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Home , Amauti, Dorset culture, Igloolik, Kinngait, Luke Foxe, Throwing stick

Tuniit: Giants & Ivory Miniatures Tuniit are stronger than any , even though they, too, are people Joe Patiq 19871

Around a thousand years ago people the Dorset virtually disappeared from the living in the region of present day archaeological record, perhaps absorbed created exquisite miniature . by Thule immigrants from the west. Thule These were skillfully carved by people people, immediate ancestors of the , of the (500 – 1500), may have acquired new types, snow building and seal hole as Tuniit, mythic giants who were hunting techniques from the Dorset. the previous inhabitants of . The carvings were made from Missionaries & Archaeologists occasionally with meteoric iron The Arctic changed rapidly from the blades. The subjects include and beginning of the 20th century. Missionaries, police and fur traders established themselves abstract forms. While the meaning of these in what is now Nunavut. The town of sculptures is unknown, they may have been , today , was founded used as amulets in a world dominated by in 1942 as an air base and government spirits and mediated by shamans. services soon followed. The gathering of In 1925 of the National Inuit people off the land and into settled NUNAVUT communities dominated the 1960s. Museum of Canada established ‘a new Culture’ based on informally In 1931 French Oblate missionary, Etienne Bazin, set himself up in the Igloolik area. Dorset, Nunavut. The Dorset people used a wide variety of toggling to In 1936 Graham Rowley, a Cambridge- Igloolik hunt seal and walrus. Caribou, killed with

Iqaluit lances, and seal skin provided material for Cape Dorset clothing. While they used snow building

CANADA technology and sleds, Dorset people did not have access to a wide variety of later Inuit kits, especially the for the easy creation of and weapons, bows and , and the throwing stick for launching harpoons. Around 1400 Top: Man carrying child. H. 5cm. 1950.405

Right: Aipilik Innuksuk excavating an ancient house site with Graham Rowley, 1939. Igloolik. Photographed by Graham Rowley, 2014.83

Far right: Aipilik Innuksuk fishing for char near Ugarjualik 1990s. Photographed by John MacDonald trained archaeologist, travelled to the In Dorset and the north, carved and protected in needle cases, north as part of the British Canadian make and use the amauti, the unique which were often beautifully decorated. Arctic Expedition. He was befriended by woman’s . This has a large hood and Dorset Culture needles were carved with Father Bazin, and by Monica Ataguttaaluk, pouch for holding a baby. The amauti is an early convert and leader of the Inuit designed with large shoulders, so that the community. Rowley describes Father mother can bring the child to her breast Dorset Art Bazin showing him some specimens from for feeding without being exposed to the Many of the Dorset items collected by a site at Avvaja which had been ‘found cold. Of all Inuit tools perhaps the most Bazin and Rowley are of superb aesthetic by while digging turf for their important and least recognised is the quality, and have attracted attention. Of winter houses’ and likely collected by needle. Traditionally made of ivory rind the greatest note are the art objects, Ataguttaaluk. Bazin gave Rowley 400 from walrus tusks, these were laboriously articles of expressive use, many of artefacts, including the ivories on display which are unusual and important for the here. Rowley and his Inuit assistant Woman’s parka, amauti, with short trousers understanding of Dorset Culture. Unlike Aipiluk Innuksuk excavated a further 1500 and leggings with boots, made of caribou skin historic Inuit amulets, which are often items in 1939. Rowley’s report, with map by an unidentified Innuinait woman in western and chart, was written in 1940 with the Nunavut. Early 20th century. Collected and of animal physiology, such as encouragement of Diamond Jenness. The donated by Diamond Jenness. 1948.208, claws, beaks and bones, Dorset collection was donated to the Museum of 1928.218 & 1948.209 A,B Archaeology and Anthropology in 1950.

Top: The wood church and home built by Bazin Father Etienne Bazin wearing Inuit caribou skin Nunavut and ‘Dorset’ in the 1930s, protected from the winter cold clothing. Photograph courtesy the Eskimo Museum, Igloolik today, with 2,000 people, takes Inuit-style with turf built up all around the building. Churchill, Manitoba, c. 1930s immense pride in nurturing Inuit traditions Photograph courtesy the Eskimo Museum, while embracing the inevitable changes Churchill, Manitoba, c.1930s brought by modernisation. Self-government was established in Nunavut in 1999, a Above: The wood church at Avvaaja as it was in territory of 1.8 million square kilometres September 2013. Photographed by Jonathan King and 36,000 mainly Inuit people. While English is the de facto language of the government, dialects of are spoken everywhere. The hunting of Graham Rowley Collection,1930s. Walrus ivory. Dorset Culture (500 – 1500) Igloolik, Nunavut, char continue to be the most important Canada. Above clockwise: subsistence activities. Needles. 1950.362 L. 4 - 6cm Left: Community leader Monica Ataguttaaluk Falcon. H. 3cm. 1950.370 A wearing an inner parka, attigi. (d. 1948). She is Cape Dorset, or , literally Walrus muzzle with tusks. L. 4cm. 1950.407 B commemorated today in Igloolik in the name of ‘Mountains ’, was named in 1631 by Mask. Caribou antler. H. 7cm. 1950.366 the school. Igloolik,1930s. Photograph courtesy , after the Earl of Dorset. The Below: Caribou Mandible. Walrus Ivory. L. 3.2cm. the Eskimo Museum, Churchill, Manitoba community, with a population of 1300, is 1950.370 M famous for its creativity. Dorset Fine Arts Below: The Legislative Assembly of Nunavut, is a very successful marketing co-op which opened by the Queen in 2002. There are sells art around the world. This includes no political parties in the Assembly, which is stone , the annual print collection governed Inuit-style by consensus. Photographed and superb drawings of Inuit life and by Jonathan King 2015 Nunavut created by dozens of artists. Birds are represented in moving and such as lemmings and snow buntings. For stationary positions, and occasionally with the Dorset people, as for historic Inuit, it is skeletal outlines sometimes associated with likely that there was little separation of the shamanic beliefs. Bear heads are featured technical and the spiritual. as as elongated bears, carved from an observed knowledge of bears swimming Miniatures. Walrus ivory. Graham Rowley through water. Collection,1930s. Culture (500 – 1500) Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada. Most remarkable of the articles in From top: Bear head. L. 2cm. 1950.404 B Caribou hoof. L. 3cm. 1950.407 H men, each with a child on their shoulder. Man carrying child. H. 5cm. 1950.369 D They have great strength, with blocky somewhat cubist volumes and a rough be seen as representing the powerful hunter passing spiritual power to his son or perhaps they simply represent domestic happiness and love for children. While could be either gender.

A series of miniature toggling harpoon heads give rise to interesting conjecture. perhaps suitable for burial as replacements for the deceased’s tools which might be required by the living. It is also possible that Wand with human-like faces. Caribou antler. they were used for hunting small animals L. 20cm. Graham Rowley Collection,1930s. Culture (500 – 1500) Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada. 1950.411 Rachel Uyarasuk wearing caribou skin clothing, tending her , . She made the Walrus are usually represented by costume used in the film Atanarjuat, the Fast reduced representations of the muzzle Runner, which won the Caméra d’or for the Best and tusks, while caribou are most often First Film at the Cannes Film Festival in shown by carvings of hooves and forelegs, 2001. Photographed by John MacDonald, though occasionally there are mandibles c. 2000, Igloolik and even heads.

One of the most intriguing groups of articles are carved from interior antler tine cores, stripped of the hard outer surface and carved with interconnecting multiple images of faces. The Dorset antler carvings are often said to represent spirits, although it is possible that the carved faces represented known people.

AckNowleDGMeNTs MAA thanks the Canadian Museum of History, Tuniit: Arctic Giants & Ivory Miniatures Gatineau; Eskimo Museum, Churchill; Inuit (Dec 2015 - April 2016) was curated by Art Foundation, Toronto; Nunavut Research Jonathan King with the assistance of Institute, Iqaluit; the Sosland Family, Kansas City; Anita Herle & Elizabeth Walsh. TD Bank Group, Toronto; Lorraine Branson, Conservation by Charlotte Owen & Kirstie Pat Feheley, Rhoda Innuksuk, Sylvie LeBlanc, Williams. Object photography by Jocelyne John MacDonald, Pamela Meredith, Sarah Milroy, the late Leah Otak, George Qulaut, Matt Buckley, Rachel Hand & Marcus Miller. & Susan Rowley Graphic design by Deborah Wickham 1 Joe Patiq, ‘Tunijjuaq’, pp. 39-41, Inuktitut, Spring 1987, No. 66