When Kay Adams paused to take a breath before continuing her
story, you could have heard a pin drop in the room full of
people. All the Inuk woman remembers about arriving at the
school dormitory in North West River years ago was that no one
was there to meet her. She said she felt the loneliness for
years afterwards. “I wasn’t taught how to love. I wasn’t taught
how to be a family. I knew none of that,” she said. Adams lived
at the dormitory for six or seven years after she was made a
ward of the state in 1969. “I learned there was always bigger
kids, someone was always going to hit you and no one will
protect you. Instead, I was told what a dirty little ’skimo I
was. Then they proceeded to beat me or give another type of
abuse.” Other Inuit told her she wasn’t a real Eskimo because
she didn’t speak the language. After she was kicked out of the
dormitory at age 16, she made her way to Toronto. “I was looking
for somewhere to belong. I haven’t found that place yet.” Adams
has post-traumatic stress disorder. T