WEBVTT

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Nuliajuk. Nuliajuk is a spirit.

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A spirit, known by Inuit as a Sea Spirit.

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Nuliajuk is someone that I knew,

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ever since I was a little boy.

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My father a Netsilik man, who came from Talurjuaq,

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in  Netsilingmiut, the people who live among the seals.

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I came from that region and they used to tell that legend,

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Nuliajuk, as a story, and as a spirit

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and as someone that has, that had a lot of power.

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Nuliajuk, originally was Uinigumasuittuq.

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Uinigumasuittuq translates to

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“one that never wanted to marry,”

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wanted to remain a spinster for all her life.

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There’s a real story in that, because as mother and father,

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they wanted a son-in-law.

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They wanted their daughter to be married,

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so that the son-in-law could also contribute to hunting

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and provide food for the family.

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That is an extremely important aspect in Inuit culture,

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Inuit customs and Inuit traditions;

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which is how we grew up as Inuit,

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since thousands of years ago.

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Nuliajuk is a very ancient story, very ancient legend

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passed on from generation to generation,

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since time immemorial.

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Uinigumasuittuq, the one who never wanted to marry.

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So her father wanted her to be married,

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but she didn’t want to be married.

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And one day, the father said:

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“I’m going to take you down to the island.”

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So he took his daughter to an island,

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some distance away, with a dog or with dogs… Inuit dogs.

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And she started living with the dogs at this island.

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In Iglulingmiut legend, this island is called Pitektaryuk

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– Small Island, Pitektaryuk – Small Island.

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So she started to live with the dogs and she fell…

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she’s falling in love with one of the dogs,

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so she had sex with one of the dogs

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and fell in love with that particular dog

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and she eventually got pregnant, and she had babies.

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Because she had sex with the dog,

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and she eventually became pregnant

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and she had babies. She had many babies.

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When she had the babies,

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babies came out different nationalities:

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some became Qablunaat – the White people,

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some became Qarnuktut – the black people,

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some became Inuit, some became Itqilik – Itqilik,

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Chipewyan Indians.

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Some became Chinese and some became Japanese.

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Some became something else.

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So she had those babies who became different nationalities

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and sometime later on,

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all these people left, out in the ocean.

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They left all over the place

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and they went to all over the place, all over the world.

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So one day, his father… her father,

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Nuliajuk’s father 

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decided to go back to the island and pick her up.

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And wanted to bring her back to the, to the outpost camp.

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He went, they went on the kayak,

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it would have been next year.

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He went on the kayak and he put her in front of the kayak.

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Along the way, father decided,

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because he’s angry at the daughter

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that she never wanted to be married,

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she fell in love with the dog

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and then he decide to push her out of the kayak.

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And she fell in the water.

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She started to sink, but before she sank,

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she grabbed a hold of the kayak, on each side of the kayak.

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 In the meantime, her father took a knife,

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a snow knife and cut off all of her fingers.

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And she sank, she sank all the way to the bottom of the sea.

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And when she sank to the bottom of the sea,

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she established a tupiq, a tent

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and she has a big dog that guards her, in front of her tent.

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Because, she is after all

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the boss of all the animals under the sea.

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So she is a very powerful, powerful lady.

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But also in the meantime,

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all the fingers that were cut off; the thumb, the forefinger,

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the middle finger, – this finger, – the last little finger,

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they became all kinds of sea mammals, seals and ugyuk,

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the bearded seal, belugas and narwhales,

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and walrus and killer whale and bowhead

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and all the other living things in the sea.

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So she became, 

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she is the boss of all the living animals in the sea.

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Nuliajuk is the boss of all animals, is in charge

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of the animals under the sea, or in the sea.

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When I was very young, maybe about 5 or 6 years old,

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we used to live on the land quite a lot,

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and also we used to live out on the sea.

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We would be out seal hunting.

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My father and mother and all the other Inuit,

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at that particular period of time,

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knew all the laws of the sea, 

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they knew all the laws of the land.

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So when we were out seal hunting,

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our purpose in the winter time was to make sure

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that we had oil from the fat of the seal.

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that we had oil from the fat of the seal.

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Your qulliq  -Inuit oil lamp -

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is only lit as long as you have seal fat.

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If you don’t have seal fat, your qulliq is out of light.

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And I remember when I was young,

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we couldn’t catch any more seals,

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my parents could not catch any more seals.

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My father and my brother-in-law and my sister

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would be out seal hunting,

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but they could no longer catch seals.

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And our qulliq ran out of seal fat,

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so we no longer had light.

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We no longer had light,

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and nothing to boil the water anymore,

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nothing to boil meat anymore, because we no longer had light.

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So my brother-in-law being a shaman

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and my father being a shaman also angakkuq

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And my father said in Inuktitut, and I’ll translate it to:

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“I wonder what we did to make Nuliajuk angry,

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that she no longer provides seals for us anymore.”

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You know, I remember at the earliest time,

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when I was a little boy, my father would catch a seal,

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and pulls in the seal into the igloo.

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And it was my mother’s responsibility

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to skin and butcher the animal.

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to skin and butcher the animal.

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Just before she did that, she used to take a freshwater,

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or fresh ice, take freshwater or ice

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and put it into her mouth and open the mouth of the seal

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and put the ice into the mouth of the seal,

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in Inuktitut,  and I’ll translate it to you,

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it’s something like: “This is to make sure that

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all seals and other animals are not thirsty under the sea.”

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That was kind of respect for the animal and all the other

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animals under the sea as well, within the environment.

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So my father said: “I wonder what we did

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to make Nuliajuk angry that she is no longer

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providing us with any seals.”

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So it was my brother-in-law’s responsibility to find out,

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through his own light, through his spirits.

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And find out what would make Nuliajuk angry

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and that she was no longer providing the seals.

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And, when he found out that maybe we did not

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exactly follow the rules of Nuliajuk, maybe we had forgot,

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maybe they forgot to put the piece of ice

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in the mouth of a seal, that she got angry,

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that she no longer provided seals for the hunters.

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And if that was the case,

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and they found out it was the case,

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so we made peace with Nuliajuk.

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I promise to make sure we follow her rules and laws

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when we go out seal hunting. Then she was happy again.

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And, you know, sure enough, there were seals again

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when the peace was made with Nuliajuk.

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And we would have light in the qulliq,

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Inuit oil lamp, again. And we would have water

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and we would have boiled meat and things like that.

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My brother-in-law… you know was a human being,

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as ordinary human beings, we don’t see Nuliajuk.

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We just know and respect the powers

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of Nuliajuk and her authority.

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My brother-in-law is a shaman and he once talked to me

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about having seen Nuliajuk basking on the ice.

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And he said that she was on the ice combing her hair.

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Remember, her father cut off her fingers

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but she knew how to manage to comb her hair.

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And when she was combing her hair (…)

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he said she has very long hair.

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And all the animals that came out from combing her hair

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were all kinds of seals and belugas

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and bearded seals and animals like that.

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So that to me, you have to be a quite strong,

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powerful shaman to be able to see a spirit of Nuliayuk.

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Nuliajuk is very respected by Inuit, since time immemorial.

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Many people, Inuit, from, particularly from Netsilingmiut,

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where there are seals, people who live among the seals,

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name their children after Nuliajuk, since time immemorial,

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since thousands and thousands of years ago.

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So Nuliajuk is a very common name among Inuit,

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in that part of the region.

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Nuliajuk is still used as a proper name today.

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It is used as a respected name.

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Nuliajuk is also used as strength

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and as a spirit for naming our children after Nuliajuk.

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Other Inuit in different regions call her different names.

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Slightly, slightly different versions

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also from different places.

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It has to be because we’re not from the same community.

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But it’s the same idea of Nuliajuk.

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Among Qikiqtaaluk people of Cape Dorset,

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they call her Taluliyuk it comes from the word Tuluk, arm.

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Inuit in Kinngait in Cape Dorset say when they see Nuliajuk

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in the open water, the only thing they see is her arm.

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That’s why they call her Taluliyuk,

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one arm person, one arm spirit.

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Some, other regions call her Arnapkapfaaluk,

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Takanaaluk, Big Woman Down There.

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So in different parts of Nunavut,

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in different parts of Inuit homelands,

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some Inuit are named Aknaluk, the big woman,

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after the same person. There’s a lady…

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there’s also some other people call her Arnapkapfaaluk,

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the woman, this woman.

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Some people are named Arnapkapfaaluk also,

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to respect the other names of Nuliajuk.

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 I think in Greenland, I have to correct this,

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I think they call her Takánakapsâluk,

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Takánakapsâluk, The Bad One Down There.

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So that’s what they call her. The Bad One Down There,

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I guess, also refers to when she gets angry,

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she no longer provides animals for you.

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From that point of view, she is known as Bad One Down There.

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Maybe that’s why.

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Nuliajuk is a very respected legend by Inuit.

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For me, I believe in Nuliajuk. I truly believe in Nuliajuk.

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Because, since thousands and thousands of years,

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she has provided livelihood for Inuit

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who went out seal hunting, hunting other animals

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 to survive from the animals from the sea.

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And it shows to me also that as Inuit

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and as people around the world…

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all the people who became Qablunaat and who

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became black people and Chinese and other people,

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they also have to respect all the environmental laws,

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because if we don’t we’ll make Nuliajuk angry.

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And if we do follow all of her laws, then she will be happy.

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It means to me, as an Inuk,

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that we should not be damaging the Earth as much

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as what different regions of the world are doing today.

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Look at what’s happened to climate change and global warming.

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We have broken Nuliajuk laws that things are quite different

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now than they were fifty years ago.

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In just a matter of fifty years, things have changed to the

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point where we have climate change and global warming.

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And ah, so it means, it tells me that as people

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we have to respect environmental laws, environmental rules,

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and treat the world, treat the Earth with respect,

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and Nuliajuk as much as we can.