strategic plan‐ ning adviser for the Royal Canadian Navy, still recalls the poignant feeling of stand‐ ing next to the elders, as they surveyed their former homes in Nutak.
"It's [the relocatee's] grandparents' house. The foundation is still very visible, and her grandmother's tombstone is still there."
"They're coming back home, but nobody's there."
If there's one thing Nash has taken away from the trip, it's resilience.
"Those families were forced into situations that were not their decision … but still there's a joy and grateful‐ ness in their souls that just resonates," she said.
Despite having returned to Hebron several times, Sarah Townley always discov‐ ers something new about her former home.
"I used to hear place names so I started going to those places. Then I started realizing how beautiful and vast and how there was so much wildlife," she said.
Being there with other el‐ ders helped her find even more peace.
"It makes you want to share what you have seen and what our parents went through."