MISSION OF HEALTH

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 105, 30 October 1935, Page 22

MISSION OF HEALTH

EED'-'MEN OF CAiVADA"

COURAGEOUS ENGLISH-

WOMEN

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, October 9.

■Hidden aw.ay on a tiny island, 300 miles north of Vancouver, a diminutive Englishwoman devotes her life to the health and welfare of Indian families. She is Miss Kathleen'O'Brien, M.8.E., who for fifteen years has been harbinger of health, education, and religion to the Red Man. Demobilised after nursing service in the Great War. Miss O'Brien sought a new field of endeavour. While the Lambeth Conference was in session she met Dr. Schofield, Bishop of Columbia, who suggested the Pacific Co^st. Arriving here in 1920, she undertook the task: of public, health nursing at Alert Bay, supplementing the work carried on by the Columbia Coast Mission. Three years later. Miss O'Brien and another restless spirit, Miss Marion Nixon,-teacher at a girls' school, decided to push further into the wilderness. They chose the little Indian village of Mimkumlees, on Village Island, headquarters of the Mamalillikulla tribe, which had neither school, church, nor health education. The village was well found, with handsome totem poles in the main street, and some of- the finest Indian homes on' the coast. In days.of prosperity, fishing yielded a comfortable living. Tribal customs were still very strohg. Unlike many missionaries, Miss O'Brien encouraged the Indians to maintain their ancient aesthetic life, to preserve their totem poles and their dances. She had a reason. She found that adoption of the white man's mode of living rendered them .prone to the white man's" ailments. Tuberculosis, unknown in the days when they hunted game and speared fish, became their greatest scourge. ••".'■ :' A SMALL SANATORIUM. Adopting a suggestion of another transplanted Briton, Dr. George Darby, whose name is a byword on the coast, Miss O'Brien built from her own funds a small 'sanatorium, which~she called her "hyuyatsi," or "resting place." She installed three beds. Her partner, Miss Nixon, was obliged, through ill health, to return; to England. She was succeeded by-Miss-Dora White, a qualified teacher, whose salary is paid by the Indian Department. Miss O'Brien's successor \at Alerti Bay, hearing of the new experiment in wilderness nursing, soon followed her. The trio are there today. All the, patients that have passed through the hyuyatsi, with one exception, have been discharged with their health restored. The treatment comprises rest, fresh air, and nourishing J food. The Indians are grateful, and ! co-operate with manual help. The mission boat calls at intervals, with a doctor and a chaplain. . The Provincial Health Department and the Indian Department are sympathetic. The Church i of England makes an annual endowment of £80. , ••'. I Miss O'Brien plans to establish several hyuyatsis along the coast. She is winning her battle against tuberculosis. But Indians are poor, and hyuyatsis cost money. She declines to ap- j peal to the generosity of the public, j preferring to depend on her own resources and those of her crew. All three are practical farmers. They keep their institution supplied with fresh vegetables. Their effort is a monu-ment-to the pluck and self-denial of adventurous Englishwomen.