The Inuit imagination and silence

Kiviuk Crossing The Sea Simon Tookoome (Phillipa Iksiraq) 1982 Linocut; Stencil Baker Lake The Inuit civilizations extend through northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland. The sister civilization of the Tuvin people live in northern Siberia and Asia. They are many miles apart but they share similarities in culture and beliefs. Since both civilizations exist in the harshest of climates there is strong evidence to suggest that their development is climate affected. Have you ever wanted to go back in time? By visiting the Inuit civilization we venture back into practices when some civilizations were hunting and gathering communities. These people hunt, trap and gather whales, marine animals and caribou that are stored over the long hard winter. I have often desired to time travel. Perhaps this is the reason I am fascinated with this civilization. Have you ever heard throat singing? When people are forced to lead a contemplative life style over the long months of winter without television they develop interesting entertainment alternatives. Throat singing works from overtones that make one voice sound like two or even three. They make multiple overtones coming from one person. Other types of throat singing make humans sound like whales. 

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The Inuit Director of the movie, “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner”, Zacharias Kunuk, said “In the Inuit language, the silence is meant as a "letter"--the way that silence is used and the way that silence is ended is very important. We tried to capture as much of that sprung rhythm and the importance of nothingness that is so much a part of their lives by establishing that pace in the editing and in the storytelling.” The Inuit binge hunting season is followed by a prolonged period of quiet and serenity. This kind of solitude can tend to simplify language. But, at the same time it can excite imagination. The virtue of the Inuit people are active imaginations and silence that affects communication. The elements of their imagination are silence and daring. The silent pauses of the language of virtue will always remind me of the Inuit people. Kiviuk; A story told by Kuvdluitsoq in an interview with and translated by Knud Rasmussen Kivioq is an Inuk adventurer who travels across the Arctic facing various hardships, both real and fabulous. Kivioq was a man with many lives. He was a hero in many legends of the Inuit and he got into many adventures with creatures that lived in the Arctic. This story tells of how the ice came to the seas of the Arctic. The to’talik widow dressed her newborn son in the skin of an unborn seal. She trained him to hold his breath in a pail of water until he could hold his breath long enough. One day she sent her son, transformed into a seal, in front of the kayaks. She instructed him to lead the kayaks out to sea and when they were far enough she would raise a storm. When the kayaks went far out to sea a storm broke and soon everyone drowned except Kivioq. Kivioq was driven off of his course by the storm and came to a land he did not know. He saw a house without a roof and windows. He left his kayak at the edge of the beach so he could quickly flee. He climbed up the house and saw an old sorceress tanning a human skin. Kivioq spat and the sorceress tried to look up. Her eyelids were so big that they fell down over her eyes when she raised her head. She wondered how it could happen that the house had a leaky roof when it had never leaked before. When Kivioq spat again she took her ulu and cut off her eyelids. She then saw Kivioq. Her eyes were so frightful that a man could die from her sight. She invited him inside to dry his clothes which she hung on a drying rack. She went outside to fetch fuel for the fire as she intended to eat him. When Kivioq stayed alone he saw many dead heads everywhere. One of them started to speak and warned him to escape or he will be killed. When Kivioq went to take his clothes off the drying rack, they disappeared. Fortunately, his helping spirit flew in and returned his clothes. The sorceress saw him go. She ran into the water to catch him but when she could not reach him she slashed at the granite rock with her ulu as easily as if she were cutting meat. But Kivioq harpooned a stone and it smashed. He warned her that he would have harpooned her in the same way. She asked him to become her husband, but he refused. She was so maddened with rage that she threw her ulu at him and turned all the water to ice.