JANE GEORGE
Nunatsiaq News
QUEBEC CITY — Research on Nunavik’s unique rock drawings is set to resume this summer.
Nunavik’s cultural institute, Avataq, is beginning a three-year study with McGill University and Université Laval to chart the Ungava Bay coastline between Quaqtaq and Salluit — a region that’s been inhabited for thousands of years.
"We want to understand the human picture, to get a complete picture of the place," said Daniel Gendron, Avataq’s head archeologist.
Canada’s Social Science Research Council is contributing $600,000 towards the study. Over the next three years, Avataq and the universities will look for traces left by the people who once lived in the region.
As part of these efforts, a small group of archeologists, rock-art experts and local students will head to Qajartalik Island in July.
Faces in the rocks
Located near Kangiqsujuaq, Qajartalik is home to the only major petroglyph site in the Canadian Arctic. The rocky island looks like a dark strip of soapstone. On its 130-metre-long kayak-shaped ridge, lichens camouflage what some have dubbed "devil’s faces."
In shape, the etchings resemble the tiny carved masks archeologists associate with Dorset culture, believed to have flourished in the Eastern Arctic 1,000 to 1,500 years ago.
There are 170 of these faces, carved into the outcrop’s soft soapstone. Precise methods were used in their production, and most are symmetrical.
Some display feline features, and appear to be horned. Lines radiate from many of the mouths, perhaps symbolizing the breath of a shaman, archeologists speculate.
Further study could reveal more about the ancient society that produced the petroglyphs and its relationship with the spiritual world.
Vulnerable site needs protection
Residents of Kangiqsujuaq have always known about this mysterious site, along with another one with fewer petroglyphs. Anthropologist Bernard Saladin d’Anglure first officially noted Qajartalik’s carvings in 1961. Researchers returned to the island in the 1970s, but residents of Kangiqsujuaq declared a moratorium on further study after someone removed a block of stone from the island.
In 1996, Avataq revived the research on Qajartalik. For three summers a team of archeologists and rock-art experts found new faces of various styles, as well as 40 places where soapstone pots or lamps were carved out of the rock.
But the survey stopped after the 1998 season while Avataq looked for more funding.
Gendron is delighted with the new research money because further study could lead to better protection for the rock carvings.
Despite their remote location, the masks of Qajartalik are susceptible to harm. In the long term, natural processes such as water and wind erosion threaten the site. Vandalism and looting — some by passengers of cruise ships — have already caused damage.
Qajartalik’s location also makes protection a challenge. Because it’s an island, it’s considered as federal turf, even though it lies close offshore of Quebec.
As a result, it’s been hard to get Ottawa and Quebec City to agree on how best to protect the petrogylphs, or to offer funding for research.
"We need some agreement to solve that problem," Gendron said.