FernFolio » Inuit

Beware, Pirates! by Frieda Wishinsky

fernfolio — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:01:18 +0000

Emily Bing is happy to meet Matt Martinez, the boy who walks up her front walk to say hello soon after she and her family move into her Great-Aunt Miranda’s old house. Matt wants to know if the house is haunted, which it isn’t, but it does contain an odd little room at the top of a tower that is filled with strange objects, including an old wooden sled. The sled, a Canadian Flyer, is a gift to Emily from her great-aunt and bears a maple leaf on which some mysterious words appear, like a magic spell, to carry Matt and Emily away on an adventure to Canada’s Far North and the second voyage to Canada by one of European’s most famous explorers.
Matt and Emily find themselves aboard the explorer’s sailing ship where they meet sailors who act more like pirates and its rather ill-tempered captain, Martin Frobisher. Believed to be stowaways, the kids are put to work scrubbing the decks before they catch sight of an Innu boy paddling a small boat near the sailing vessel. Soon they have clambered down a rope into young Minik’s umiak, and learn that the boy is looking for his friend, Irniq, who has been kidnapped by Frobisher and his men.
Written by Frieda Wishinsky, Beware, Pirates! is the first of the Canadian Flyer Adventures, stories about Matt and Emily’s adventures through this country’s past aboard the magical wooden sled. These books will appeal to readers from grades 2 to 5, and offer a lot of information about Canada’s history.
FernFolio Editor

Hide and Sneak by Michael Kusugak and Vladyana Krykorka

fernfolio — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:12:24 +0000

When Allashua announces that she is going out to play hide and seek with her friends, her mother warns her not to go too far away because an Ijiraq might hide her and, that if an Ijiraq hides her, no one will ever be able to find her again. Allashua goes to play hid and seek, but she isn’t very good at it. She keeps getting distracted by what is going on around her, and forgetting to hide. She chases butterflies, watches the loons, explores bugs in a small pond, and chirps at the nestlings in a nest she that she discovers.
When she meets a tiny little man all covered in fur the colour of a ptarmigan’s feathers, she knows he is an Ijiraq but he is so funny and clumsy and playful, she dismisses her mother’s warning about him being dangerous and lets him hide her in a cave she has never seen before. After several hours waiting in the cave for her friends to find her, Allashua grows tired and hungry and says she wants to leave, but the Ijiraq says that she can’t because they haven’t been found yet. Allashua realizes that, unless she comes up with fast with a good plan to get herself out of the Ijirak’s clutches, she will never see her family again.
Hide and Sneak is the story of a heedless but resourceful girl who finds herself in desperate trouble when she ignores her mother’s warnings and wanders away in the company of a little creature of Inuit legend. It continues the adventures of Allashua, whom we first met in A Promise is a Promise by Robert Munsch and Michael Kusugak.
FernFolio Editor

Northern Lights The Soccer Trails by Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak and Vladyana Krykorka

fernfolio — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:23:59 +0000

When Kataujaq was small, she loved her mother. She loved sniffing her, because that is the way that the Inuit kiss, and hugging her. In the spring, she loved holding onto her mother while they travelled across the melting sea ice in a canoe tied to the dogsled, slipping precariously from ice to open water and back again, while her father ran along and called to the dogs. In the summer she loved picking flowers and finding rocks for her mother, which her mother loved and kept on the windowsill. In the fall, she loved picking berries with her mother and watching as she juggled and sang.
But then a big sickness comes, and Kataujaq’s mother goes away in an aeroplane and never returns home. No one tells the little girl what has happened. Kataujaq picks flowers for her grandmother, but it’s not the same. She thinks about her mother when she picks berries in the fall, or finds a pretty rock for the windowsill. And she cries for her mother at night.
In the early winter, the people of Kataujaq’s village go out onto the sea ice and play soccer under the stars for hours. Sometimes the Northern Lights come out, and then her grandmother comes down to the sea ice to watch. She tells Kataujaq that the Northern Lights are the spirits of the dead come out to play soccer in their new home in the sky, and that, when they play they are filled with joy, just as they were when they were mortal.
Kataujaq looks up and can see her mother up among the Northern Lights, smiling down at her as she turns to chase the ball, and the girl is happy to know her mother has not gone away after all.
Northern Lights The Soccer Trails is another wonderful story by Michael Kusugak that celebrates the Inuit belief that these magical lights are the souls of the dead playing their game of soccer in the heavens. A lovely book to share with someone grieving the loss of a loved one, it won the Ontario Arts Council’s Ruth Swartz Award.
FernFolio Editor

The Very Last First Time by Jan Andrews and Ian Wallace

fernfolio — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:06:47 +0000

Every winter, the people of Ungava Bay collect mussels by walking on the bottom of the sea. This is the story of a young girl’s very first time climbing down onto the sea bed alone.
After cutting a hole through the sea ice with her chisel, Eva lowers herself down into the hole with her mussel pans and candles to walk the sea bed at low tide. The sea ice has formed dark and mysterious caves teeming with small sea creatures and populated by the shadows of Arctic animals, sea monsters and, possibly, ghosts.
After she has filled her mussel pan, Eva explores the tidal pools, rocks and sea creatures revealed in the soft light of her candle. When she notices suddenly that time has passed and the tide is returning, Eva realizes that she has lost her way back to the hole she has cut through the ice.
Published in 1985, this is a lovely story about rites of passage and Inuit cultural traditions. Ian Wallace’ haunting water colours are a perfect counterpart to Jan Andrew’s evocative text.
FernFolio

Tiktala

fernfolio — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:49:52 +0000

Children in the Primary grades have listened to the story of Tiktala, the young Inuit girl who dreams of being a soapstone carver so that she can become famous and admired and wealthy, but who, after months spent living in the body of a harp seal, discovers a new and vital artistic and spiritual purpose for her chosen art. They have created images in artPad of the creatures whose forms they would like to inhabit. Here are but a few of those images.
FernFolio Editor

Tuk and the Whale by Raquel Rivera

fernfolio — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:49:03 +0000

“They are here,” states Tuk’s grandfather, as he pauses in his work. The Inuit elder has dreamed of the arrival of a great umiak, a boat so large that it could hold many families, one that is made entirely of wood. Out in the bay, now becoming navigable with the arrival of spring, appears a boat crested by two upthrust spears, like the tusk of the narwhal, from which flap the white skins that, grandfather says, carry the boat on the wind.
Excited, Tuk runs to find alert the camp, and eagerly joins his father and grandfather on the beach to greet the Qallunaat who come ashore, despite the worried disapproval of his mother. The strangers are tall and thin and strangely dressed. They have faces covered in fur and smell bad. Though Arvik, Tuk’s father, has travelled widely and speaks many dialects, he struggles to communicate with them.
It seems to Tuk that the Qallunaat are just as nervous about his people as the Inuit hunters are about them, but grandfather has said that these strangers will need their help, and that aboard their great wooden boat they have many useful things to trade. When one of the Qallunaat notices Tuk, he smiles and offers the boy a gift, a knife with a wooden handle and a metal blade. Tuk is thrilled with the knife, though he remains apprehensive about the presence of the strangers, particularly when his friend Samik explains that his father fears they will attack the camp and take over their hunting territories.
It soon becomes clear that the Qallunaat want the Inuits’ help to hunt the bowhead whale, and that they are prepared to trade metal kettles, knifes, sewing needles and other useful items for this assistance. Whale hunting is very dangerous, since the great whale are strong and can easily sink the flimsy boats of the hunters, killing all aboard, but the chance to trade for metal objects is too good to pass up. So Tuk, his father Amrik, and two other Inuit hunters join the Qallunaat on a whale-hunting adventure that will become the stuff of legend.
Based on author Raquel Rivera’s readings about first contact between the Inuit and European whalers, Tuk and the Whale is set in the 16th century. It celebrates the strength of Inuit culture and traditions, while exploring the beginnings of what would bring great change to the people of Canada’s North. Rivera’s depiction of Inuit life is both fascinating and inspiring. Tuk, his little sister Unat, their father, Amrik, and their wise and farseeing grandfather come to life through her story.
FernFolio Editor

A Promise is a Promise by Robert Munsch and Michael Kusugak, illustrated by Vladyana Krykorka

fernfolio — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:44:22 +0000

When Allashua announces to her parents that she is going to go fishing on the sea ice, they tell her that the Qallupilliut come up from their homes at the bottom of the sea and take children who go out onto the sea ice without their parents. They tell her to go ice fishing on the lake instead, and she promises to do just that. But as soon as she is out of sight of her house Allashua goes instead to the sea ice where she calls the Qallupilliut nasty names because, never having seen them, she does not believe they exist.
When the Qallupilliut appear behind her, and ask her if she has seen the child who has called them nasty names and yelled that they could never catch her, she lies and says that she has no idea who the child might be. But the Qallupilliut
catch her, and drag her down into the sea, where they try to bind her to them with their song,
Human child, human child,
Ours to have, ours to hold,
Forget your mother, forget your brother,
Ours to hold under the ice
Desperate to escape them, Allashua promises the Qallupilliut to bring her brothers and sisters to the sea ice. In return, they agree to let her go. Cold and exhausted, she returns home, and tells her parents of her trip onto the sea ice, her encounter with the Qallupilliut, and her promise.
“Ah, ah, promise is a promise,” her parents remind her. But could there be a way to honour the promise and yet safe Allashua’s siblings?
Written by Robert Munsch and Michael Kusugak, A Promise is a Promise bears all the hallmarks of Munsch’s engaging storytelling style and introduced to Canadian children Kusugak’s wonderful tales of Inuit life. It is beautifully illustrated by Vladyana Krykorka. A Canadian classic!
FernFolio Editor

Kitaq Goes Ice Fishing by Margaret Nicolai and David Rubin

fernfolio — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:06:51 +0000

Five year-old Kitaq awakens early, and eagerly awaits the arrival of Apa, his grandfather. He hopes that today Apa will take him fishing in the ice. When Apa comes, the young boy assures his grandfather that he is big enough to walk all the way to the fishing holes and all the way back, and not complain when he feet get cold or tired.
Together Kitaq and his grandfather walk the long path to the river, and lower their fishing poles through the ice hole into the water below. To his excitement, Kitaq catches three large fish before the sun begins to set at the end of a brief Arctic winter’s day, and he and his Apa must begin the long walk home. Though the child flags a bit at the end of the journey, Apa is proud of his youngest grandson, and recalls with pleasure his first ice fishing expedition, over sixty years before.
When they arrive at the house, Kitaq’s mother is waiting. She and the rest of the family will prepare fish soup with the catch and serve it as part of a celebration an important rite of passage, for Kitaq has demonstrated that he can help to feed his family.
FernFolio Editor

Tiktala by Margaret Shaw-MacKinnon and László Gál

fernfolio — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:45:17 +0000

A young girl named Tiktala wants to become a soapstone carver so that she can become rich and famous, but is told by a village elder that she must go in search of a spirit helper. Transformed into a harp seal, she meets Tulimak, a seal who hates humans, who has been chosen to help her. Together they must travel to the summer fishing grounds, before setting out for the great meeting place, where seals meet to have their pups. On the journey Tiktala learns the beauty of the sea and its many creatures, and of harp seals, awkward on land but swift and sleek in water. When she risks her life to save that of a seal pup, Tiktala discovers her connection to the animals of the north, and welcomes her carver spirit.
Margaret Shaw-MacKinnon’s lovely story of Tiktala’s rediscovery of her traditional Inuit beliefs is accompanied by the hauntingly beautiful paintings of László Gál.
FernFolio Editor

Arctic Stories by Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak

fernfolio — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:36:24 +0000

Set in the late 1950s in the community of Repulse Bay, Arctic Stories recounts three tales about Agatha, a young Inuit girl who lives on the cusp of change in the North. While her parents have lived a largely traditional Inuit lifestyle, Agatha experiences the changes that creeping governmental oversight bring.
In Agatha and the Ugly Black Thing, a large black blimp comes to Repulse Bay in the summer of 1958, terrifying the local residents who have no idea what it is. They are afraid, and made more so by an old man who says he has heard of black flying things that drop exploding things. The residents run away, trying to escape it, but Agatha, finally tired of running, turns around and yells at the thing to go away. When it does just that, the residents cheer.
In the last story, Agatha Goes to School, Agatha and two boys from Repulse Bay go by plane to Chesterfield Inlet to attend residential school. In Chesterfield Inlet, they find a community far bigger than their own, with an RCMP detachment, a hospital, a school and a Catholic mission. The children are not well treated by the nuns and priests, and cry for their parents, but find some pleasure in skiing, sledding and skating. When one of the priest falls through the ice, Agatha and her friends must use what they have to hand to rescue him.
Michael Kusugak’s Arctic Stories celebrates the beauty of the Arctic and the steadfast spirit of the Inuit in the midst of the profound changes brought about by increasing contact with the south.
To hear Michael Kusugak talk about storytelling, Inuit heroes, the Inuit language, Inuit elders and reviving stories, go to Canada’s Digital Collections.
FernFolio Editor