Culture

Qaujimaviit? is a series of educational, yet entertaining, videos for people who are interested in Inuktitut and want to learn more about the subtleties of this intriguing Northern language.

Filmmaker: IsumaTV

Filmmaker Contact:

info@isuma.tv

Producer's Name: IsumaTV

Qaujimaviit? is a series of short videos for learning or improving Inuktut language skills with Elder Peter Irniq.  Today's episode is about food.

ISUMA: Qaujimaviit? Episode 9, Food (2 mins) Igloolik Isuma Productions 2009, Host Peter Irniq. Inuktut and English.

Three partners of Igloolik Isuma Productions interview themselves about the meaning of their work together. Shot sometime in the early 1990's, date unknown.

Why We Do This? Zach Kunuk, Qulitalik, Norman Cohn, 42:09, Inuktitut and English. Early 1990s.

Rooted in tradition, adoption is a reality that all Inuit families have experienced. In Inuit culture, adopting a child from a relative, friend or acquaintance is a common practice. Marie-Hélène Cousineau, the adoptive mother of Alexandre Apak, lived in Igloolik, a small island southwest of Baffin Island in the Arctic, for many years.

This second Isuma-Artcirq co-production by Igloolik youth is a story about a young Inuk who lost his love. Using alcohol to put reality and the past behind, the past keeps hunting him. When he loses control and beats up a man on the street he is sentenced to two months in an outpost camp, where a hunter is waiting for him. 

Nunaqpa is the second Isuma recreated fiction, filmed with actors in 1990 recreating a Summer caribou hunt in the 1930's. For Igloolik Inuit, it is the time of Nunaqpa, 'going inland,' the long walk in search of summer-fat caribou to catch enough meat for the hard winter ahead. Two families leave for the hunt, while the old couple and grandmother wait by the shore for their return.

A group of Nunavut elders travel to five museums in North America to see and identify artifacts, tools and clothing collected from their Inuit ancestors.

Inuit Piqutingit (What Belongs to Inuit), Igloolik Isuma Productions, Kivalliq Inuit Association 2009, Producers Bernadette Dean, Katarina Soukup, Zacharias Kunuk. English and Inuktut w/Eng s-t.

Qallunajatut (Urban Inuk) follows the lives of three Inuit in Montreal over the course of one hot and humid summer.Only two generations ago Inuit lived in small, nomadic hunting camps scattered across the vast Arctic landscape.… Read more

In June 2003, Cannes prize-winner Zacharias Kunuk's family gathered at their traditional home camp site of Siuraajuk, to share stories and honor the ancestors who came before them: a wedding; a burial; messages from the past.

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Inuit memories and experiences of shamanism, and oral histories about the last shamans practicing in the region of Igloolik, Nunavut. Interviewees range from young people to elders and politicians, but they all share a belief that things happen, and that shamanism is still a living religion.

In Qimuksik (Dog Team) 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.    

Igloolik, Fall 1945. Grandmother remembers the old way. In autumn 1945, five families build a stone house to prepare for the coming winter.

Nunavut (Our Land) Episode 3: Qarmaq (Stone House), Igloolik Isuma Productions 1995, Filmmakers: Zacharias Kunuk, Norman Cohn, Pauloosie Qulitalik. Inuktut w/Eng s-t.

Igloolik, Fall 1945. Even here, news of the terrible world war raging outside makes people frightened and uneasy. They talk of the danger of the unknown future, of shamanistic intervention to protect their culture.

Igloolik, Fall 1945. Akkitiq wakes up to a nice day for seal hunting. The stone house is warm and comfortable. Men pack up the dog team and look for seals on the fresh ice,while women work at home. Sometimes, the squabbling of children leads to trouble among families.

Igloolik, Spring 1946. It is the season of never-ending days. Two dog teams searching the spring ice, men and boys hunting day and night. Seals are everywhere: at the breathing holes, sleeping under the warm sun. Amachlainuk has a lucky day.

Igloolik, Spring 1946. Seal pups: springtime delicacy, prized for their soft fur and tender meat. When the pups start coming out on the ice, even small children and grandmothers can hunt.

Packed up to travel, the families move slowly over the wet ice, through lakes of fresh melting snow, hunting on the way. Finding the breathing holes is a joyful game for everyone.