Attawapiskat visit: day 1

Attawapiskat: Day 1

We arrived @ Attawapiskat airport around 2pm. Peacekeepers (not related to Customs or Nishnabe Aski Police) checked every bag including purses for alcohol & drugs.
Rosie Kootstachin met us @ the airport in a weathered blue truck. The gearshift had been broken, and wouldn’t shift out of park without 10 minutes cajoling.
She took us to her father (Alex Kootstachin) where we would be staying. They showed us the damaged rooms, as the house is still condemned, but they couldn’t remain in the tent over the winter and there was nowhere else for them to go. Elder Sophie Spence has also left her tent to return home, after the death of her husband.
We are staying in the tent!
If you ignore the 10” windows cut into the fake wood paneling, and the cheap tarp ceiling, it’s quite cozy. The plywood floor has a couple of 4X7’ sections of cut out wall-to-wall carpet, the mattresses are on the floor, but are clean and covered with colourful sheets.
The woodstove appears made from an old oil barrel, with the chimney going out a hole in the tent side. The wall is fireproofed with a sheet of re-used tin behind the stove. The tent is either too hot or too cold. The lack of insulation makes it impossible to maintain a comfortable temp.
We are both hoping that we’re sleepy by 6pm because of the travel and the heat of the tent, rather than carbon monoxide.
Then Rosie drove us around the reserve as she ran a few errands. We saw the portables the elementary/ middle school are in (10 years old). We drove past the preschool and the high school. We saw the abandoned houses, the empty lot where the diesel fuel spill forced the closing and eventual demolition of the elementary/ middle school.
We visited the grade 8 portable, and spoke to the teacher and several of the students. The bright drawings and enthusiasm of the kids disguised the poverty of the classroom. There was one computer, shared by about 20 students. The 2 halves of the portable were shifting creating a widening crack through the floor. The shifting also affected how the doors and windows worked, leaving the girls bathroom with a door that doesn’t latch. The girls go in pairs, one to hold the door shut. The teacher says that the under floor of the portable is covered with mould. The men who maintain the school refuse to go under there to fix things.
The students (incl Rosie’s daughter) are eager to show off their artwork and their studies. They’re eager to learn, but to what point? School here ends grade 12, further learning involves leaving their isolated reserve, where they’re related to almost everyone, and go to a university bigger than their whole reserve. Let's not even think about the size and traffic and pace of the 'southern' centres like Toronto or Ottawa.
Rosie was just here, telling us that a member of the reserve (45), working as a security guard at the homeless shelter, has been taken to hospital after a heart attack. He had been to the nurse’s station yesterday complaining of chest pains but was released. The nearest hospitals are in Timmins & Moosenee, and both require helicopter ambulances to get to. Many don’t survive the journey.

One woman had a heart attack and survived but later died when the nurse’s station waited 3 days to fly her to Timmins. 2000 ppl, 3-4 nurses, 0 doctors, 0 dentists.
At night we hear the yelling from a ‘sniffer’ (gas) next door. We’re warned to bar the door at night and let no-one in but Rosie and those she tells us to trust. So far, only her father, husband & brother have made the cut.
Rosie’s mom sent us some wool blankets and stuff. One is identical to the red wool fireman blankets Jim has. Another is a ‘friendship’ blanket; a blaze orange blanket as backing to a simple geometric quilt. She also gave Rosie a red wool toque she’s made; with instructions to make sure I wear it.

The NAP just called saying that someone from this number just called to report a disturbance. I told them to call back and we’d let Alec answer, but we heard no disturbance. They haven’t called back…..