"Scenes from the Nanaimo Indian Hospital": Rewriting the colonial script
Channel: Life on Gabriola TV
Date: 2024-02-27

"Scenes from the Nanaimo Indian Hospital": Rewriting the colonial script

As a residential school and Indian hospital survivor, Dr. Laura Cranmer wrote the play "Scenes from the Nanaimo Indian Hospital" based on her three years at the hospital as a child. Life on Gabriola TV's Althea Rasendriya interviews Cranmer and the company of the production, currently touring Vancouver Island, to learn more about how revisiting this dark past has affected them, and the play's place in an ongoing language reclamation project.

As noted in the program for the production, the Nanaimo Indian Hospital operated from the 1940s until the 1960s. It was a former military hospital with 220 beds -- the second largest in western Canada. The hospitals were intended to isolate Indigenous tuberculosis patients from the general public. Although oral drug treatments to cure the disease were later introduced, the Indian hospitals continued their experimental treatments on patients and refused to let them leave.

"Scenes from the Nanaimo Indian Hospital" features three little girls, representing three Indigenous language families on Vancouver Island, as they grow their friendship and share memories in each of their own tongues. In the interview, the creators discuss the production process; their background and involvement; healing; revisiting and unveiling repressed history; what it means to "rewrite the colonial script"; and the crucial significance of language reclamation.

"Scenes from the Nanaimo Indian Hospital will be performed at the Tidemark Theatre, Campbell River, on March 1. Performances are at 1 pm and 6:30 pm. Tickets are $30 for adults and $15 for youth and students, available by calling the ticket office at 250-287-7465, or online at https://tidemarktheatre.com/event/scenes-from-the-nanaimo-indian-hospital/.

It also plays Vancouver Island University’s Malaspina Theatre, Nanaimo campus (Building 310), on March 28. Performances are at 1 pm and 6:30 pm. Tickets are free but must be reserved online at https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/5a906e1e-7578-4d99-85bf-e2c7a548e6a9.

Life on Gabriola TV is generously sponsored by:
The Gabriola Arts Council https://artsgabriola.ca
The Haven, Gabriola Island https://haven.ca