Louisa Angugatsiaq Tungilik The Seamstress

Louisa Angugatsiaq Tungilik was my beautiful mother. She was beautiful externally and in her heart. One of her great abilities was to sew Inuit traditional clothes. When she sewed caribou skin clothing, her stitching was so fine it looked only like a fine line where her seams were. Her waterproof kamiit were exactly that, waterproof. She came from a line of perfectionists, and she was no different. I recall one time we were in an iglu and it was mid winter because the days light were short. My dad Marc Tungilik had indeed been softening caribou skins he and my brother Kadluk caught during the early fall at the end of August. It was the man`s duty to do the traditional skin softening process, while my mom is in the process of making clothing for every one...

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Sananguaqti Was His Nickname

Sananguaqti was my dad Marc Tungilik`s nickname. His friends called him that and that translates to `The Carver`. Marc Tungilik was known throughout the community as Sananguaqti, many in Repulse Bay (Nauyaat in Inuktitut), Nunavut that was, though just his friends called him that. My dad carved every where. He carved indoors when there would be less dust from when he was sanding and polishing. He carved outdoors when his carving produced too much dust. He carved when he went hunting, mostly when he was in his boat or just along the shore line. The sound of filing on ivory or soapstone or the final sanding touch did make a curious sound for the seal. A few years ago my husband and I were in Churchill, Manitoba. We went to visit the Eskimo Museum and found...

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The Untold Story of Marc Tungilik The Carver

Marc Tungilik was a great carver of Inuit lifestyle, simply because he lived it.  Since birth I have heard the sound of hacking, chipping, sawing, filing and sanding. They were very much a part of our everyday sound around our home when he was carving. He took the Lord`s Day to heart so Sundays and Holy Days were his rest days. The way our dad made sure we always had something to eat and dressed warmly was to hunt and carve. His hunting provided food and clothing and we were nomadic people before I turned six.  Meaning that we did not live where there were stores or any place where one could shop at a moment`s desire. We would have to dog team about three hundred miles to do that. Most of the time it would just be my dad and my brother Kadluk who would...

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Inuit and Fashions

The Inuit of the Canadian north are one tough race of people. Living in an environment that can reach the maximum coldness of -65 degrees Celsius with the wind chill factor. During the years before the arrival of explorers, the Hudson Bay Company, RCMP and the missionaries, all clothing the Inuit wore were made of fur. After all that’s all that was available at the time. Even the sewing equipment were made from animal bones and skins. Inuit women designed the amauti which is so practical in the north. When you amaq the child, the child is still touching you while you are free to do what ever you have to do that day. This is the true beauty of the amauti. The one carrying the child feels like the child weighs less in the amauti, if the amauti is made...

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Nunavut Inuit Culture

Growing up in the iglu days, one had to aniyaaq, it`s a gesture taken by all Inuit to wake up early in the morning and dress as quick as possible to then continue to go outside. It is expected of you to do so as soon as you have learned to walk. It was strongly believed by Inuit this tradition made giving birth an easy and short delivery. This habit has been obsolete since the beginning of our schooling back in the 1950s. Before the fifties the seal was very important to our life as a source of oil for the qudliq (soapstone stove), which gave heat and dried our day`s wear and cooked our meals. Our husky dogs were super healthy when they ate seal meat and it`s bubbler. They were strong and their hair was very long but fluffy. The seal also had many...

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