Qimuksik (Dog Team) is one of the 13-part Nunavut (Our Land) series follows five fictional families through the different seasons of an Arctic year, from the glorious northern spring to a uniquely Inuit Christmas Day. Other programs include contemporary documentaries on whale and polar bear hunting, modern leadership, elders’ advice, and a youth group’s effort to learn circus skills to reduce youth suicide.

Igloolik, Spring 1945. In Qimuksik (Dog Team) while imparting knowledge to the next generation, one family travels in the immense and beautiful arctic during spring.

Inuaraq teaches his young son how to survive in the old way: driving the dogs, building the igloo, catching seals on the open water, running down caribou to feed the family.                scroll for more info...

Content summary:

• Dad teaching his son about survival: navigation, ice thickness
• Dad being a role model
• Tracking caribou by examining hoof prints and using the raven’s flight direction and sound
• Skinning a caribou – special way to do this for clothing (instead of random use)
• Relationship with the dogs: man and dogs have a very special connection: they work together and one cannot live without the other. The man feeds the dogs and working with dogs has many benefits (unlike a skidoo, dogs don’t run out of gas!). Dogs are useful for polar bear hunting. The dogs know where there is thin ice, know how to avoid danger while travelling. The dogs can find their way home, even during a white-out or blizzard. Jayson Kunnuk

Filmmaker: Zacharias Kunuk, Norman Cohn, Paulossie Qulitalik

Filmmaker Contact: zkunuk@isuma.ca; info@isuma.tv

Producer: Norman Cohn, Paulossie Qulitalik, Zacharias Kunuk

Year of Production: 1995

Distributor Information:

Isuma Distribution International c/o VTape, wandav@vtape.org, +1.416.351.1317 fax-1509; info@isuma.tv, +1.514.486.0707 fax-9851.

Country: Canada

Region: Igloolik, Nunavut, Canadian Arctic

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