Introduction-E
Introduction-E
Introduction-E
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wasn’t a hunter anymore. The men started talking amongst themselves. One said, “Let’s<br />
see how the man who used to be alert reacts.” One of them went around, approached<br />
the man, going towards him from a distance and from behind. Pretending to go get him<br />
at a very slow pace, while he was nodding and napping. He was still very alert. Even<br />
though the man approached him quietly, sure enough, he glanced at him right away. If<br />
we strive to be a person like that, we can be like that too.<br />
He was from Mittimatalik, the Tununiq area?<br />
Elisapee: Yes, he was from the Tununiq area, around Iglulik. That’s the area where he<br />
used to travel.<br />
I’m going to move on to something else, to the months of the year. I have<br />
heard there was some great singing to celebrate the return of the sun.<br />
Can you tell me the story behind the song?<br />
Elisapee: Yes. There’s no specific time for the song. During the summer, the seal and the<br />
bearded seal were cached if there was an abundance, even if it was far from the main<br />
camp. When you go hungry, you have no one to turn to, to let them know you are<br />
hungry. The distance to the cache is no barrier in times of hunger. The weather does not<br />
always cooperate either, for hunters to hunt daily. If they did not have caches, they<br />
would wonder if they would starve, even though they were constantly hunting for seals<br />
under the ice. Right now the dark season is coming to our land. The sky is getting<br />
darker. November, December and January are dark months. Sickness comes at this time.<br />
When you are recovering from an illness, the sun starts to come back. You know it’s a<br />
new season again, even though nothing is written. They probably used their fingers to<br />
count the months and used the stars to identify what season it was. You can see them<br />
shining out there and eventually they disappear. Two stars that are like this<br />
[demonstrating], akuttujuuk. When they start disappearing, you know that the days are<br />
getting longer. One is no longer ill, the stars are disappearing at longer intervals, and<br />
you know that daylight is returning.<br />
So the two stars are called Akuttujuuk?<br />
Elisapee: Yes, that term means that they have a certain distance between them. They<br />
look like this [demonstrating]. We can see them in our home community when the daylight<br />
arrives. So once the signs of daylight arrived, my grandfather made the song.<br />
Life Stories – Elisapee Ootoova 29