C Ihe Ladies c cu. V'VVAN - History and Classics, Department of

Notes to Pages 62-63 263porpoise or of a sperm-whale, the pursuit in a kayak, thecasting of the harpoon, the cetacean's writhings of pain, andhis spurtings of blood-tinted water. (Savoie I,I93)Depending upon how widespread the particular melody of thechanting was among Inuit groups, the tune heard by Vyvyanmight have been the one recorded in Alaska by CharlesHoffman as "Song of the Seal" (23); another possibility mightbe that Ikagena enacted in dance the story of "The Man with aScourge of Bearded-Sealskin," which Knud Rasmussenrecorded in I924 (Ostermann I30-32). "The Drum Dance"offers a salutary brief description of the drum dance, of whichthe seal dance is one example (O'Connell).cotton dresses or fur-lined parkas with hoods ... One oldIIlan wore two labrets in his lower lipAlaskan Inupiat cultural practices, including clothing styles,came to the Inuvialuit of the Mackenzie Delta with the whalingtrade in the late-nineteenth century. Generally, it had beentraditionally the case that "the man's parka served as ametaphoric reference to the animal and to the man's role ashunter; the woman's parka, with its characteristic pouch (amaut) ,in which the wearer carried her infant, symbolized the maternalrole of the woman" (Driscoll 176). On the new style of parka,made from caribou, "the hood was trimmed with wolverineinstead of white caribou fur. The white insets on the side of thehood were smaller than on the old style. The white chest panelswere replaced with tusk-like white-haired sections sewn on eachside of the centre front. ... These pieces are symbolic of walrustusks. Walruses are honored for their strength and aggressivebehavior. The new parka's hemline was about mid-thigh length.Instead of being cut straight across, the hem curved upwards atthe hips. An authentic tail of the caribou was attached to thebacks of parkas; ... parkas were often trimmed with whitecaribou hair or wolverine" (Oakes and Pointe 102). While acolour illustration of the full man's outfit that Vyvyan likely sawis reproduced in Driscoll (180), it is noteworthy that Vyvyan'sphotographs of the interpreter, Billie Kemaksina, and of anunidentified woman at Aklavik show, respectively, shorter andlonger versions of this design (see above, 59,62). The exaggerated"sunburst" effect of the trim around the hood of the parkaseems to have been a later development (Oakes 8).As to the cotton seen by Vyvyan on garments, Oakes andPointe note that "the Alaskan Inupiat through traders obtainedbrightly colored fabric which was used to make a cloth shell for askin parka. This style is currently known as the 'MotherHubbard'. The Delta Inuvialuit, due to their interaction withthe Alaskan Inupiat, were introduced to this colorful parkashell .... One way of displaying economic status [as a successfultrapper] was to make the Mother Hubbard several inches longerthan the skin outer parka. When wearing the outer parka, thefabric inner parka was visible designating one's ability to obtaintrade goods" (102). Versions of these cotton garments apparentlyare represented in Dorrien Smith's watercolour sketch ofInuit outside a summer tent residence (see above, 196), and aphotograph by Vyvyan appears in Arctic Adventure. One account ofthe inter-racial contact that issued in this fashion occurs inPursuing the Whale, about the winter of 1900-01, which Capt JohnCook and his wife, "the first and only white woman to winter asfar north and east" (221). spent in the Bowhead. an Americanwhaler, off Baillie Island. north -east of the Mackenzie Delta,As winter advanced. the Eskimo women became moreacquainted with Mrs Cook and used to come aboard askingher to teach them how to sew calico. or cloth, for they callall cloth "calico," and they in turn would teach Mrs Cook tosew skins and furs, to make rugs and clothing. Althoughthey quickly acquired the art of sewing clothing, Mrs Cookcould not seem to stitch furs equal to them; and when hersewing of furs was examined by them, how they would laugh!(221)Labrets are "buttons made of ivory worn as ornaments andinserted into cuts in the lower lip on either side of the mouth,"but Archibald Fleming goes on from this description (294) tosuggest that they were uncommon at Bernard Harbour by1928, so it is perhaps not surprising that Vyvyan noticed thatan "old" man wore them; in his book the next year. Rasmussenmade the same observation (Across facing 292). EthnographerDerek Smith explains that, among Inuvialuit, "paired cheeklabrets were worn by men after puberty. These were usuallymade of polished stone or ivory, and in late times were ornamentedwith blue glass bead insets" (252).one old wOIllan who, as I learned later, was reputed to be awife of the explorer StefanssonAccording to Georgina Stefansson, who was a fifth-gradestudent at Inuvik Federal School in 1961. this woman was