He spent his career documenting collective trauma. Grassy Narrows was one of his toughest cases
as it happens6:32Remembering the sociologist who documented mass trauma, including Grassy Narrows
Kai T. Erickson, the Yale sociologist who devoted his career to documenting the collective trauma faced by communities in the wake of unimaginable disasters, has died at the age of 94.
A pioneer in the study of collective trauma, his work helped highlight how tragic events destroy communal life and affect people for generations to come, This also includes the devastating effects of mercury poisoning on First Nations in Canada.
Chris Vacci, one of Erickson’s colleagues, reported, “He had real humility. He certainly knew that he was not the one who was suffering; he was the one watching the suffering.” as it happens Host Nil Koksal.
“He was someone who wanted to do good and he brought that kind of goodness to people. People wanted to respond to him because they saw how genuine he was.”
Erickson, professor emeritus at Yale University, died in a hospital in Hamden, Connecticut, on November 10 after a long illness. The university announced. He was 94 years old.
work in grassy narrows
Erickson would visit communities that were devastated by industrial pollution, oil spills, hurricanes, civil wars, and others, and talk at length to residents about how those events shaped their lives.
“Collective trauma works gradually into the awareness of those who suffer from it, so it does not have the quality of suddenness usually associated with ‘trauma’,” he wrote. Sociologist’s perspective: thoughts on social life, According to the New York Times,
“But it is nevertheless a form of shock, a gradual recognition that the community no longer exists as a source of support or solace.”
Decades after a paper mill spilled tons of mercury into the river system, Grassy Narrows First Nation in northern Ontario is getting a unique treatment center to help residents suffering from mercury poisoning — a problem the community has long been concerned about.
More than a neutral observer, he often advocated for the people of the communities he visited, preparing reports on their behalf and testifying in lawsuits against corporations responsible for traumatic events.
In 1979, He Was invited to Grassy Narrows First Nation in Ontario, also known as Asubpischosiwagong Netam Anishinaabek, where there was a nearby paper mill tons of mercury spilled into the river system During the 60’s and 70’s.
The First Nation was to mediate with the provincial and federal government, Then-premier Simon Fobister wanted to commission an external expert document about the effects of mercury poisoning on the community.
Vacci – a professor of religion and Native American studies at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY – joined Erickson on that fact-finding mission.
Vesey said, “I expected to find a community that was somehow protected from the world. It was a place that was, you know, several miles from the nearest highway.”
“I hoped that kind of distance would protect them from the dangers that I knew there were toxicity in the water, but I didn’t expect it to be as devastating as we learned.”
Erickson was I was equally shaken by how many people had become ill, and by the sense of despair that prevailed in the community.
“I think anyone who went into that community at that time would conclude that it was in big trouble,” he told CBC Radio. ideas In 1983. “I will say that I have never seen more unhappy people than I did in Grassy Narrows when I went there.”
The river is still getting polluted
Vessey says his report did not have the impact he expected. almost five decades laterMercury crisis continues As is the community’s fight for justice, environmental cleanup, and advocacy.
Today, a guess 90 percent The population of Grassy Narrows has symptoms of mercury poisoning, which can cause many problems. Tremors, insomnia, memory loss, neuromuscular effects, headache, and cognitive and motor dysfunction.
Additionally, a study released in the spring by the University of Western Ontario, London, shows The pollution situation is getting worse due to ongoing industrial pollution. From The Dryden Paper Mill produces high levels of methylmercury – a compound even more toxic than mercury alone.
Dryden Fiber Canada, which owns the mill, declined to comment on the study.
CBC News has reached out to community leaders in Grassy Narrows to find anyone who remembers Erickson. However, most of the residents with whom Vessie worked have died.
A study published in Lancet in 2023 Mercury poisoning was found to be the leading cause of untimely death in Grassy Narrows.
Chief Fobister, who spent his life fighting for justice for Grassy Narrows, Died in 2019 at the age of 63His family said at the time that his death was partly caused by the toxic effects of mercury poisoning,
During a 2013 interview on CBC Radio as it happensFobister described how mercury poisoning continued to affect Grassy Narrows for generations.
He said, “Our community is bankrupt. Our traditional economy is gone. Mercury has affected us, you know, emotionally and physically. Our people are getting sicker and we can’t live that way anymore.”
“When is this going to end?”
During his career, Erickson worked at Buffalo Creek, W. Documented the consequences of flooding in Virginia, the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, the nuclear reactor accident in Three Mile Island, PA, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and more.
Despite being so close to shock, Vessey says his late colleague was a “bon vivant” who loved life and lived it to the fullest.
He had a way of connecting with people, Vessey said. At Grassy Narrows, he says, the couple always felt welcome and maintained friendships over the decades with some of the residents they worked with, including Faubister.
Vessey said, “Kai Erickson was an urbane, elegant, but simple man. He looked you in the eyes, he drew you in.” “He was a genuine human being – caring, kind, attentive.”
