The past 10 days have been an education that you couldn’t buy. I have learned more about the traditions, history and ways of the Inuit culture. This afternoon, while going through town, snow machines lead wooden sleds (known as a kamotik) piled with the caribou carcasses on them. Out in the bay you could see more headlights of the snow machines bobbing and weaving as they slowly worked their way back to town. By nightfall, about 3:30 p.m., there were even more parked along the bay shore.
Apparently, there is a herd just about 10 miles out from town and the hunters have been out there so that there is fresh meat for their families. One fellow Friday sat in my waiting room and told me he got three this week. Everyone in town seems to enjoy going out on the land. You can see it in their eyes when they look out the windows onto the great beyond.
Yesterday I saw a few cabins that they travel to and stay in out on the tundra. The Inuks, and the white as well, talk about how beautiful this land can be with the wild flowers are bursting forth their colours. Using quads (also practical for the snow on the roads here in town) they go to their cabins. Family events include camping, fishing and picking the fresh berries, those small blueberries not the big ones that have no flavour.
While talking about the local fishing here, I asked how big are the char…5 pounds? The reply was “we go fishing…we don’t go fishing for minnows!” They talked about lake trout that were huge…and I believed them. They use gill nets with floats and they told me that as you work your way along the net, you see the float lower in the water. You expect fish to be in the net.
During the winter there is hunting. One of the drivers at the centre has told me that she and her brothers go out every weekend. Everything from wolverines, arctic hare, arctic fox …her list went on. I have met some of the elders from town this week at the centre. Some still enjoy going out but most now are content to let the others do their hunting for them.
The ways of the past are only some of the future. The skills and knowledge these elders possess about the land, the weather, the animals and fish and how they interact is unsurpassed. The younger crowd listens with intent. If they don’t, once the elders have passed, that knowledge, will surely be gone as well. This they know.
The Inuktitut language is very interesting as it is an ancient language. I asked if there was a word for log since trees do not grow here. There is, in fact. Being nomads and travelling further south, they would find trees. I then asked about the Inuit or Inuktitut word that would be used for computer and internet. It was then I was told an interesting story about the language and the thinking of the Inuit people. Since using the computer and the internet is an extension of using your mind, it has been accepted that is the way the wording would be. I’m sure it looses in the translation but it gets the idea across.
Apparently, there is a herd just about 10 miles out from town and the hunters have been out there so that there is fresh meat for their families. One fellow Friday sat in my waiting room and told me he got three this week. Everyone in town seems to enjoy going out on the land. You can see it in their eyes when they look out the windows onto the great beyond.
Yesterday I saw a few cabins that they travel to and stay in out on the tundra. The Inuks, and the white as well, talk about how beautiful this land can be with the wild flowers are bursting forth their colours. Using quads (also practical for the snow on the roads here in town) they go to their cabins. Family events include camping, fishing and picking the fresh berries, those small blueberries not the big ones that have no flavour.
While talking about the local fishing here, I asked how big are the char…5 pounds? The reply was “we go fishing…we don’t go fishing for minnows!” They talked about lake trout that were huge…and I believed them. They use gill nets with floats and they told me that as you work your way along the net, you see the float lower in the water. You expect fish to be in the net.
During the winter there is hunting. One of the drivers at the centre has told me that she and her brothers go out every weekend. Everything from wolverines, arctic hare, arctic fox …her list went on. I have met some of the elders from town this week at the centre. Some still enjoy going out but most now are content to let the others do their hunting for them.
The ways of the past are only some of the future. The skills and knowledge these elders possess about the land, the weather, the animals and fish and how they interact is unsurpassed. The younger crowd listens with intent. If they don’t, once the elders have passed, that knowledge, will surely be gone as well. This they know.
The Inuktitut language is very interesting as it is an ancient language. I asked if there was a word for log since trees do not grow here. There is, in fact. Being nomads and travelling further south, they would find trees. I then asked about the Inuit or Inuktitut word that would be used for computer and internet. It was then I was told an interesting story about the language and the thinking of the Inuit people. Since using the computer and the internet is an extension of using your mind, it has been accepted that is the way the wording would be. I’m sure it looses in the translation but it gets the idea across.
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