Introduction-E

Stories
Introduction
This chapter contains several stories that have been passed down by Inuit from one
generation to another. Besides the stories which I collected, the chapter also
contains the story of the Earth eggs told to Marie Lucie Uvilluq by her father
George Agiaq Kappianaq, the story of Taliillajuut told to Maaki Kakkik by her
grandmother, Miali Tuttu, and Lumaaju told to Tapia Keenainak by an elder. The
students’ stories were collected in the first year of our collaboration with Jarich Oosten
from the University of Leiden, the Netherlands.
The following are some of the many stories that I heard numerous times from my
father as a child before I went off to the hospital in Montreal at the age of six. My mother
would also tell us stories when my father was gone for an extended period of time and
though they were the same ones that my father told they never had the same flavour.
My father Michel Kupaaq Piugattuk E5-456 (1925-1996) was raised by his
grandparents Augustine Ittuksaarjuat and Monica Ataguttaaluk. He learned the stories
that he told to his own children as a child from his grandfather.
Even though I received these stories from my father the retelling is coloured by
many influences. My father’s stories were recorded by Bernard Saladin D’Anglure and
transcribed by my late sister Elise Qunngaatalluriktuq and her husband Joe
Attagutaluk. Those unaltered forms might be available through the department of
anthropology at Laval University.
I first wrote these stories out to satisfy a course requirement while working on my
Bachelor of Education degree; that was the deciding factor in the selection of these
particular stories and was hence the first influence . The second influence is that I am an
Inuktitut language teacher; that influences any retelling that I do. The third influence
that shows up in my retellings is that although I am an Inuktitut language teacher and
know the mechanics of the language almost impeccably I am not what in Inuktitut is
considered to be an “uqamminiq” someone who is linguistically nimble; therefore except
for the “direct speech” the language is mine.
When I was putting together “Aningagiik” I finally realized that all those snippets
of stories of Aningagiik that I had heard were sagas of the same brother and sister pair
and therefore put it together as I did. My father told me when I was compiling these
stories that he had heard that the whale hunting took place from the shores of
Niaqunnguu (Apex in Iqaluit) and that when the story finally came to Iglulik some of
the singing of “lumaaju” was lost.
I wrote “Iglu” in the manner that I did because that was how the telling of that
particular legend came about. In the earlier days the telling of stories occurred more
Stories – Introduction 151