How this Inuit caribou carving made at Hamilton sanatorium found its way home half a century later

When Taqialuk Peter opens the box, she can barely believe what's inside — a small stone statue of a caribou and, she says through tears, an unexpected "miracle."

The carving was brought to the Art Gallery of Hamilton by Kathryn Dain last Tuesday evening. The two women had never met but, unbeknownst to them, their late fathers likely crossed paths over half a century ago. 

Dain's father worked as the head teacher at Hamilton's Sanatorium on the Mountain in the 1950s and ordered soapstone for Inuit patients to carve, the Brantford artist told The Current's producer, Julie Crysler.

One patient had made the lifelike caribou that ended up in Dain's home for years, emanating what she described as beauty and something close to anger, its one remaining antler delicately curved. 

Now in Peter's hands, she looks underneath where the patient had etched his first name and government-issued identification number — "Peter E-712."

"That was my father," says Peter, her voice wavering with emotion."Oh my God." 

The serendipitous moment came on the final evening of a historic journey for 14 Inuit elders from Nunavut to Hamilton. They visited the site where they were shipped as children to undergo treatment for tuberculosis, the cemetery where patients who didn't survive were buried and the art gallery. 

Some of the trip organizers, like Peter, who works for Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, had parents or grandparents who'd stayed at the sanatorium — separated from their family, language and culture for years.

Peter said her father didn't talk about his time at the sanatorium, but he had a long scar on his back from a surgery there. She remembers wondering about that scar when she was a child.

"I'd trace my finger down, playing with it, and ask, 'Did it hurt?'" Peter said. "And he didn't really answer." 

Her mother also stayed at the sanatorium, but also didn't share many details. Her parents' generation also endured residential schools and sled-dog slaughters along with other colonial measures, and tended not to speak about those experiences, Peter said. 

However, Peter carries that intergenerational trauma, the fear, anger and anxiety, and used this trip to "claim the healing my parents didn't receive," she said.

Dain said her father Norm loved his job at the sanatorium and encouraged the patients to do art to help pass the time. Dozens of pieces decorated their home, and the caribou was the one Dain held onto for years.

When she heard of the Inuit visit, she decided it was time to give it back.