Introduction-E

Can you tell us a story of anngiaqaqtuviniq, having something
undisclosed? 4
Paniaq: I will tell a story about the hunters of the camp who caught walrus. The hunters
came back with their catch. One of the hunters’ wives went to help her husband when
he arrived as he didn’t really have anyone to help him when he was trying to go up a
slope. She was pregnant at this time and when she was helping him carry the meat she
felt something come out between her legs. She thought she had started menstruating so
she went behind the tent to urinate and she passed a very small but fully-formed
stillborn child. She put the dead child on a flat stone, and she was about to go tell her
husband about it but she got scared and changed her mind. They had flat stones they
used for a bed platform and there was gravel beneath it so she dug a small hole and put
the dead child there and buried it. Once she had done that she went back to her husband
to help him with the work. Then hunger came to the camp and there were no animals
around. The hunters even gave up looking for animals and just stayed around the camp.
Even people in other camps were experiencing the same thing. There was a young adult
shaman in another camp who was starting to ask questions about why they were going
hungry. Once he found out why, he went in his qajaq to the camp where the woman was.
The couple had moved their tents away from the main camp as the husband wanted to
be in a quiet place. The shaman had the people gather from the main camp and he
started asking them what they thought could be the reason that they were struggling.
The people started talking about possible reasons and they all admitted all the wrongs
they had done. When he was finished with them, he went to the couple’s tent, and the
couple were older now. He said to the woman, “You are the reason why we are going
through hard times. You hid a dead baby under your bed platform and you buried it.”
Her husband picked up a knife as he was quite depressed from losing a child. He took
his wife by the shoulder and slapped her. She admitted that she had been scared to tell
him the truth as he was the type who was abusive. She then told the story of what
happened, that she was helping him when he returned from hunting and she felt
something come out and she delivered a very small stillborn baby. She was scared to tell
her husband so she buried the baby instead. She said she had nothing more to say. The
shaman returned to the other camp members and made them go through confessions
again. When he finished, he left as he had arrived, by qajaq. After his departure, they
could hear ice creaking throughout the night, and they could hardly wait for daylight.
Next day, sure enough, there was this big sheet of ice with an abundance of walrus. The
walrus were bellowing and the hunters got their catch that day and they didn’t go
hungry again after that.
58 Introduction to the Oral Traditions