Shantell Powell

My next major project has been announced, and I already have ideas on what I want to do.

I was inspired a couple of weeks ago by this video of a snowy owl chilling out on a frozen lake:



I want to do something based upon this idea. I'm tentatively calling it "Ookpik," and would like to have throat singing as background sound, mixed in with the sounds of wind and water. I'd like to incorporate elements of old-timey puppet show/operetta effects. Something along this line:



But instead of water, I'm thinking of doing water-colour painted blocks of ice, which will be moved up and down.

I'm looking into whether there are owl songs in tradition Inuit throat singing.

Skinfolk is a book for people curious about Inuit mythology. The book pairs objects from Inuit life with traditional stories. Inuit mythology demonstrates the transformative nature of living beings and also shows how allegedly inanimate objects contain life. This animistic nature is illustrated by the pairings of myth and object within the book. The word “skinfolk” is a portmanteau tying together the ideas of kin, skin, and folklore, and the book’s four tales have a central theme of how powerful women interact with flesh.

In order to ensure the topic is treated respectfully, an Inuk elder was consulted at the onset of the book’s creation. She also provided assistance in using consistent dialects for the Inuktitut terminology. An Anishinaabe craftsperson was consulted in order to learn traditional beadwork techniques, giving authenticity to the hand-beaded cover.

The colour palette is a simple one of white, blue, black, and red: common colours for traditional Inuit beadwork. The beadwork is sewn directly into the leather, foreshadowing the central theme of interactions with flesh. The single red bead in the tittle of the letter “i” and the red binding thread slashing across the margins represent the blood from those interactions. The cool silvery cast of charcoal illustrations and black-and-white photography matches the northern climes from whence spring the tales.

The typeface used for the title is Arjowiggins Inuit, chosen because it marries elements of Inuktitut syllabics with Latinate letters. Gadugi, the sans-serif font chosen for the text within the book, offers a seamless transition between English and Inuktitut.

(This research paper was written for my academic communications course. Please forgive the formatting issues. APA format isn't terribly easy to do on Dreamwidth. Rest assured that the copy I handed in was formatted correctly.)

Abstract

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has recently demonstrated the horrors of colonialism within Canada. Inuit, badly affected by the legacy of colonialism, are using social media and digital technologies as a tool to heal from these effects. Although social media is frequently considered a vice, this research shows how Inuit use educational websites, Facebook community groups, personal Facebook pages, and hashtag activism as a means of decolonizing.

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Much has been said about the negative roles of social media and digital technologies upon society. As an example, op-ed columnist David Brooks (2017) claims technology ruins youth, capitalizes upon intentionally-addictive materials, and unfairly infringes upon content creators while commodifying the private lives of users. (paras. 5-8). Although Brooks makes fair points, outliers have been omitted from his narrative. Digital technologies and social media play a vital role for Inuit, and have done so for several years. These digital tools have two key uses for the Inuit community: They assist in restoring the cultural knowledge and resources taken away from them by their colonizers, and they decolonize through promulgating key issues to the rest of the world.

Background

Hundreds of years ago, when maritime explorers revealed the resource-rich Americas to the European monarchy, “an unceasing wave of migration, trade, conquest, and colonization” (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada [TRC], 2015, p. 45) was unleashed. At the time, colonizers believed they were bringing civilization to uncivilized, savage people (TRC, p. 46). This alleged civilization was brought to the Inuit through discursive groups and practices including Christian missionaries, residential schools, and anti-sealing campaigns. These colonial practices resulted in the forcible disconnection of many Indigenous people from their languages, lands, customs, and even one another. The treatment of Indigenous peoples as uncivilized is condescending and marginalizing, and this marginalization is made worse “by processes of socio-economic globalization and global environmental change” (Young, 2017, para. 5). The Inuit, in the face of these formidable obstacles, improvise and adapt through the use of digital technologies.

Qanuqtuurunnarniq is Inuktitut for the concept of improvisation and resourcefulness. This principle is vital for survival in the inhospitable ever-changing environment of the Arctic, and lends itself well to changing social and political climates as well. When the viewpoints of Arctic people are overlooked by southern demographics, the Inuit do not despair. They respond by making good use of digital technologies. Social media and websites give Inuit the capacity for self-representation on a global level, and they also allow them to communicate with one another. Through digital media, many Inuit “reassert their own culture, improve social ties within and across communities, and resist the ongoing effects of colonialism in the Arctic” (Young, paras. 8-10).

Reclamation of Culture

Affordable access to high-bandwidth broadband is a necessity for the Inuit (Alexander et al, 2009, p. 228). They resist colonialization by sharing their culture and knowledge with one another online, a practice endorsed by the findings of the TRC Calls to Action (2015). The Settlement Agreement Parties and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples calls for a commitment to “respecting Indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination in spiritual matters, including the right to practise, develop, and teach their own spiritual and religious traditions, customs, and ceremonies, consistent with Article 12:1 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” (p. 5).

This online sharing of spiritual and cultural traditions is exemplified by a variety of online initiatives. One such initiative is the community-based Nanisiniq Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) Adventure Website. Qaujimajatuqangit is a knowledge system. The word is Inuktitut for “that which has long been known by Inuit” (Alexander et al, 2009, p. 228). The website encourages users to refer to their elders for guidance and wisdom, rebuilding “the ancient cycle of knowledge transfer” (Alexander et al, 2009, p. 222). Similarly, the Inuit Myths & Legends website, a bilingual (Inuktitut/English) resource, links Inuit to their ancestors and culture (Inuit Myths & Legends, n.d.).

Tattooing is an example of an Inuit practice banned for years by colonizers. The Inuit Tattoo Revitalization Project uses FaceBook as a platform to share resources on this tradition (The Inuit Tattoo Revitalization Project, n.d.). Facebook is also used as a platform for online communities such as the Aboriginal Services at Conestoga group (n.d.) and the Inuit Southern Ontario Resource Group (n.d.). Both groups share community- and education-based information, and give means to meet up with Inuit elders in person. Through these online resources, Inuit in southwestern Ontario are afforded an opportunity to learn and share traditional skills like throat singing, drumming, and leather crafting. They also have opportunities to partake in traditional meals (eg. seal meat and whale blubber).


Figure 1. Traditional Inuit tattooing. From Inuit Tattoo Revitalization (2017).

Individual Inuit content creators also use Facebook to promote their creations to one another and to the general public. Naulaq LeDrew, for example, sells her sealskin products on her page (LeDrew, n.d.) and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril promotes her documentary about the Inuit perspective on the seal hunt and upon the #sealfie movement. (Arnaquq-Baril, n.d.).


Figure 2. Sealskin backpack. Adapted from Naulaq’s Unique Art (2017).

Hashtag Activism

The seal hunt has always been a vital part of Inuit survival, and this has not changed in the 21st century. In 2014, celebrity Ellen DeGeneres used her considerable international clout to perpetuate the anti-sealing narrative through hashtag activism. The hashtag, a function of Twitter which permit users to focus their tweets around a single focus or issue (Moscato, 2016, Introduction section, para. 1), became instrumental to her cause. She took a star-studded selfie of herself at the Academy Awards and used the #selfie tag to raise money for charities including anti-sealing campaigns (Hawkins and Silver, 2017, Mutable multimedial and mass section, para. 5). She raised millions of dollars for the Humane Society of the United States at the same time as they launched their annual anti-sealing campaign, and she specifically censured the seal hunt as “one of the most atrocious and inhumane acts against animals allowed by any government” (Rodgers and Scobie, 2015, pp. 70-71). Her personal website featured an image of a baby seal and included a link for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ anti-sealing donation website (Hawkins and Silver, 2017, From selfie to #sealfie section, para. 4). Degeneres had, perhaps inadvertently, perpetuated the colonial perspective of Inuit as uncivilized savages.

The #sealfie tag emerged as a direct response to Degeneres’s #selfie activism. The #sealfie campaign was intended to “counter the impact of colonialism and... explicitly protect and preserve identity and culture of the Inuit” (Rodgers & Scobiie, 2015, p. 70). Across a variety of social media platforms, Inuit used their own hashtag activism to testify their perspectives to the rest of the world. They shared personal photos, first-hand accounts of hunting seals, and cast aspersions upon the morality of anti-sealing organizations. They demonstrated how anti-sealing movements had devastating effects upon their communities and livelihoods (Hawkins and Silver, 2017, Discussion section, para. 1). They showed how seal hunting is more ethical than the pork/beef/poultry industry taken for granted by people from more southern climes. They used hashtag activism to repudiate the colonial narrative that they are uncivilized savages.


Figure 3. Musician Tanya Tagaq’s #sealfie. From MacNeil (2014).

Conclusion

Despite the commonly-held belief that social media use is a vice, Inuit are using digital technologies and social media as a positive force. They have a great facility with using the Internet to battle colonialism and marginalization. Through hashtag activism, they get their voices heard by the rest of the world. Websites and social media provide platforms for the dissemination of cultural teachings and to assist in the promotion of Inuit creations to others. As high-bandwidth broadband Internet becomes more accessible in Arctic regions, Inuit become more empowered in self-advocacy.  

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References

Alexander, C.J., Adamson, A., Daborn, G., Houston, J., & Tootoo, V. (2009). Inuit Cyberspace: The Struggle for Access for Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit. Journal of Canadian Studies, 43(2), 220-249.
Arnaquq-Baril, A. (n.d.). Angry Inuk. Facebook. Retrieved December 23, 2017 from https://www.facebook.com/angryinuk/

Brooks, D. (2017, November 20). How Evil is Tech? The New York Times. Retrieved December 22, 2017 from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/opinion/how-evil- is-tech.html?_r=0

Hawkins, R., & Silver, J. J. (2017). From selfie to #sealfie: Nature 2.0 and the digital cultural politics of an internationally contested resource. Geoforum, 79114-123. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.06.019
LeDrew, N. (n.d.). Naulaq’s Unique Art. Facebook. Retrieved December 23, 2017 from https://www.facebook.com/NaulaqsUniqueArt

MacNeil, J. (2014, April 2). Inuit Singer Tanya Tagaq’s “Sealfie” Photo Supporting Seal Hunt Sparks Backlash. Huffpost. Retrieved December 23, 2017 from http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/04/02/inuit-tanya-tagaq-sealfie_n_5077203.html

Moscato, D. (2016). Media portrayals of hashtag activism: a framing analysis of Canada's #Idlenomore movement. Media And Communication, (2), 3. doi:10.17645/mac.v4i2.416.

Rodgers, K., & Scobie, W. (2015). Sealfies, seals and celebs: expressions of Inuit resilience in the Twitter era. Interface: A Journal On Social Movements, 7(1), 70.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Honouring the truth, reconciling for the future: Summary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Winnipeg: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Calls to Action. Winnipeg: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Part of the project involves a hand-lettered book cover. I knew I wanted to do something with the Arjowiggins Inuit typeface, but as a bespoke typeface, it is not commercially available. I wrote to Arjowiggins Creative Papers, and they were nice enough to share it with me for my project.

At first, I was planning on replicating the typeface with tech pen, but while talking to folks at the Aboriginal Services Centre at Conestoga College, I saw Christina Restoule doing traditional indigenous beadwork. I asked Tauni Sheldon, an Inuk elder, if the beadwork was also used by Inuit, and she said that yes, it is a common element used on parkas and such. And so I decided I wanted to do my lettering in traditional beadwork.

Ms. Restoule told me she'd get me started with the technique, and on Friday, December 15, she helped me find the right sized beads and some leather to work with. I used an actual-sized printout of the title as a template.

The process is time-consuming. I worked on the beading all afternoon and into the late evening on Friday, throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday, then picked the template out painstakingly on Monday before adding the final accent red bead in the tittle.

I chose black leather to contrast with white and sparkly blue glass beads. The single red bead represents blood.

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.

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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.

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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…”

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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.

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.