Introduction-E

Yes.
Elisapee: I would tag them fast. My oldest brother would hit me. It’s painful when you
are hit like this and punched like this, but I would abstain from crying so I could tease
again later. That was probably why I was told that I didn’t take things seriously, as I
tended to tease everybody. And when I learnt songs from our camp visitors, I would
sing them a lot. I guess that’s why people didn’t like me either. I was the type of person
that didn’t heed what I was told. We were often reminded that we weren’t supposed to
listen to conversations, but I was an expert listener. I’d pretend I wasn’t listening to
anything and here I was listening. Eventually I would be able to ask, “How come you
fear men; what will they do?” “Stop asking questions for a change,” would be the reply
I was given. It turns out I would be saying the same sort of thing later in my life.
It is difficult to touch someone on their flesh, it turned out. I knew my brother’s
biological father was a qallunaaq. I wasn’t aware of myself then, and I probably didn’t
see myself like that. I saw pictures of qallunaat, policeman and ministers, and they
would be smoking tobacco with a beautiful aroma. I asked my mother when I was quite
small, as I had heard that she had a qallunaaq for a husband, I asked her if the qallunaat
were good in bed. I was scolded then because I tried to find out a lot of information. My
mother should have just said, “Yes.” She should have said that they are good in bed if
they are clean.
They do not all smell good.
Elisapee: I think qallunaat smell good. I mean if they’re clean and they don’t have lice,
they must smell good.
Can you tell us how women had to be when they had to abstain
from something?
Elisapee: We have only heard of that. We did not experience it ourselves. As I said
earlier, my parents were baptized in 1936 and they took on the lifestyle that was
recommended. My mother did have to practice abstaining, as there were a lot of things
that women had to abstain from. The monthly period that women go through...it had to
be known when a woman had her period. She was not allowed to sit where men sit,
since a man is a hunter and goes after animals. I have written about this, but I myself
have only heard of it.
Apregnant lady had to follow certain practices, if she knew that she was pregnant
and if others were aware of it. She was felt around her abdominal area by an elder trying
to feel the foetus. They can be felt. There is something in there that wasn’t there before.
They tried to find out early, as a woman had to practice certain things if she was
pregnant. She was not allowed to eat raw meat, only boiled meat.
20 Introduction to the Oral Traditions