On January 21, the communities of Whapmagoostui and Kuujjuaraapik celebrated the grand opening of a new building for Minnie’s Hope. The newly relaunched social pediatrics centre is nearly twice the size of the original, which first opened in 2014, made possible by $5 million in donations from BMO Financial Group and the Hewitt Foundation.
The opening ceremony included music, guided tours and an evening feast. A week later, another ceremony was held at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. With expanded services and a larger team, Minnie’s Hope can now help 300 children and teens annually.
Dr. Johanne Morel has been a driving force behind Minnie’s Hope since its inception, stemming from a deep appreciation for the warm welcome given her as a general practitioner when first arriving in Chisasibi in the early 1980s. After becoming a pediatrician and working 20 years in Cree communities, she began feeling a certain dissatisfaction with her work’s impact.
“I’d sit in my airplane seat at the end of the week and ask myself what did this trip change?” Morel recalled. “In 2008, I was preparing to go to Nunavik and Radio-Canada was running a story about how challenging life was for young Inuit people. I wondered is there anything more I could do?”
Morel consulted with Dr. Gilles Julien in Montreal, whose influential foundation was inspired by Inuit peoples to engage more with a child’s surrounding community. The concept was to bring together everybody with goodwill for the children around the same table – social services, schools and locals. Encouraged to pursue her direction, Morel was working in one of Julien’s clinics when she met with the late Lucie Bergeron, a trailblazer for all daycares in Eeyou Istchee.
Excited by the project, Bergeron quickly secured funding from the Cree Nation Government, recruited an educator and formed a local board of directors. When an old church was offered, the new initiative moved into the chapel. Although the space was simple, Morel said, “It had a lovely atmosphere – people felt like it was grandma’s home.”
The centre was named in honour of Minnie Natachequan, who, along with their two Inuit-Cree sons, was killed by her domestic partner in 2008. At the opening ceremony in Montreal, Minnie’s sister Juliette Natachequan cut the ceremonial ribbon, which was made from caribou and seal skin with purple accents symbolizing advocacy against domestic violence.
Registered as a non-profit organization, Minnie’s Hope started with 1.5 staff and only a few programs, including Head Start, which facilitates educational activities for young children and is run through daycares in the other eight Cree communities. Play groups include both Cree and Inuit children, nurturing a sense of belonging, confidence and unity in the unique community where the two cultures live side by side.
“We recognize we are supporting two distinct cultures,” director Marianne Martin told the Nation. “Even though we’re physically located in Whapmagoostui, all our programs are inclusive. We try as much as possible to have both Cree and Inuit educators.”
Beginning as a volunteer with the centre soon after it opened, Martin became its director in 2017. Morel said Martin has “believed in this project with all her heart” and can be found there almost every day. Besides the director position, there are currently four other core permanent staff: Cree and Inuk clinical associates and educators, who provide guidance for the numerous part-time professionals that come from the south.
Since 2017, operations have swiftly grown to about 16 programs. Needs identified by the community inform the diverse range of services offered by specialists, such as speech and language therapy. With professionals visiting only occasionally, they would like to hire more local Cree and Inuit staff to support intervention plans.
There is sand therapy, a non-verbal method for small children to express their fears or needs by creating a picture in a sand tray with various available figurines. This psychotherapist also conducts safe and sound protocol (SSP), which uses filtered and coded music to calm the vagus nerve for those with anxiety.
“We have a group for Inuit children who live in at-risk situations,” said Morel. “We pick them up after school, offer them a warm lunch, cultural activities on the land. Someone from the community shows them how to set snares, build an igloo. We have walking out ceremonies for Cree children.”
When meeting a new family, a trusting relationship is first established over bannock and tea around the kitchen table, a warm atmosphere they wanted to carry over to the new building. While there is a section for medical care, Morel said it’s essentially a culturally safe playroom with lots of chairs.
The building’s colours reflect the horizon’s sandy hues and midnight blues. A wheelchair ramp provides new accessibility, and the multi-function room can be closed from the kitchen, allowing two or three programs simultaneously, which wasn’t previously possible.
“It’s very different from going to a clinical setting,” asserted Martin. “Maybe they don’t have a ride or babysitter – we offer to pick up and drop off. Bring all the kids. We have an educator who can keep them busy. It’s meeting the families where they’re at.”
Doing what’s best for the child has sometimes meant offering couples therapy to their parents or working with a team of therapists to help a teen pass a particular exam that was haunting them. Ten-year-old Legend Iserhoff spoke at the launch about how Minnie’s Hope helped her overcome eczema trauma, saying, “Thank you for helping me conquer my anxiety.”
Legend’s father Matthew Iserhoff explained that the music, art and other therapies from Minnie’s Hope complemented ceremonies and family activities as “another aspect of the holistic medicine wheel” that eventually helped his daughter overcome the social anxiety caused by her eczema.
“One of the wonderful things about it is it connects everyone here for the betterment of community,” Iserhoff said. “This is something needed in every Cree community.”
While Minnie’s Hope runs Makivvik’s Ungaluk Safer Communities program for 7- to 12-year-olds, they’re looking at adding programs to better meet teenagers’ needs. Morel suggested their new facilities could support a nutritional cooking program and one that supports young mothers.
“We have all kinds of activities in mind,” said Morel. “However, it will depend on the children we meet.”