Grant: Operating Grant

Between 1930 and 1970, thousands of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people were diagnosed with and treated for tuberculosis (TB) in Manitoba. This project seeks to analyze both the management of the disease and experience of treatment from the perspective of Indigenous people. Such an understanding will vitally inform today's health services and service providers, who need to be aware of the historical context of Indigenous people and tuberculosis so they are mindful of the trauma that it has had on individuals and communities and that it affects how Indigenous people interact with the health care system today. This project is the first to undertake research on newly available archival records of the Sanatorium Board of Manitoba, records which contain key information about TB surveying, hospitalization and treatment and post-recovery care of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in Manitoba. The project will also collect and preserve oral histories Indigenous people who spent time in TB sanatoria in Manitoba and Indigenous employees of the sanatoria. Recent historical scholarship acknowledges that dispossession, poverty and violence fostered diseases like TB and the health care responses to them. This investigation will extend this work by focusing on Manitoba in the mid-twentieth century and by centring Indigenous people within the research and analysis. By engaging in knowledge translation activities, we will be learning about how Indigenous health historical knowledge can best be used by Indigenous people, health service providers and health systems in order to improve current policies and procedures for TB.