Amarualik Vera Arnatsiaq Igloolik, Nunavut Faculty Of

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MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 1

My Grandmother: Amarualik

Vera Arnatsiaq

Igloolik, Nunavut

Faculty of Education, University of Prince Edward Island

June 2, 2013

A final paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of

Master of Education, University of Prince Edward Island

PERMISSION TO USE FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT REPORT

Title of Signature Project: My Grandmother: Amarualik

Name of Author: Vera Arnatsiaq

Department: Faculty of Education

Degree: Master of Education Year: 2013

Name of Supervisor(s): Fiona Walton, Alexander McAuley, Shelley Tulloch

In presenting this final research project report in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Master of Education degree from the University of Prince Edward Island, the author has agreed that the Robertson Library, University of Prince Edward Island, may make this final research report freely available for inspection and gives permission to add an electronic version of the final research project report to the Digital Repository at the University of Prince Edward Island. Moreover the author further agrees that permission for extensive copying of this final research project report for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised the author’s project work, or, in their absence, by the Dean of the Faculty of Education. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this final research project report or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to the author and to the University of Prince Edward Island in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in the author’s report.

Signature: ______

MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 3

Abstract

This paper shares aspects of the life story of my grandmother Rachel Amarualik who lived in the Igloolik area of Nunavut Canada from May 9, 1930 until August 24, 2001. She was known as Amarualik and that is the primary name that is used throughout the paper. Amarualik was born on the land called Naujaarjuat, near Repulse Bay and was raised in the traditional, nomadic Inuit way. Amarualik’s mother died when she was about four years old, and she was raised by her father, Joannasie Uyarak, until he remarried. This paper shares stories told by

Rachel Amarualik to her granddaughter, Vera Arnatsiaq. It covers various periods in her life as a young girl on the land, as a teenager who was taken to Arctic Bay to marry a person she had not chosen herself, to life as a young woman and mother living in the community of Igloolik as it grew and developed. The paper contributes to the social history of Igloolik and benefits Rachel

Amarualik’s family by providing them with a recorded history told in her own words.

Keywords: Inuit, traditional, nomadic, social history, Igloolik, Amarualik

MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 4

Introduction

My research tells the story of Rachel Amarualik who was born on the land in 1930 and lived a nomadic life with her father after her mother had passed away when she was still being breast-fed. The family lived around the Arctic Bay and Igloolik areas throughout their lives.

Amarualik, as she was called, is my Grandmother. For many years I wanted to know how she had lived her life as a child because today childhood is so different from what it was in the past. I also wanted my children and grandchildren to understand what it was like in the past when people lived on the land and then in the community of Igloolik as it developed. I hoped this research would enable me to pass on some of our family history so it could help my children and family.

In 2001, I was in my first year as a Language Specialist teaching in the elementary school in Igloolik. I was fortunate to be able to choose my own professional development that year and decided I would audiotape stories that my grandmother might be willing to share with me. At that time I had taken no courses in research and did not even realise that by taping Amurualik’s stories I was in fact starting to create a family history. I knew enough to audio-record our conversations and was lucky enough to store the tapes in a safe place so that now, eleven years later, I am able to go back and transcribe the tapes in Inuktitut and then write up many of the stories included in this paper.

Amurualik died in 2001, soon after I had recorded our conversations, and she had entrusted me with a family history that I wanted to share. Choosing to transcribe, translate and then write these stories meant that I was conducting historical research, working on archival materials that were recorded for my own professional development. After reading the University of Prince Edward Island and Nunavut Research Centre ethical guidelines carefully, my MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 5 instructors and I were confident that I did not require ethical approval, and I started the arduous process of transcribing the conversations in Inuktitut and then starting to translate them into

English. After spending several days transcribing and then translating, I began to worry that I would be unable to complete this process within the time involved in one course because the transcribing and translation process was very time-consuming. I consulted with my instructor again, and we decided that the remainder of the stories could be listened to and translated straight into English. While this was not ideal, I knew the time limits had to be considered.

The second difficult decision I had to make was about the way the stories were told to me by my grandmother. There were times when the literal translation would make the stories hard to follow, inaccessible in some cases. I decided it was important to translate for the audience who would be reading or listening to the stories. Any changes I made are minimal, but I must accept responsibility for any errors made as I reworded some sections of Amarualik’s testimony. In order to differentiate between Amuarlik’s stories that are told in the first person, in her own voice, I have placed these stories in italics. The stories I have re-shaped use the third person to refer to Amarualik and are not in italics. The original tape recordings have now been digitized and carefully saved with back-up copies available for anyone who would like to listen to the original stories or go back to check on my translations. My family is willing to provide copies of the audiotapes, to the Igloolik Research Centre or any other agency interested in the research as long as they contact me directly. I believe I am also fortunate to have completed the Master of

Education research course that enabled me to finish up what I had started when I originally recorded my Grandmother’s stories.

I am so happy to be able to write Amurualik’s stories that she remembered as a child growing up with her father. From my transcription and translations, I have learned that children MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 6 in the past lived lives that were so very different from today’s children, even though it was only

73 years ago. Children lived a nomadic life travelling with their parents or guardians, while today children are going to school and living in a community where our modern lives provide them with so much to do that they are now spending less time with their parents and family members. Family life was very important for Inuit who lived on the land. The Inuktitut language was strong, and there was no English spoken at that time. Amarualik’s stories made me realize that we have to live life being proud of who we are as Inuit and that we need to continue passing on our ancestors’ life stories, to keep our family life strong and our language as strong as we can in our lifetime. I also learned that transcribing, listening, and writing takes a great deal of time.

Writing about a family member whom we all loved very dearly was psychologically hard, and it brought back many memories that are very precious to me now.

My Grandmother – Amarualik

My Grandmother’s name is Rachel Amarualik Kalliraq. She was born on May 9, 1930.

She had to choose a date for her birthday so she chose May ninth, but the Government record simply states that she was born in 1930. My Grandma’s mother’s name was Pairnguq and her father’s name was Joannasie Uyarak. I never got to meet my great-grandmother since she passed away when my grandmother was a child. I knew her father Joannasie and whenever my grandmother visited her father and his wife, I would follow her. I did not realize he was my grandmother’s father because she used to call him Irnikuluk, and I have forgotten what I used to call him since I was just a child.

The day I found out that Joannasie was actually my great-great-grandfather was the day he died on November 10, 1985. I regret not knowing that he was my great-great-grandfather until then because thinking about it makes me wonder that if I might have developed a different MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 7 relationship with him. I think I would have been closer to him and his family and learned so much more, as well.

My Grandma’s husband’s name was Pauloosie Kalliraq who was originally from Arctic

Bay. He passed away as a young man in September 28, 1965, way before I was born, so I never got to know him. Amarualik and Kalliraq named their first-born and only daughter, Annie Orulu.

Annie Orulu, who is my mother, married my Saki (father) named Maurice Kigutikkaarjuk. I am the oldest child of my siblings, and I have five brothers and three sisters. One brother was adopted in from my mother’s sister Susie, and we also have a sister who is our niece1 from my brother Mosha and his girlfriend Laura Ivalu.

After giving birth to Annie, my Grandma never gave birth again, but she adopted Moses from their close relative and later she adopted Susie. Susie was given to my Grandmother because she had a heart problem, and her family had to travel out on the land; she could not go with them. She was sent down south for care, and she stayed there for five years. After

Grandma’s husband died, she also adopted Charlie from her late husband’s brother, Kipsigaq, and Eunice Pittaaluk Piugattuq. To my surprise, I learned that Charlie was in foster-care seven times before Grandma took him and adopted him. When my uncle Moses married Iga Qaataniq they gave up their fourth child, Ryan, to my Grandmother. Since my Grandma could not pronounce his name she used to call him Angugaattiaq, after his Inuktitut namesake.

Who was my Grandmother?

As I was growing up, I knew my Grandma as a very special person. I loved her very much and loved to be with her at any time. I saw her as caring, happy, talkative and good-

1 Editor’s Note: Adoption within families or communities, called custom adoption, is a common traditional practice among Inuit in Nunavut. The example above, involves the writer’s adoptive sister who is also her biological niece. Terms such as “adopted out” or “adopted in” may be used to differentiate whether the child is leaving a family or joining a family. MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 8 humoured. As an Elder, she was a counsellor for married couples. When she talked she laughed easily, and her voice would change to a higher pitch when she was happy. When I was a child, I remember she was on social assistance, and I used to follow her when there was a line up for her cheque. Even though she was on social assistance, she tried to help other people who were without food. I did not know this until I got older when she started talking to us about trying to help other people in need. I remember that if she knew there was a family who did not have any food to eat she would let their children come to her place to feed them with what she had and then she would let them leave right away after feeding them. I think it was because she did not want the children to be bonded to her as there were times when parents did not like the idea of having an Elder feed their children, possibly a matter of pride, but I never really learned the reason. I remember so well that my grandmother always had bannock ready to eat, and there was dried caribou meat hanging from her porch. She was a nurturing presence in my life.

My Grandmother was a seamstress, and she was part of the Women’s Group for the

Anglican Church (Arnait Ikajuqtiuqataujut). The group would go to different places each week to sew. They sewed clothing that was warm for the winter months, and they would sell them at a very reasonable cost to community members. The money did not go back to them; it went to the church to help people in need. The group volunteered to make money for the people in need of food, or to cover shortages if people had to travel to another community if they had lost a member of the family.

I remember my grandmother had a best friend and her name was Raigili Pittaaluk. They both called each other Ulaiggiliuqati meaning ‘same name as mine,’ Rachel. Grandma and her best friend, Raigili, would start talking together in high pitch tones when they were being serious. She also had another best friend named Vivi Kunnuk, and when they were together they MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 9 were so happy. Listening to them, I loved when they would laugh and talk together about anything they wanted because they had known each other since they were children.

My Grandma had a tent close to her house. It was meant for her sewing time, and she always lit her qulliq while she was there. She never wanted me to play with the qulliq. I had to listen to her even though I really wanted to play with it, but I always liked watching her lighting it and dimming it as well.

Rachel Kalliraq never remarried after her husband died, even though there were men wanting to have her as a wife. She died on August 24, 2001, after she had a stroke. I admired my grandmother because she was special person for me. She was herself all the time. I interviewed her on March 7, 2001, the same year she passed away because I was interested in learning about my own history and community.

At that time, as a Language Specialist, I had no formal education in teaching. I would fall asleep at nine o’clock in the evening because teaching was so tiring for me and sleep straight through until eight o’clock the next the morning. There was little time to do anything except teach and look after myself and my family. At that time, I had not managed to finish the recording of the interviews because I did not have the experience or knowledge to work on it as a researcher, and my life was very busy. The remaining sections of this paper share some of the transcribed and translated stories from the audiotapes as they were told to me by Amarualik.

Amarualik’s Grandparents and Tattoos

Amarualik’s grandmother’s name was Oruluk and her new husband’s name was Palluq.

Amarualik remembers her grandmother having a facial tattoo (Tunniq), and she thought they were normal, because everyone had tattoos when she was a child. There were quite a few women with facial tattoos in Igloolik even when she was a child. Amarualik had even seen tattoos on MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 10 women’s knees, but had never seen anyone getting a tattoo. Amarualik said tattoos were completed when a young person had young skin without any wrinkles, and they were always beautiful.

Grandmother’s Words – “I was just a child when my mother died”

I remember we were in a tent in the wintertime and our exit path was open and I could see people outside. I think they wanted to get going, to move on travelling. My mother was still sleeping on the right side of the tent. This person told me “We will be packing now, wake up your mother.” I think I was four years old. So I was trying to wake her up, then that person told me again “Try shaking her harder and shout at her.” So I did what I was told to do. Because I was so small I was shoulder length to the bed when I was trying to wake her. Then this person shouted at me when I was trying to wake up my mother, “She is not breathing anymore, stop trying to wake her.” Then people started coming into our tent and when they started crying I don't remember what happened next.

Nomadic Life without my Mother

In the summertime, after my mother had passed away, we went hunting, and while hunting we would hunt for days and camp out on the land (Nunaqpak). My father’s younger brothers went with us; their names are Nasuk, Ivalaakuluk, and Piliqtuq. I used to call my father

Irnikuluk, so I remember my Irnikuluk was carrying me on his shoulders. I was lying on my tummy when they caught a duckling. The duckling would become my doll; that is what I used to do. I think my father was trying to let me have something to do, to be happy to have something to play with. Because they walked many hours, they put some kind of knapsack on one of the dogs and placed me in there and I fit perfectly. I rode on the dog, and because my Irnikuluk and his younger brothers were so busy talking I knew if there was an animal in sight that the dog would MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 11 carry me away from them. I was lucky that the dog stayed put with the men. Then Irnikuluk took me, and he carried me on his shoulder. Whenever I fell asleep, I would lie on my tummy. We would camp, but when we woke up we would start walking all over again and over again. There were times when the men left to hunt, and while they were gone women would talk and play.

There were three of us as children, and we would play with our toys and pretend.

The men would come back with caribou meat to eat. My Irnikuluk (father) was sleeping and when he was sleeping somebody said, “I think there`s a caribou in that direction of the land.” When Irnikuluk woke up he said he would be going caribou hunting to where they were talking about. When he came back he had caught the caribou that was healthy and fat. It felt like

Irnikuluk was listening while he was sleeping and felt like he was seeing into the future.

After travelling, we camped in with the Nasook family and Piliqtuq families who were in another tent. In the morning whenever my father woke up he would try to move slowly so he could get up without waking me, but I would get closer to him so that it was hard for him to get up. Because I did not have a mother I woke up to my father laughing and other people laughing because I was sucking on Irnikuluk`s (father’s) breast. This often happened because my mother died when I was still getting breast milk from her. I had a younger sister and because I was too small she was adopted to another family. Then we had another little brother, but I was still too small and maybe the baby was premature and the baby did not live long. When we were trying to sleep my Irnikuluk would give me a cup of water and tell me, “Try to sleep by slowly swallowing the water” and that is how I would fall asleep. If there were any caribou soup I would drink it slowly to fall asleep as well as if I was drinking milk from a mother.

Feeding the Dogs MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 12

It was Arctic fox hunting season, and my Irnikuluk and I went out on the land. We came back later to the camp after we caught enough Arctic Fox. Irnikuluk and I were out on the land for days, and we were alone all that time. When it was dog-feeding time, I was not doing anything because I was so young and very close to the dogs and my father. Because dogs were hungry they kept getting closer. Luckily, I was not bitten by the dogs. While we were travelling by dog team my father would see something far away. He would hold me up on his arms and try to let me see what is up ahead. When we had caught enough fox we would return to the camp, which was Naujaat (Repulse Bay). The women would start braiding my hair for a long time so that I would get tired of it, and the fox were worked on so they could dry the skin. As women braided my hair I would hear them talking to each other “Because her gene is from her mother’s side she will have a long hair.” In my heart I would think, “I hope they are so wrong.”

Moving to Igloolik from Naujaat

I think I was six years old when we lived near Naujaat. We had plenty of food to eat and what we ate was very good and tasty. Then we moved to Igloolik that year, and to my knowledge there was a scarcity of food so that I was never full anymore. In the wintertime, we lived in a sod house. I remember men catching an adult seal, and it tasted so good that I could not stop eating.

Sometimes, to my thinking, it smelled like store-bought food, because I kept continuing to eat, I almost kept falling asleep while I was still trying to eat.

Milking Caribou

One day in the summertime, before Amarualik’s father re-married, she and her father went out caribou hunting alone. They caught up with plenty of caribou and so her father went to shoot one, leaving his daughter behind but not so far away. Luckily he shot a female. He took MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 13 some milk from the caribou and told Amarualik, “When there is no more milk, try to look for more in another nipple.”

After Amarulik started drinking milk from the caribou, her father started walking away again to shoot more caribou. She thought that her father told her to take milk from the caribou while he went hunting because he did not want her to wander off where he would not find her again. Not once in the remainder of Amarualik’s childhood did she ever see her father with tears running down his face, but she was told that on this occasion, just that once, her father was crying because his child finally got some milk.

Irnikuluk’s New Wife

Near Igloolik, we lived in Avvajja, and I remember that around when I turned seven I started having an Anaanakuluk (step mother). Her name was Hannah Panikpakuttuk. I remember we were going to Igloolik to celebrate Christmas, and before we left my Anaanakuluk gave birth in Avvajja. When she and the child were cleaned, she put the newborn in her clothing.

We had to pack and get ready to leave. When we were ready, Anaanakuluk was trying to put her newborn in the amauti (to carry baby on her back). As she was trying to put her baby in the dogs started moving the qamuti, and she had to run to get on the qamuti even after giving birth. This is how they used to do it. They would just start travelling.

In Avvajja there were sod houses and the only building was the Catholic Church. I think this was the time when Ittuksaarjuaq was still the leader of the camp. Ittuksaarjuaq would send his family member to go to Repulse Bay, Pond Inlet, and Arctic Bay to go buy some supplies.

After months when we had not gone out to go buy something in other places, Ittuksaarjuaq would let his family members cook outside. It was nice to be outside, and they would feed many people.

This made us feel a whole lot more warmer. MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 14

First Time Sewing

Amarualik was seven or eight years old when she made her very first mitts. Women would use caribou knee skins to make clothing, but the young calf-skins were thrown out on the floor, so she had a chance to make something with them. She chose a piece from the scraps that would be useful for making something. She chewed on the scrap for just a little while to make it soft, then she tried to stretch it using a Tasiuktirut, a tool to stretch skins. She then shaped the skin to look like mitts and sewed it together. She made miniature mitts that fit her tiny index fingers.

Then Amuaralik put her outside clothing on, put the tiny mitts on her index fingers and hid her hands inside her sleeves and showed off her tiny mitts. She also went to visit the neighbours to show off her very first mitts because she was so proud. This was about the time when her father started leaving her with the women who were their family members while he went out hunting.

At the age of eight, women started giving her oval shaped seal skins for making kamiks

(Atungaksaq) and told her to chew on the skin to make it softer for sewing. This was the time in her life to chew because it was something that she needed to learn. She enjoyed every minute of making the skin softer by chewing. When women checked on the chewing to see if it was nice and soft for them to thin it and sew it, they would take it away from her and because Amarualik wanted to keep chewing the skin, she would start crying.

Amarualik and other girls would go to next door to check to see if they had any

Atungaksaq to chew on and when they were given some, it was the joyful news. They would be told, “Do not make them too soft!” She would agree and go home. While girls were chewing, women would come to check on how they were doing. Amarualik really loved chewing so much MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 15 that she was never ready to give up because it was like chewing gum. After women checked on the chewing, they would tell Amarualik to take it back to the owner. Even if she did not want to return the skin, she would have no choice but to give it back.

Amarualik as a Youngster

Amarualik had a sister who was adopted out by her grandmother. Amarualik’s little sister’s name was Edith Tapattiaq. When her grandmother passed away she had to look after her younger sister, and this was a time before she had had a menstrual period. She had to look after her little sister because her Anaanakuluk (step mother) would not look after her. This was when she was still a child herself and not capable enough to look after another child. Amarualik tried to dress her little sister and tried to dry her clothing when it was wet. When Edith Tapattiaq got married her last name became Nuvviaq.

Teen Years - Old Enough to Get Married

When it was the right time for Amarualik to get married, the family had to travel to

Arctic Bay where her new husband-to-be lived. Before they left, there were men asking for her as a wife, but they could not have her because before her grandfather died he had said, “Because she had grown up without a mother (Iliarjuk), she will have a husband who also grew up as a child without a father.” The family had no choice but to have her marry one man her grandfather had suggested because of his wishes.

When they arrived in Arctic Bay she was given seal skin for making kamiks and told that she had to make kamiks for her husband-to-be, even though she had never made kamiks before, and she did not want to get married to this man called Pauloosie Kalliraq. She started working on the kamiks right away because sewing was fun for her. She thought to herself, “All right! I am going to make the ugliest kamiks ever for my husband-to-be.” She tried to make the kamiks as MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 16 low as possible so they would look ugly. To her surprise, they looked really nice, and when she completed the kamiks she threw them at Pauloosie.

Amarualik loved sewing, but she did not want to get married because Pauloosie`s mother had so many seal skins available that she was told to make kamiks for Pauloosie`s younger brothers as well. She would go get some seal skins from her mother-in-law and go back to her tent to make some kamiks. She did not care about Pauloosie`s family and only cared to sew.

When winter was upon them, Amarualik’s father had gone to buy materials. Amarualik was making parkas for her father, half brother (Awa), and Pauloosie. This was when Pauloosie

Kalliraq was becoming her husband. She also made an amauti (women`s coat –Tui) for herself and her sister-in-law. This was when she was a young woman in her teen years. In the past, women would not wear men-style parkas, they would wear an amauti even if they had no babies.

Travelling Home from Arctic Bay

Because Amarualik was very young, and she was still a beginner in sewing and had never really been taught how to sew, the family decided to travel back to Igloolik by dog team. It was really cold for them while travelling as the month was January. When they stopped to sleep,

Awa, Amarualik`s half-brother, would heat up the Iglu and then they would eat together. After eating, Awa would tell them to go to sleep, and they would do as he said. There were four of them travelling to Igloolik, her half-brother Awa and his wife, and Amarualik and her new husband. When Awa woke up, he would put on his clothing, and after putting on kamiks, he would jump out of bed and break the ceiling of the igloo and the rest of the family would wake up and get dressed.

Amarualik and her sister-in-law’s kamiks were so tight that they had a hard time trying to put them on. By the time they had put the kamiks on their hands, they were about to freeze. MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 17

When they got on the qamuti, they started moving right away without trying to warm up first.

Back then they used to have tight kamiks, and Amarualik thought that it would have made them faster at running.

When they got to Igoolik, Amarualik did not like entering the sod houses because they were messy. She never really wanted to sit down because if she did her clothing would get dirty.

Whenever they went to sod houses the mothers would look at the their amauti and make them turn around to see them better. They would be impressed by the look of them, but suggest the next time Amarualik sews she would need to fix it a little bit this way or that. Amarualik was proud of the first clothing she made and happy when the women were impressed.

Living in Igloolik

When they had been in Igloolik for a while she got used to the way they lived. Men would go hunting and women would stay behind and do their own work. When men started packing to go hunting, Amarualik and her best friend Vivi Aaluluuq would help them pack, then when the hunters left they would go and have a cup of tea.

When they felt better the two best friends went out and gather the left over dogs to get them ready a for dog team ride. When the dog team was ready, Amarualik and Aaluluuq’s husbands’ nephews wanted to follow them and would start crying. My grandmother would tell them, “You’re going to be very cold” and try to leave them behind very quickly. They would leave on the dog team to get some ice that was close by the camp for their family members so they could have good water when they needed it. They went back and forth until they were finished, and the children kept asking to go with them.

After returning to camp, Amarualik and Vivi would enter their sod houses and start eating meat and continue to eat as if they were starving dogs. Amarualik commented in a MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 18 thoughtful way, “I think if somebody saw us eating a lot, like we did in the past, our husbands would say, ‘Because she is eating too much like the dogs, now I want to leave her.’” After eating and drinking at their mother-in-law’s, they would walk up the hill and slide down couple times with seal-skins.

While they waited for their husbands to arrive back from hunting, they would chew on seal skin for kamiks, and while continuing to chew, they would join in the baseball game. It was our style of playing baseball with no foul and no strike. When their husbands returned from hunting, they would go and help them to get their hunting clothes off. This was when the best friends separated, but they would continue talking to each other by shouting. After helping the men with their clothing, they would get the clothing inside the sod house and spend time with the family.

When night time came Amarualik would go get her best friend’s sod house, and say,

“Let’s go play Amaruujaq (wolf tag).” Even if her best friend’s husband did not approve by the look of his face, she would continue and say, “Let’s go! Your cousin (Aqqiaruq) will join us.”

When they got out they would start yelling “Amaruujaapiik” to inform people to join the wolf tag game. Aqqiaruq joined them and their husbands also joined in even when they had just arrived back from hunting earlier in the day. Piujuq and her husband Oolateeta also joined the tag game.

Amarualik Living in Akunniq

Amarualik and her family members lived in Akunniq, between Hall Beach and Igloolik.

Strangers would pass by to travel down to get closer to the hunting grounds or to get closer to marine mammals. Mark Ijjangiaq, his wife Qillaq, their young child named Ululijarnaq, and MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 19 another family member named Kopak passed by and built an igloo to stay overnight. They were going to go out seal hunting early in the morning.

When we started yelling for a game of Amaruujaq (wolf tag), they would join us and when we started running out of people to play with, we would then go to Mark Ijjangiaq’s iglu and wake them up and tell them “Amaruujaapik.” They would get up, get dressed to join us.

Their only child would be sleeping, and when they played they would go over to try to listen to make sure he was not crying.

When spring came, everyone would start playing baseball. Grandmothers like her

Raigiliuqati (same name) would join in with their grandchildren. Because men or other people had left to go hunting, this was a way to have more players by including their grandchildren or children.

Amarualik’s Children

Amarualik thinks she moved to Igloolik in 1942, after living a nomadic life. She gave birth to her first born and only child on December 21, 1949 in the land called Siuraarjuk. As previously mentioned, her daughter’s name was Annie Oruluk. Later, they had a son named

Moses, whom they adopted from a family member because her husband wanted her to take the child from her mother. In later years they adopted Nivviaq because her mother had to travel away with her family members and leave her behind because of her health. Susie had a heart problem and was sent down south and was out of Grandmother’s reach for five years, until she was returned. Upon her arrival Susie could no longer speak Inuktitut, so she had to learn it again from her new family members. MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 20

When Amarualik’s husband Pauloosie died as a young man, Amarualik adopted Charlie, who had been taken care of by seven foster parents. Amarualik named him after her husband.

Later she adopted Ryan from her son Moses and his wife Iga Qaataniq.

This is where I, Vera, come in from my Grandmother’s side. My mother’s name is Annie, and her husband’s name is Maurice Kigutikkaarjuk.

Conclusion

I find it amazing that my grandmother went through life without having a mother and when Inuit were living a nomadic life. What she went through has touched me and moved my heart because my grandmother had a hard time without a mother. I am pleased and proud to have had a great-grandfather who cared about his daughter. I am happy that I have lived to see my

Great-Great-Grandfather, even if I had not known him as a relative. I have regret that I found out he was my great-great-grandfather the same day he died. I was just a young child, and called him by my namesake, and my grandma also called him by her namesake as well. I always thought about what it would be like if I had known him. Would I have been closer to him and to his children from another mother named Hannah Panikpakuttuk?

I am now grateful and proud to have had caring family members in the past, and this year

I just started calling one of my grandmothers’ half sisters “Ningiuq” (Grandmother), and I am getting closer to them slowly. My grandmother had sucked milk from a caribou when they went out hunting after her father shot a female caribou. This is an overwhelming feeling for me because even though my grandma lost her mother, she was still able to get breast milk. I believe this helped so much when a motherless child was able to have caribou milk. Today, it never happens that we feed a child with caribou milk. We now use baby bottles to feed babies, and we have everything in stores to get milk and other assorted food for youngsters. Also, because we MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 21 live in communities now, any one of the family members living in another household can look after our children if we have to travel either by plane or snowmobile. Transportation is so much faster now. For example, my younger sister has five children in Iqaluit, and when she did not have anyone to take care of her children because she had to go to Ottawa with one of her sons, she sent her four children to Igloolik before she left to go to Ottawa.

My grandma sewed tiny mitts at the very young age of seven or eight! Today, seven or eight year old children could not make tiny mitts unless they spent a lot of time with someone who sews almost all the time. Today we tend to make patterns for the child if they want to make something, and they often leave it unfinished because we have so many technologies that distract children and young people, like iPods, computers, iPads, and television games. Thinking about this, we as parents need to give time for our children to be with us at least once or twice a week and to learn some of the traditional skills, but this just does not seem to happen.

In the past, my grandmother started looking after her little sister before she started menstruating. She was a child parent, already acting as an adult when she was still a youngster. I thought about this, wondering if there are children like this today in Nunavut communities? I do not know. I believe there are young children who are neglected and many in the underdeveloped world who work from a very young age. There are also children who may find themselves without parents, but we have families or Social Services to step in and find them homes.

There is so much to think about as a result of transcribing and retelling my grandmother’s story. She had made kamiks before she married because she loved to sew. I thought about today’s children when she mentioned they use to have kamiks that were tight, and she said, “We must have been fast runners.” Today, children say they are very fast because of their new shoes.

Somehow there still is the same kind of thinking that carries from the past down to today. The MY GRANDMOTHER AMARUALIK 22 young wives were very busy and had to keep on doing something for the future all the time.

They even had to go sliding to clean the skin, but today a young person would not go sliding to clean the seal skins, it would be the person’s child who would slide on the skin to clean it.

Today, there are only a few people who can look after seal skins and only if they have been around relatives who kept on the tradition of making clothing out of skins, or from the people who had an interest in traditional clothing.