UVAJUQ
UVAJUQ
THE ORIGIN OF DEATH
Illustrated by
Elsie Anaginak Klengenberg
© 1999 Kitikmeot Heritage Society
Published by the Kitikmeot Heritage Society
PO Box 1062, Cambridge Bay, Nunavut XOE OCO
Distributed by Betelgeuse Books
Suite 193, F24-122 Saint Patrick St., Toronto, ON M5T 2X8
Except for names of people still living at the time of publication, all of the Inuinnaqtun words used in this book are spelled in accordance with the standardized writing system newly adopted throughout Nunavut.
Cover: Detail of Elsie Klengenberg’s print (p.23)
Frontispiece: Uvajuq (Mount Pelly) from the south
Photo & illustration credits:
All of Elsie Klengenberg’s stencil prints reproduced in this volume were photographed by Ernie Mayer at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Angulalik Collection: pp.64, 68; Phillip E. Allen: p.67; Kim Crockatt: p.56; Kathy Mills: p.72; Vic Pelletier/Benny Caron: pp.80, 83; David F. Pelly: frontispiece, back cover, pp.10, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 76; Andrew Stewart p.79; Mark Wilson/Wildshot: p.54; Edmonton Air Museum Committee/NWT Archives: p.66; Rowan/NWT Archives: p.73; Wilkinson/NWT Archives: pp.74, 75
Funding to support the artist’s work, the Society’s work on this project, and in part the publication of this book has been generously provided by the Northwest Territories Department of Resources, Wildlife, and Economic Development, the Northwest Territories Department of Education, Culture and Employment, the Northwest Territories Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, the Kitikmeot Economic Development Commission, Kitikmeot Corporation, the Hamlet of Cambridge Bay, and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated. The Kitikmeot Heritage Society is grateful for this ongoing support.
Printed in Canada
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Main entry under title
Uvajuq : the origin of death
“A Kitikmeot Heritage Society Publication.” Legend in English and Inuinnaqtun; other material in English. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN: 0-9690783-8-2
1. Inuit — Nunavut — Cambridge Bay — Folklore. 2. Inuit — Folklore. 3. Inuit — Nunavut — History. I. Pelly, David F. (David Fraser), 1948-. II. Crockatt, Kim, 1960-. III. Klengenberg, Elsie Anaginak, 1946-. IV. Kitikmeot Heritage Society.
E99.E7U92 1999
398.2’09719’2
C99-931000-3
Contents
Acknowledgements
A Legend of the People
The People
How the People Lived
The People Meet the Newcomers
Myth & Reality
Elsie Anaginak Klengenberg
MAPS
Kiilliniq
Iqaluktuuttiaq
Uvajuq
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Kitikmeot Heritage Society and the volume editors wish first to acknowledge both the group of elders (p.57) who remembered and recounted the story of Uvajuq, and Elsie Klengenberg’s magnificent rendering of the story, out of her imagination onto paper in the form of these striking prints. Without these dedicated individuals, there would be no book, and soon there would have been no memory of this important story.
Many people have supported and worked on the project, as part of the Society’s effort to ensure the preservation of this legend, including Martha Angulalik, Emily Angulalik, Doug Stern, Mary Kaosoni, James Panioyak and Marion Glawson. To them and others, thanks.
Elisabeth Hadlari encouraged the artist in the process of translating story into image, and advised the Society on all artistic aspects of the project.
Glenna Munro and Kathy Mills were generous with their time, patience, skill and creativity in helping to turn the vision into a tangible book.
Martha Angulalik, Margo Kadlun and Mary Kaosoni all worked on the translation of the legend. These three, together with Attima Hadlari, Gwen Ohokak and elder Frank Analok, provided guidance on the correct, modern, standardized way of spelling Inuinnaqtun words found in the text. We appreciate and applaud their efforts to protect, preserve and promote their language. Thanks also to the Nunavut Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth.
The 1996 archaeological survey of Mount Pelly, which uncovered the remarkable cache, was directed by Dr Andrew Stewart and assisted by Bert Maksagak and by Richard Epelon, who deserves credit for actually spotting the nearly invisible cache.
Darlene Wight, Curator of Inuit Art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, has enthusiastically supported the project from the first moment she learned of it. The Kitikmeot Heritage Society is grateful for the public celebration of the prints, and the legend they depict, through the WAG exhibition from 9 October 1999 to 9 January 2000.
The stencil prints were photographed by Ernie Mayer at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
The base maps were produced and donated by the Nunavut Planning Commission, through the efforts of Luke Coady. The final maps were produced by Andrew Stewart and Kathy Mills.
The epigraph facing this page, quoted from Naalungiaq, was originally documented in Knud Rasmussen’s 1931 Volume 8 of Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24, entitled The Netsilik Eskimos: Social Life and Spiritual Culture.
And still,
both people and animals lived on earth,
but there was no difference between them. . . .
A person could become an animal,
and an animal could become a human being.
There were wolves, bears, and foxes
but as soon as they turned into humans
they were all the same.
They may have had different habits,
but all spoke the same tongue,
lived in the same kind of houses,
and spoke and hunted in the same way.
That is the way they lived here on earth
in the very earliest times,
times that no one can understand now.
That was the time when magic words were made.
A word spoken by chance would suddenly
become powerful, and what people wanted
to happen could happen, and nobody
could explain how it was.
Naalungiaq
1923
KIILLINIQ: The legend of Uvajuq has been told for generations by the people of Kiilliniq and the Arctic coast to the south.
IQALUKTUUTTIAQ: The hill known as Uvajuq (Mount Pelly) rises out of the rolling tundra near Cambridge Bay.
A Legend of the People
Inuinnaqtun version
edited by Margo Kadlun
A long time ago, according to Inuit legend, the people who lived across the North were giants, and they lived forever.
This is a story, initially, about those people. The story of Uvajuq (oova-yook) has been told for generations in the western Arctic, in part to explain the existence of three prominent hills rising out of a generally flat landscape surrounding Iqaluktuuttiaq, near the present location of the hamlet of Cambridge Bay. But as with many old Inuit stories, it has much deeper significance than just that.
The story is rooted in a time when people and animals lived in such harmony and unity that they could speak to each other. When it suited them, hunters could turn themselves into animals. Their mutual understanding was profound. For Inuit, this idyllic existence a long time ago came to an abrupt end.
Taimaniraaluk,
inuit huirungnaitillugit, inukpak nuliariik irnillak,
nunaqaqhimajut Kiillin’ngup tunun’ngani.
A long time ago,
when people lived forever, there was a family of giants
who lived on the north side of Kiilliniq.
Tariuqhiujuktut,
angijut inuit, niqitua
lgit angijunik imarmiutanik:
arvinik, ugjunik, aivirniglu.
They were people of the sea,
these giants, accustomed to eating large sea mammals:
bowhead whales, bearded seals and walrus.
Tujami, niqikhailliuqhutik
pihugumaliqqut hivuqqamut, nunap akiagut,
hivuliqtiqaqhutik Uvajurmik.
One summer, when food became scarce,
they decided to walk south, across the island,
led by a man named Uvajuq.
Inukpaugamik,
imakkuurniq ajunngitaan.
Nalukaphukhugit tattit angijuugaluit.
They were giants,
so crossing the water that lay in their path was easy.
They could simply wade through even the largest lakes.
Pihugaaqpakhutik,
kaaliqpallialiqqut,
niqinnarijamingnik nalvaalairamik.
They wandered,
getting hungrier and hungrier as they went,
for they could find no food that suited them.
Tuktunik takuvakkaluaqhutik,
kihimi, angijuugamik, tuktut mikigijait—avin’ngatut
mikitigijut—nirijaakhamingnik ihumagijuitait.
They saw caribou, of course, but to them,
as giants, the caribou appeared so small—like lemmings
to us today—that it never occurred to the giants
to eat the tiny caribou.
Pihugaaqpakhutik, niqailliuqhutik,
Amaaqtuq, arnalluaq,
hakuiqtuq hivumuuriaminik.
Eventually, as they wandered about from
place to place without food,
Amaaqtuq, the mother of the family,
became too weak to continue.
Kaangnirmit nautkutivuq.
She finally collapsed from hunger.
Angut, Uvajuq,
irninilu, pihukhimmaaqtuk.
The father, Uvajuq,
and the son, went on a little farther.
Irnia nautkutivuq
angut pihiqqaiqhuni pihukhimmaaqtillugu.
Then the son collapsed as the father struggled on.
Angullu nautkutivuq, nivrallaqhuni kiinaa
nunamunngaqhuni, niaqua hivuqqamun hanmipluni.
Finally the father also collapsed, falling face down
on the ground, head pointed to the south.
Tuquttuk nivrallarvimingni, aqiaruaramik.
They died where they lay, of starvation.
Qakunngurmat,
timait hauvut, nuna nauvalliapluni,
qaangillu ujaranikpalliavut, kingiktutuanguvut
naunaittut ungahiktumit takukhaujutuan tahapkua,
nuna manikkami. Qiniqhiattiaruvit, takuhunngujatit
tulimaangit naunaittut.
Over time,
their bodies were covered by soil and rocks,
and they remain evident today as the only
hills for miles around in the otherwise flat land.
If you look carefully, you can still see
some of their ribs showing through the hillsides.
Nautkutigami, Uvajum nakahua qagarami,
immautivuq talva Qikiqtaqtuurlu tattivaluillu itput
hivuraani kingiktum.
Not long after he collapsed, Uvajuq’s bladder burst,
and the liquid ran out to form Qikiqtaqtuuq
and other small lakes on the southwest side of the hill.
Uvajuq’s family was the first to perish. In fact, among Inuit of the Kiilliniq area and the coastal region to the south, this is the explanation of the origin of death. People no longer lived forever. The old way of life, of communing with the animals and knowing one could eternally rely upon them for sustenance, ended abruptly. For Inuit living around Kiilliniq, the cycle of life and death began. And life became much more difficult for many. For some, there were even times of starvation. New ways of survival had to be found.
Inuillu aallat nunaqatigiit iqalukhiurviliaqtut
tahirmut atilingmik Aariarmik.
Other Inuit in the same country
went to a fishing lake named Aariaq.
Talvani,
inuaqhutik niriliqhutik inuaqtamingnik.
There,
desperate with hunger,
they killed and ate each other.
Talvuuna, tuquraliqqut.
In this way, they all died.
Qatanngutigiinik inuqaqtuq tahirmi,
Iqaluktuuttiami, qanilrumi, ajuittuq anguniajuktuq
pitiktaaqhuni tuulliktuq.
But there were some other families at another lake,
Iqaluktuuttiaq, a short distance away,
where one highly skilled hunter
managed to shoot a loon with his bow and arrows.
Una tuullik avguqtauttiaqhuni
tuniqhaktaujuq inungnut Iqaluktuuttiami,
kihimi inugiakpallarami
taamna tingmiaq avguqtauvaktuq navruaqhugu
inuit tamatkirahuaqhugit mikijuugaluamik.
This loon was divided up
amongst the people at Iqaluktuuttiaq,
but so many were they
that the bird had to be cut at every joint
in order that everyone might receive a tiny morsel.
Talvuuna aqiaruaqtailivut.
It was enough, however, that it saved their lives.
The yellow-billed loon (tuullik) nests beside Qikiqtaqtuuq and other small lakes near Uvajuq.
This part of the legend contrasts the fate of some, who quarrelled among themselves, with others who shared. Taken as a whole, this allegorical story reflects a deeply held belief that in order to survive, Inuit were obliged to co-operate with each other, to share in the broadest sense, and to respect the animals that allowed them to survive. An element of that respect required that they make use of the entire animal, share its meat among all those in camp, and even at times discard the bones in a respectful manner. For Inuit, humans and animals were traditionally equal partners in the natural system. The last people who truly lived by this ethic, out on the land, are the elders still alive in Cambridge Bay today, many of whom remembered hearing this story in their youth.
This legend has been passed down through generations of Inuit living in Kiilliniq (Victoria Island) and on the mainland to the south. As oral history does, it has no doubt evolved over the years. The earliest recorded version of the tale can be found in Diamond Jenness’ Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913-18. The story was told to Jenness by Ilattiaq, who lived in the Bathurst Inlet area at the time. In recent years, elders in Cambridge Bay recorded their versions of the story. The legend, as it appears in this book, is the compilation of all these sources.
Frank Analok, Marjorie Taptoona, Jenny Analok, Mabel Angulalik, Bessie Emingak
The People
Kiilliniq, meaning “the farthest out to sea,” is the name in Inuinnaqtun for Victoria Island. It is the second largest island in Canada’s Arctic archipelago, with approximately the same surface area as Great Britain. There were several groups of Inuit on the island, prior to the move into communities. Closest to the townsite of Cambridge Bay and the mountain known as Uvajuq were the Iqaluktuuttiarmiut, named after their spring/summer camp area. Other groups were centred at Starvation Cove, Finlayson Islands, and Wellington Bay to the west; Albert Edward Bay and Jenny Lind Island to the east; and at Melbourne Island and Kent Peninsula to the south. Undoubtedly, all of them were familiar with the legend of Uvajuq. In Cambridge Bay in the late 1990s, there were five elders who had recollections of the Uvajuq story.
FRANK ANALOK is the only surviving elder in Cambridge Bay considered to be originally from Victoria Island. He was born 20 km south of where the town is today, at Ikpikjuaq (meaning “huge cliff,” near Cape Colborne), in about 1918. Most of his youth, however, was spent around the Wellington Bay area, west of Cambridge Bay. There, his family lived the typical seasonal cycle of Kiillinirmiut (Victoria Island Inuit). As an adult, he moved into Cambridge
Bay. He has vivid recollections of hearing the Uvajuq story in his youth.
MOSES KOIHOK moved to Cambridge Bay in 1959 from the Bathurst Inlet area. He believes the campsites around Iqaluktuuttiaq are very old, probably several hundred years, from long before his time. He thinks there must be implements (ulus, knives, arrowheads, spear tips) made of tigurnarniq, a reddish rock, to be found there. That stone was used by his parents to make tools. He recalls that in 1959, there were far fewer caribou migrating across from the mainland to Kiilliniq in the spring.
ANNIE KAOSONI (Aligurnaaluk) is from the Perry River area. Nevertheless, she knew the legend of Uvajuq in detail. Having moved to Cambridge Bay in 1952 with her husband Mackie and their family, they often went out to the area of Iqaluktuuttiaq for fishing, especially through the ice in springtime. She offered detailed explanations of meat preparation, and of how dried meat, fish, and belongings were stored.
MACKIE KAOSONI was born atKangirjuaq, near Holman Island, but moved with his family to Cambridge Bay and on down to Perry River, when he was too young to remember. He considers himself to be from Perry River. But his father, Matummiaq, used to talk about hunting and fishing on Kiilliniq, particularly in the area oflqaluktuuttiaq, and of travelling inland for caribou. Kaosoni talked of the seasonal hunting cycle followed by his grandfather and other Kiillinirmiut at the time. In 1952, Kaosoni, his wife and their children moved to Cambridge Bay from Perry River because the trading post there was closing.
MABEL ANGULALIK (Ekvanna) is from Gjoa Haven and Perry Island, but her late husband Angulalik’s ancestors—his parents and grandparents—were from Kiilliniq. Illiviujaq, his grandfather, used to talk of living around the Iqaluktuuttiaq area in the late 19th century, and particularly of a good caribou hunting place to the north. After Ekvanna and Angulalik moved to Cambridge Bay in the late 1960s, they often fished at Kingmitquq (“heel”), the lake at the north end of the hill formed by Uvajuq, near where the river runs out to the lake known today as Iqaluktuuttiaq. At the time, she says, many people camped and fished at the lakes all around the area, especially in the springtime when conditions were right for jigging through the ice.
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