In the tuberculosis epidemic of the 1950s and 60s, almost 1,300 Inuit patients from the eastern Arctic were sent to the Hamilton Mountain Sanatorium (later renamed Chedoke Hospital) [1]. When they reached their destination, most were facing a lengthy stay of an average two years or more. As part of their occupational therapy and to cope with the boredom, the Inuit patients were encouraged to make artwork, including stone carvings. The works were in turn sold in the “San Shop” with the lion’s share of the proceeds going back to the artist-patients and a small percentage paid to the hospital to purchase additional materials and tools to keep the program going.

This present Alert Otter, carved from the distinctive steatite quarried for the Sanatorium, is a charming depiction that captures the essential form of the creature.  The treatment of the work by this unidentified artist is precise in its simplicity and the subject of the otter is so closely captured within the carved stone that even the veins work to suggest the glistening fur of the animal.

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1. While the evacuation was well-intentioned and medically necessary, the often abrupt relocation of these affected patients caused obvious trauma and hardship. James Houston related a moving account in his 1995 book Confessions of an Igloo Dweller, entitled "A Family Divided" (pp. 118-20).