Values (Traditional)

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.

Igloolik, Spring 1946. Inuaraq throws his bones at the river and finds the fish swimming back and forth. Back at the tent Qulitalik sends the young men out with fish spears to try their luck. The walk up the rushing river is exciting but treacherous. Fish are hiding. It's easy to fall in.

Igloolik, Summer 1946. The distant sound of the atookatookatook, the first gas engine to arrive in Igloolik, brings a surprise visitor to Qaisut, island of the walrus hunters. Father Qaukuluk arrives to study Inuit life, to dig in the ancient ruins and to see the hunt. When it's time to go hunting, Inuaraq thinks the Priest will bring bad luck but Qulitalik finally gives in.… Read more

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Nunavut (Our Land) Episode 10, Qaisut, Igloolik Isuma Productions 1995, Producers Zacharias Kunuk, Pauloosie Qulitalik, Norman Cohn. Inuktut w/English 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. The weather turns colder. With the north wind blowing, Inuaraq builds his sod house, while Qulitalik cuts the ice blocks for the porch.

Igloolik, Fall-Winter 1946. Sitting around the stone house carving a harpoon, Qulitalik starts talking about the year gone past. Everyone joins in with stories and laughter. Tea is boiling over the seal lamps, children playing on the caribou skin beds. Grandmother tells the old stories, everybody has a new one. Home is warm and cozy.… Read more

Igloolik, Fall-Winter 1946. It's almost a month since the sun disappeared. Back in the stone house everyone wakes up to Christmas Day. For Inuit in 1946, Christmas is a strange mix of ritual, some from the old life and some from the new.… Read more

Ajainaa! features Igloolik Elders discussing their views of contemporary Inuit life. Topics include the role of Inuit and "Southern" forms of education, survival strategies (such as how to save a drowning victim), and the differences between camp and settlement life. Written, produced, and performed by Isuma's Uqallangniq Elders Group.

Rapid change from traditional to modern life in Nunavut, like many post-colonial societies, has concentrated power, wealth and information in a few hands.… Read more

In 1994, fulfilling the wish of 94 year-old Noah Piugattuk to taste whale-skin maqtaq once again before he passes away, a group of Igloolik hunters illegally catches a bowhead whale after years of government prohibition. This event which sparks a legal controversy, the hunters are charged, government policy is resisted, then changed..

As summer ends near Igloolik in the 1930's, three families build a saputi to trap fish going upriver for the winter. The days are getting shorter and young people daydream, while waiting for fish to come. But nature is not always predictable....

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Paul Apak Angilirq (1954-1998) was vice-president and co-founder of Isuma. Apak began his career in 1978 as a trainee in Canada's Inukshuk Project, the first project to train indigenous TV producers in remote communities.

Year of Production: 2009

Country: Canada

Paul Apak Angilirq (1954-1998) was vice-president and co-founder of Isuma. Apak began his career in 1978 as a trainee in Canada's Inukshuk Project, the first project to train indigenous TV producers in remote communities.

Year of Production: 2009

Country: Canada