Taissumani, Oct. 28

Knud Rasmussen and the Iglulik Inuit, Part 3

Ivaluardjuk, the renowned geographer and storyteller. Knud Rasmussen met him at Repulse Bay in 1921, then used him as one of this main informants on the culture of the Iglulik Inuit.

KENN HARPER

On the day following his first meeting with the Canadian Inuit, Knud Rasmussen and his party continued on to Repulse Bay where they were treated to the hospitality of Captain George Cleveland, ex-whaler in charge of the Hudson’s Bay Co. trading post.

Here Rasmussen also met one of the oldest men of the district, a man who later was to become one of his main informants on the traditions of the Iglulik Inuit.

This was Ivaluardjuk, a man with a long white beard whose eyes had been worn dim through many blizzards. During his long life he had travelled extensively throughout the area from Pond Inlet to Chesterfield Inlet. Rasmussen described him as the geographer of the tribe.

On one occasion, to the explorer’s surprise, the old man drew with paper and pencil a map of the entire coastline from Repulse Bay to Pond Inlet. As with most Inuit map-making, the proportions were distorted to emphasize the areas of greatest importance to the cartographer, yet Rasmussen was able to learn from this map the Inuit names for about one hundred geographical features, information that would stand him in good stead in his later travels and conversations with the Inuit of the area.

Rasmussen’s first language was Kalaallisut and he used it to advantage on this expedition. His hosts were astonished when Rasmussen recounted to them traditional tales from Greenland which proved to be almost identical to some of their own.

This broke the ice. “Thus I gained the old man’s confidence,” Rasmussen wrote, “and we were soon discussing the folk-lore of his people as experts…”

Rasmussen received his introduction to the Iglulik area from Ivaluardjuk. In a quiet and steady tone, the elder narrated the traditional tales of his people and concluded with a summary of his own eventful life. He summed up with an evocative statement, representative of the beautifully poetic narrative techniques of the traditional Inuit storyteller:

“But when I chance to think of my childhood and recall all the old memories from those days, then youth seems a time when all meat was juicy and tender, and no game too swift for a hunter. When I was young, every day was as a beginning of some new thing, and every evening ended with the glow of the next day’s dawn. Now, I have only the old stories and songs to fall back upon, the songs that I sang myself in the days when I delighted to challenge my comrades to a song-contest in the feasting house.”

Rasmussen closed his writings on his meeting with Ivaluardjuk by recording a song the old man shared with him:

“Cold and mosquitoes,
These two pests
Come never together.
I lay me down on the ice.
Lay me down on the snow and ice,
Till my teeth fall chattering.
It is I,
Aja – aja – ja.

Memories are they,
From those days,
From those days,
Mosquitoes swarming
From those days,
The cold is bitter,
The mind grows dizzy
As I stretch my limbs
Out on the ice.
It is I,
Aja – aja – ja.

Ai! But songs
Call for strength
And I seek after words,
I, aja – aja – ja…”

Taissumani recounts a specific event of historic interest. Kenn Harper is a historian, writer and linguist who lives in Iqaluit. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).