Introduction-E

Lumaaju
As told to Tapea Keenainak by an elder
taakkua qaujimattiallarinngitakka, ilaak tariup inungaugaluaq
arnaq.
I do not really know them, only that it is the person of the sea, a woman.
uvagut uqausiagut imaak uqaqattaratta, aqqariaraangamiguuq
“lumaaq” taimannailivammata.
In our dialect we call her Lumaaju; when she is going under she makes the sound
“lumaaq.”
taakkua unikkaaqtuangugamik najagiik, anaanaqaqtutik, tainna
aninga tautungittuulauqsimalluni
This is a story about a brother, a sister and their mother; the brother was born blind.
upirngaanguliraangat timmiat qaqqsaullu tusaqtaugajuppammata
tappaani tasirmi.
Usually when spring arrives, you can hear the birds and the loons up there on the lake.
qaqqsaut tusaqsauqattalimmata tappaunngautijaugumammat
tainna tautunngittuq najaata tappikunngautilluniuk tasiuqtuniuk.
When the loons could be heard, the blind boy asked his sister to take him up to the lake,
so the sister held his hand on the way up.
takanna qaqqsaut takunnarnirarlugit tavvunga
qimaktaujumalluni tainna tautunngittuq.
The sister told him, “There are the loons,” and he told her that he wanted to be left alone.
najani uqautilluniuk tamanna angirraup miksinga ujarammi
nappaqsiqattarluni taununga qaujimajumammat,
inuksuliqtauqullugu, taimaak qimattuniuk.
Before she left, he asked her to put up rocks on her way home, a trail of inkusut so that
he would know the way to go home, and that she would leave him alone.
Stories – Lumaaju 201