(Inuit song)
- I am called Usarak,
though I was named Apak when I was a young woman,
during the time of the story I am telling you now.
When I was still Apak,
my father was the famous Iglulik shaman, Avva,
who, with my mother Orulu, both passed away many years ago.
I was thirteen years old when I saw my first White Man.
(spelling his name)
(laughter)
Those days I was traveling with Nuqallaq, my first sweetheart.
(singing)
Even then he was already working for the Whites.
(eerie voices)
(throat singing)
(laughter)
- Why always have sex with a dead man
instead of live human beings?
(laughing)
- Asshole.
(chattering)
(chattering while eating)
(chattering)
- Was it slow coming home?
- No, when the Greenlanders arrived at the Trader
I stayed to see them.
- So, what were they like?
- They act like Whites but they speak our language.
Their parkas have a little tail in front.
Their pants are bearskin and their boots are mostly dog fur.
The big one has a beard and we called him Big Piita.
He likes to drink.
The quiet one is called Kunnuti and seems to be his helper.
- My grandmother spoke only Inuktitut
and lived here on an island.
Where is Iglulik?
- Iglulik is here, on a small island.
- Why are you all living so far from home?
Follow Him... Follow Him Follow Jesus... Follow Him
(laughter)
(singing)
- Those bearskin pants look really good.
(chattering)
- It's tobacco! Who has my pipe?
- I fed the dogs.
- Come in and feel welcome!
- I saw Big Piita at the trading post.
That one is Acuity... no, Arnarulunguaq.
- My older brother, younger son, older son,
my sister, and son-in-law Taparte.
Over there is my daughter, Apak.
And here, my wife, Orulu.
- I came to ear songs and legends if you will share them
and to learn about your beliefs.
- We believe happy people should not worry about hidden things.
Our spirits are offended if we think too much.
- Yes, I understand.
Soon I am traveling west to meet the inland Inuit near Baker Lake.
But my friends want to go to Iglulik,
if you don't mind taking them.
- Father, I don't mind taking them.
Maybe my brother-in-law will come too?
- People... working... soon... trade...
- You want to trade.
My family doesn't work for Whites.
But everyone sees my son wants to help people
who speak our language.
Sing us something in your language.
- Yes, I can sing a little.
(singing Italian opera)
(Italian opera playing on gramophone)
(thanking him)
(chattering)
- Wife...
You're not one of the children.
(laughter)
(chattering)
- My mother was cursed by an evil shaman
who befriended my father in order to lie with her.
When my mother refused,
the shaman whispered angrily in her ear:
"All your children will be born dead!"
And so it happened
that all my mother's children born before me
had lain crosswise and were stillborn.
When my mother knew she was with child, with me,
she said to her companions:
"This child will not be a human being."
To her I was already dead.
One day my father was getting ready to go hunting
and my mother helped harness the dogs,
which was taboo in her condition.
I began kicking and struggling to get out through her navel.
Older people said to my mother:
"Because the baby knows the taboo,
it will become a great shaman."
But many dangers would pursue me before I was born.
My father caught a walrus with an unborn young, and cut it out,
without thinking my mother was with child.
The moment I was born all life left me
and I lay dead as a stone.
The cord around my neck had strangled me.
An old woman, Arjuaq, a shaman,
saw my eyes bulging out of my head.
She cut and tied the cord, and wiped off the blood,
using a raven skin, and when I started to breathe and cry,
she said: "He was born to be dead, but now he will live."
Arjuaq stayed with my mother until she felt calm.
My mother was put on a diet with very strict taboos.
If she ate from a walrus it was forbidden to all others.
No one could eat from her cooking pot.
No women but only men could visit her.
My clothes had to be sewn only with the fur turned sideways.
My mother and I lived alone for a year,
my father visiting only now and then.
My father was not allowed to sharpen his own knives.
If he did, his hands swelled up and I would become sick.
Finally I was old enough to go seal hunting with the men.
When I harpooned my first seal my father lay face down on the ice,
and the seal was dragged across his naked back while still alive.
Only men could eat my first catch
and nothing must be left over.
For my first caribou I was forbidden to use a rifle,
only bow and arrow.
This animal also only men could eat but not women.
The day I harpooned my first walrus,
my father shouted at the top of his voice
the names of all the camps he knew,
and when he finished he shouted:
"Now there is food for everyone!"
Now I was allowed to eat
all those forbidden delicacies, like entrails,
and women could eat my catch, if they were not with child.
Then I would be lonely and melancholy,
but suddenly feel happy for no reason.
And I would start singing: "Joy! Joy!" Just like that.
Suddenly it was so strong I just became a shaman, it was amazing!
I was able to see and hear things in a completely different way.
This shaman light came from my brain to my whole body.
A normal person could not see this light.
Only spirits could see it.
And the spirits who saw this light
- beings from the land, air and water-
came to me as my helpers.
My first helping spirit was my little namesake, Avva,
a little woman spirit, there are many of these
that live along the shore,
wearing a pointed hood and bearskin pants,
and their feet twisted up.
They hold their arms high, their palms together,
always stroking their head.
They are bright and thoughtful,
and always cheerful when you call them.
When my little Avva came to me
it was like the roof of the sod house lifted up.
I could see everything right through the house.
I could pass through the earth; I could pass through the sky.
It was the little Avva that gave me this light.
As long as I was singing the brightness hovered over me,
until Avva lay down in a corner, ready for the next time I called her.
My second helping spirit was a shark.
It swam up to my kayak and whispered my name.
We have no sharks around here so I was astonished to see one.
Afterwards, it helped me hunting, always there when I needed it.
These two helpers, the little Avva and the shark,
I called them just by singing: "Joy! Joy! Joy!"
I see a little shore spirit Avva, I am also called Avva:
"Joy! Joy!"
I would keep repeating these words until I burst into tears,
trembling all over in great dread, and crying:
"Joy! Now I will go home!"
"Joy!"
"JOY!"
Once I lost a son,
and felt I could never leave the place beside his body.
I was like a mountain spirit, afraid of human kind.
I stayed a long time inland, and my helping spirits left me.
They don't like it when people remain sad too long.
Then one day the song of joy came back to me, all unexpected,
and I felt like I wanted to see people again.
My helping spirits came back to me!
I was myself again!
- These rules you follow,
eat this but not that, touch only this but not that,
what is the meaning of doing each thing just one way?
- I'll show you something outside.
To hunt well and live happily we need calm weather.
Bad weather makes it really hard to find food for our families.
Why do we have all these blizzards?
Why do people suffer pain and sickness?
We don't fear death but we are afraid of suffering.
My sister never did anything bad.
Her children are strong and cheerful.
Now she'll be suffering for the rest of her life.
Why?
You too cannot answer why life is the way it is.
All our customs come from life and turn toward life.
We can't explain anything, but you can see for yourself.
We know a taboo was broken when we suffer from bad weather,
or from the Great Woman who rules over all the sea mammals.
Spirits that help evil shamans, and the souls of dead human beings,
against these we struggle to protect ourselves.
We follow our ancestors' rules because they work.
They protect us so we can live without worry,
even if our customs are different from yours.
- Our world is good and Inuit have our place in it.
Our greatest danger,
is that the animals we kill for food and clothes
have souls like ours.
We have to satisfy them,
so they won't take revenge against us for using their bodies.
(laughter)
(chattering)
(laughter)
You should be warmer to your husband.
- I'm not warm enough?
- A wife should please her husband sometimes.
- Does my Netsilik husband complain so much?
- Your husband never says anything.
But everyone sees your mind is somewhere else.
I solved your problem peacefully, for the good of the family.
Would you have preferred to see more blood on the floor?
- No, Father, mine was enough.
- My only child with power to call spirits?
And you waste it having sex with your dead husband?
- No, I loved my husband better while he was still alive.
After you chased away the first man I chose for myself.
- Exactly, the same White Man-killer
who just drove into our camp.
- Aatitaq... untangle the dog lines.
- It's been a long time.
Rough road?
Which way did you come?
- The bumpy road across the lake.
- Grandfather! Come eat at our place.
We haven't seen you for a long time.
- Is your whole family here?
- I bet my sister will be happy to see you.
- Even your father, too?
- After you unload, come over there to my place.
- A White Man. English?
- Yeah. And you?
- A little bit.
- You just came out from that igloo?
- I know. I've been out all day.
(laughter)
- Those other ones. Are they Inuit?
- Yes, they are.
- Really.
(chattering)
(baby babbling)
- They're not so bad, so we're taking them along with us to Iglulik.
But my father wants to wait, to catch more meat before we go.
- Why don't you come with us?
Right after the Tivajuk, tomorrow,
or the day after.
- No, it's already arranged with Natar.
- What? Are you already married?
- Mr. Thimble makes a better wife. Big Piita is too big for my taste.
- Mr. Thimble?
- That's what we call his partner, the tall quiet one.
He gives thimbles to all the ladies. - And is it working?
- I don't think so. He still looks very lonely.
- Is it working? - Not with me!
- Pitajuat... I bet you're not lonely at night, are you?
What?
- I lost my beautiful wife...
to...
...a killing sickness.
Just before I sailed from home.
(baby babbling)
She... should have been with me.
- I lost my first wife, too.
She ended her own life.
Then I found a new wife to make me happy again.
Be cheerful.
There's a lot of nice women here for you.
- Here. A gift for your new wife.
- I'm happy to see you again, too.
It's been a long time since you left me to marry that...?
...what would you call him now?
- You mean, when you ran away from my father
to work for the Whites?
- I'm curious. Making love to a dead man...?
Do you have to do all the work by yourself?
- No, it was with you I had to do it all myself.
Here. Take it.
If your wife doesn't want it, it should fit you perfectly.
- You keep it.
- Don't worry, I have two.
- It seems that you two know each other.
- That one is just too beautiful for any man to feel safe.
- Her first husband was murdered last winter.
A Netsilik visitor saw her and wanted her for himself.
- Our men wanted to kill him but we drove him off instead.
My father preferred his family give us a new husband.
That's how she got Taparte.
- Who she won't even look at!
- Well...
that was a peaceful solution.
- What?
- Eh...
- Even as a boy I could always recognize your footsteps.
- I'm not surprised.
- I tried to keep still as a rabbit so you couldn't find me.
- You were always able, even at misbehaving.
- The cross-piece was loose, always pulling to the right.
My father wishes you safe travel. The road is bad this year.
- What road do you mean?
- He hopes you will join us soon.
He'll be disappointed if you don't come.
- We'll do what we do.
That's a nice rifle you're carrying.
Did you take it from the dead trader?
- That White Man was not in his right mind.
- Killing is always a bad idea.
His family will want revenge just like we usually do.
- Our elders thought he was dangerous.
We shot him like anyone acting crazy and scaring people.
- But the Whites are not like us. They won't forget about it.
- Elder, you follow our ancestors' way.
This is beautiful; I respect it.
But I've chosen to see which way the Whites are going.
- Yes, that's your decision to make.
Just stay away from my daughter.
(voice chanting)
(playing drum)
(chanting)
- My worst memory was a famine just after my oldest son was born.
Even worse, all our stored meat was destroyed by wolverines.
In the two coldest months
my husband hardly slept one night indoors.
He only slept now and then in tiny shelters he built by the seal holes.
We nearly starved to death,
since the whole time he caught only two seals.
To see him go out cold and hungry
day after day, in all weather,
growing thinner and weaker all the time - oh, it was terrible!
At last he caught a walrus, and we were saved.
- And what was the happiest thing you can remember?
- It was the first time I came back to Iglulik after I was married.
I had always been a poor fatherless creature
passed from hand to hand;
but now I was welcomed warmly by all in the village.
My husband had come
to challenge someone to a song contest,
and we had a feast such as I had only heard of,
but never seen before.
(crying)
I am overwhelmed by knowing I have had a happy life.
Today I've been a child again.
By remembering my youth, I relived it.
Now you know the life of an old woman, both bitter and sweet.
(yelling)
(girls yelling)
(laughter)
(reciting)
(laughter)
- Ah!
(eerie voices)
(throat singing)