Shantell Powell

Researching Inuit Elements

2017-12-20T20:52:05Z

As my idea evolved, I decided to look into Inuit mythology for further inspiration. I've long been interested in folklore, mythology, and story-telling in general. It's a huge reason why I double-majored in English and Classics: for the stories! A few years ago, I wrote a play based upon Inuit mythology, and while researching for it, I realized a few the stories were strangely familiar. The more I read, the more I realized I'd known some of those tales since I was a small child. My father had told me some of them, but my recollection had grown fuzzy over the decades.

As I read through the stories and through folklorist's interpretations, I winnowed my stories down to four. Because of prior brainstorming, I wanted stories which dealt with interactions with the flesh. These four stories accomplish this. They also each incorporate women of strong magical ability.

I played with various ideas for a title, polling my peers online for suggestions. Some of the ideas were decent, but none quite clicked for me. And then I decided upon Skinfolk, since it ties in several elements:

A play on words of "kinfolk," since the Inuit are my kin, and the characters within the stories (with one exception: the Spider Woman) are all kin to one another
Skin is a tie-in to the theme of interactions with flesh
The folk part references folklore, and these stories are part of Inuit folklore

Having the title interact with skin via embroidery is yet another tie-in.

After choosing the stories, I spoke with Inuk elder Tauni Sheldon. I pitched my book idea to her. We spoke at length about my intentions with the stories and about my understanding of the stories and the lessons they offered. She wasn't familiar with the story of Kiviuq and the spider woman, so I told her about the book I'd found the most information in: Kiviuq: An Inuit Hero and His Siberian Cousins by Kira Van Deusen.

She also gave me a crash course in Inuktitut syllabics. This is the syllabic guide she shared with me.

She also made me realize that although I love the Arjowiggins Inuit typeface, it is detrimental to use it within the book when paired with Inuktitut syllabics. When I shared an image of my name hand rendered in this typeface, she was confused by it. She was trying to read it in Inuktitut rather than English. To remove the confusion, I kept the typeface for just the title, where it is not contextually confusing.

comments

The Stories

2017-12-06T21:39:27Z

Kiviuq and the Spider Woman

Once upon a time Kiviuq discovered a spider woman cleaning a human skin inside her house. Dead people were suspended from the walls, and she was eating them. She had a big cooking pot with human flesh inside.

Maybe it was a mistake, but Kiviuq spat at her to catch her attention. At first she thought it was raining and didn’t look, but he spat at her again and she tried to look up. She couldn’t see him because her eyelids were too big. So she took out her ulu and sliced off her eyelids so she could see who was spitting at her. She ate her eyelids as she gazed at him.

Kiviuq died of fright at the sight of the cannibal spider woman eating her own eyelids. But when the spring came, she spoke magic words to bring him back to life.

--------------------------------------------------------

Tuglik and Qujapik

Once upon a time, everyone but Tuglik and her granddaughter Qujapik went hunting narwhal. Left all alone, they soon became hungry, but they didn’t know how to hunt. But Tuglik used magic to turn a piece of seal bone into a penis, a hunk of muktuk into testicles, and her vagina into a dog sled. She had become a man.

Pleased with herself, Tuglik said, “Now I can travel and get us some food!”

“But you don’t have dogs,” said Qujapik.

Tuglik’s magic was so strong she turned her lice into a team of dogs and every day she went hunting, always bringing home something to eat.

One day, while Tuglik was away on a hunt, a man came by to visit Qujapik.

“Whose harpoon is that?” he asked.

“My grandmother’s,” said Qujapik.

“Whose kayak is that?”

“My grandmother’s.”

“You seem to be pregnant,” said the man. “Who is your husband?”

“My grandmother,” said Qujapik.

“I will be a better husband,” he said.

And so she packed up her things and moved to a new village with her new husband.

When Tuglik came home and found she was alone, she saw no point in being a man anymore. So she used her magic to become an old lady with a vagina instead of a dogsled.

-------------------------------

Blubber Boy

Once upon a time there lived a girl whose lover drowned at sea. No one could make her happy. She cried and cried. Finally, she took a chunk of muktuk and carved it into the shape of her lost love. She did a fine job, and it looked just like him.

She wished with all her might that the blubber were her lover, and she rubbed it round and round on her genitals until it suddenly became alive. There he stood in front of her, as handsome as ever.

She took him to her parents and said, “See? He isn’t dead!”

She was given permission to marry and they moved to a small house. When it got too warm, Blubber Boy became weary and he’d say, “Rub me.” And so she would rub him on her genitals and revive him.

One day, he went hunting seals. When he was paddling back in his kayak, the sun made him sweat and he melted smaller and smaller. When he stepped out of his kayak, he collapsed into a little pile of melted blubber.

The girl mourned her lover again. And once the period of mourning was over, she carved another piece of blubber into his shape again and rubbed it against her genitals.

All of a sudden he stood before her saying, “Rub me again…”

----------------------------

Sun Woman and Moon Man

Once upon a time, there lived a sister and brother named Sun Woman and Moon Man. They were the only people in the world with anuses, and Sun Woman was the only one with a vagina, too. They didn’t know they were the only ones with these parts until they went to a village. That’s where they learned no one else had vaginas or anuses.

Outside every house was a pile of chewed up meat and fat. Back then, they had to chew it up and spit it out, because there was no way to poop. And when women got pregnant, the babies had to be cut out and the mothers stitched back up again with sinew.

Sun Woman and Moon Man wanted to love someone in a way not right for a brother and sister to love, so they soon found mates. Moon Man gently used a knife to cut open the crotch of his wife, and created a vulva and vagina. When she got pregnant, she was the first woman to give birth. And the baby was the first to be born with a vagina and an anus.

Well, everyone was so excited by this that all the women grabbed their ulus and slit open their crotches to get vaginas. And then everyone grabbed meat forks and stabbed themselves in the butt and got anuses.

That’s when the party really got started, and people gobbled up food and love like never before.

comments

Mythology of the Far North - resources

2017-12-06T19:51:53Z

Eskimo and Aleut Stories from Alaska by F. A. Golder
The Journal of American Folklore
Vol. 22, No. 83 (Jan. - Mar., 1909), pp. 10-24

Kiviuq: An Inuit Hero and His Siberian Cousins (McGill-Queen's Native and Northern Series)

Qupirruit: Insects and Worms in Inuit Traditions by Frédéric Laugrand, Jarich Oosten

Inuit Myths Pinterest Page

Inuit Myths

Inuit Myths: Kivioq

Handbook of Native American Mythology

The Woman With Two Vaginas by Denise Duhamel

Northern Tales: Traditional Stories of Eskimo and Indian Peoples

comments

Book Concept: Blubber Boy

2017-12-04T13:54:08Z

The idea continues to evolve. I'm no longer considering a cookbook, but instead, a book on Inuit culture and visceral folklore which will use photos demonstrating interactions with flesh.

One tentative story is of Blubber Boy.

(This video parodies Nanook of the North.)

Blubber Boy read aloud.

I managed to track down the creator of the Arjowiggins Inuit typeface, and he graciously sent me the font to use for my project.

comments