PUHITAQ

Puhitaq is an emerging video & cultural arts company owned and operated by Stacey Aglok MacDonald of Kugluktuk.

Puhitaq is dedicated to producing inspiring film and arts projects that are engaging and culturally relevant to Inuit across Canada and to develop and produce creative projects that promote education, wellness, social reflection and cultural knowledge.

The Sunburst:

The Puhitaq, often referred to in English as a sunburst, is the elaborate ruff around the parka hood of Inuit women from the Canadian Central & Western Arctic. As the English name suggests, this effective barrier against the cold winds emulates the look of the sun - a symbol of the renewal of life in Inuit culture.


Winters in the Arctic are long, dark and demanding, and although Inuit had the tools and knowledge needed to survive, the harsh winters constantly challenged their spirit, skills and survival and the return of the sun marked the beginning of a new year and another season survived. It was a time of intense rejoice that was expressed through feasting, dance, song and storytelling. The return of the sun continues to be a time of great celebration for Inuit communities across the circumpolar world!

The Sunburst is important to me as a symbol of my roots - and as a reflection of the traditional life of Inuit, their spirit and the spiral of life that depends on us honouring our past, looking forward to our future and always celebrating life.  

 

Inuktitut Grade 2

Drawings made by Grade 2 students after a class from the inuit Culture Education section of IsumaTV/DIAMA.

Second grade students watch the first part of Before Tomorrow film (made by the Inuit Women collective Arnait). In Nunavut, second grade class is given in Inuktitut so teacher used the film as a way to teach students Inuktitut vocabulary of traditional objects, transportation, and traditional way of living. Then students made some drawings of what they could remember of the film. Students were able to understand the film and related to it. The film is made in Inuktitut and is an excellent resource for the Inuktitut teacher who lacks more learning resources in Inuktitut. 

Nathalie Kalina's picture

Exploring Shape and Space


Exploring Shape and Space

by Andrea Rogers and Jessica Wesaquate

Strand:

Nathalie Kalina's picture

Family and Culture

 

tannis nielsen

Institute of First Knowledge

The natural process's of the Earth are far more important then the need for a "Manifested Destiny" of "CIVILIZED MEN"

We are dedicated too, and would like to address the negative impact that "CIVILIZED MAN" has on the Animals Plants and Tribal Peoples - unconnected newly contacted and those who have been contacted in the last few hundred years.
Through the medium of art we are hoping to achieve a connection and communication between the natural world and the civilized world to better understand the desperate need for a symbiotic relation between the two.

Our ancestors understood the importance of a balance between human animals animals plants and our earth. As such, earth justice is a part of our struggle against colonialism, capitalism and imperialism.

One of the consequences of Euro-ameriKKKan conquest, colonization, and imperialism is the transformation of the earth into a commodity to be exploited for increased returns. This has propelled the massive exploitation of our natural resources, and forms the historical basis of the current disequilibrium between humans and nature. Furthermore, neoliberalism is only capable of promoting the interests of transnational corporations, and these have proven capable of possible destroying the planet in their insatiable quest for profit.(but on the other hand we also do know that the earth is capable of destroying civilized man as well) As with every crisis born from capitalism and imperialism, capitalists reap wealth in direct proportion to environmental degradation, animals and the so-called third-world or better yet, Tribal   peoples suffer from increasingly frequent catastrophic loss.
Only a continental evolutionary struggle can, and must, bring an end to the poisoning of the atmosphere, deforestation, contamination of the oceans, and the other causes of ecological destruction.
Only a collapse of the world economy can provide a socio-tribal system where the accumulation of wealth is not the driving force of society, but instead prioritizes life with dignity and FREEDOM. Through the re-construction of a society that values all life, we must turn back the damage to the earth, and prevent the further exploitation of our Mother. 

The ideal tribal evolution would be:

(1) not take place all at once, 
(2) work incrementally as people built off of each other’s ideas, 
(3) be led by no one, 
(4) not be initiated by any governmental, political, or religious body, 
(5) have no target end-point, 
(6) proceed according to no plan, and 
(7) Reward supporters with reciprocal support 

In this view, then, resistance to civilization takes on an antithetical character to the rigid, centralized and institutional forms of the fascist system. It becomes, in its character and operation, non-teleological, non-hierarchical, non-institutional, de-centralized, and organically organized. In short, it must be everything civilization is not. 

 


100% aboriginal directed.
 

Inuit Culture Education

TEACHING BY FILMS

What you can teach with these films

Atanarjuat The Fast Runner The Fast Runner Trilogy | AGES 14+

  • Inuit legends
  • Shamanism
  • Community-based filmmaking
  • Nomadic communities
  • First film written, directed and acted by Inuit
  • Inuktitut language
  • Inuit ancestors

The Journals of Knud Rasmussen The Fast Runner Trilogy | AGES 14+

  • Inuit storytelling
  • Early 20th century
  • Modern anthropology
  • Old vs new culture
  • Christianity
  • Shamanism
  • Arctic Expeditions
  • Digital storytelling

Before Tomorrow The Fast Runner Trilogy | AGES 14+

  • Inuit women storytelling
  • Family relationships
  • Impact of disease
  • First encounter with white people

Qimuksik Dog Team | ALL AGES

  • Life in the Arctic
  • Inuit survival skills (the old way): navigation, ice thickness, driving the dogs, building the igloo, catching seals on the open water, running down caribou to feed the family.
  • Family: dad role model
  • Hunting skills
  • Inuit relationship with dogs

Nanugiurutiga My First Polar Bear | ALL AGES

  • Polar Bears
  • Elders storytelling
  • Working in community
  • Inuit Family
  • Hunting skills
  • Inuit relationship with dogs

Artcirq | ALL AGES

  • Inuit traditions and circus training
  • Working in community
  • Youth in the Arctic
  • Suicide and despair prevention
  • Good examples for community
  • Circus performance
  • Inuit storytelling with theater and songs

Unakuluk Dear Little One | ALL AGES

  • Inuit culture
  • Inuit family relations
  • Women stories
  • Adoption as a tradition
  • Storytelling through embroider, draw and cut of fabric

Aiviaq Walrus Hunt | ALL AGES

  • Inuit historic use of boats
  • Old way of camping
  • Children handling
  • Social structure
  • Safety measures
  • Hunting practices
 

VIDEOS UPLOADED BY THE COMMUNITY

 

Inuit Culture Education

How we live

PHOTO albums

Click on each album to see more photos

Music Channels

Multimedia Content on IsumaTV (Video, Audio and Images).
Media Content Media Content Media Content Media Content
Link to: Tanya Tagaq
Link to: Lucie Idlout
Link to: Artcirq Jam
Link to: Unikkaat Sivunittinnit: Messages from the Past

Video Channels

 

COMMUNITY UPLOADED CONTENT

 

Inuit Culture Education

TEACHER RESOURCES

Classroom Videos

Artcirq Lesson

Watch how other professors teach the Lesson Plans.

Lesson Plans

Multimedia Lesson Plans

Teach students about the Inuit, the native people of the Canadian Arctic and Nunavut, thee newest territory in Canada, established in April of 1999. Download the lesson plans in PDF format. The acocompanying educational documentaries can be watched in Full Screen on your computer, or projected in the classroom.

Grades 4 to 6 | Grades 7 to 9 | Grades 10 and up

 

LESSON PLANS UPLOADED BY THE COMMUNITY

 

Teach Through Subjects of Interest

Climate Change

Climate Change | Inuit knowledge

Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change

A new cross-platform multi-media documentary by Zacharias Kunuk O.C. and Dr. Ian J. Mauro, presenting Inuit knowledge collected over centuries regarding land, water, animals and the impact of climate change on survival and adaptation.

Climate Change | International legal action

International Legal Action on Climate Change

50 unedited interviews of Siila Watt-Cloutier petition.
Siila Watt-Cloutier launched the world's first international legal action on climate change. On December 7, 2005, based on the findings of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, which projects that Inuit hunting culture may not survive the loss of sea ice and other changes projected over the coming decades, she filed a petition, along with 62 Inuit Hunters and Elders from communities across Canada and Alaska, to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging that unchecked emissions of greenhouse gases from the United States have violted Inuit cultural and environmental human rights are guaranteed by the 1948 American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man.

Climate Change | LaFontaine-Baldwin Symposium

The 9th Annual Lafontaine-Baldwin

Siila Watt-Cloutier, Inuit climate activist and 2007, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, speaking LIVE from Iqaluit on Inuit Knowledge, Human Rights and Climate Change.

Mining

Mining| Discussions on mining in Igloolik

Show me on the map: Discussions on mining in Igloolik

Click to watch the videos:

  • "And I don't believe when they say 'We have the most efficient, cleanest mining in modern days' because I don't think there are any clean mines."

~Terry Uyaruak

  • "The plan consists of destroying the environment, the wildlife, therefore the Inuit."

~Madeline Ivalu

Truth and Reconciliation – Residential Schools

Truth and Reconciliation – Residential Schools | Testimony

Testimony by Isuma

24 Residential school survivors' video-testimony, the majority shared in Inuktitut. Read English translations of Testimonies below films.

Truth and Reconciliation – Residential Schools | Your Testimony

Truth and Reconciliation – Residential Schools | Canadian Prime Minister's apology

Canadian Apology Part 2

Wednesday, June 11, 2008, Prime minster of Canada Stephen Harper delivered a history apology for the treatment of Aboriginal children at residential schools. Click on the thumbnail to watch.

Truth and Reconciliation – Residential Schools | Survivor Letters

Survivor Letters

To display your truth and reconciliation channel here:

 
Websites of Interest About Inuit Culture and the Canadian Arctic

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