Introduction-E

Did you have any children from your first wife?
Pauloosie: Yes, but they have almost all died. Only Siimi Ammaalik, my youngest one
with Aittainnaq, is still alive. He is now my only son. He was our youngest.
How many children did you have with this woman?
Pauloosie: Siimi, Jaipiti, Aami, Saimu. There were four of them. They were all sons.
Aittainnaq suffocated our first daughter shortly after her birth.
She hadn’t been given a name yet?
Pauloosie: Yes, even before she was able to get a name. That is, I don’t even know if she
was ever given a name. It was not long afterwards that Aittainnaq suffocated her with
her breast, while she was feeding her while she was asleep. She had covered her with
her breast.
How did you get your first wife? Was it arranged from childhood?
Pauloosie: I did not have her as a future wife when I was a child. Viivi’s daughter was
my future wife as a child. Somebody else married her around the time I was able to take
a wife. Aittainnaq was the adopted daughter of the older stepsister of the wife of my
adopted father, after whom I am named Ammaalik. My first wife had Arnaq as a real
mother. She too was adopted.
Who were you adopted by?
Pauloosie: I am Ammaalik by the person who adopted me. Aasivak was his wife, and
so she was my adoptive mother.
Did you grow up in Qikiqtan?
Pauloosie: Yes.
When you took a second wife, who was it?
Pauloosie: She too was Aittainnaq. I had two Aittainnaqs as wives.
Did you and she have children?
Pauloosie: I have an only daughter in Pangniqtuuq, Miali.
Life Stories – Pauloosie Angmarlik 95