The People of the Sea

Told by Donald Uluadluak

Illustrated by Mike Motz

Inhabit Media

978-1-77227-138-6

28 pp.

Ages 5-8

April 2017

The supernatural can be frightening but all the more when based in a true story.  This is a true story.  It is the story that was told by Nunavut Elder Donald Uluadluak of a childhood encounter that revealed a bridge between the world of his Inuit life and the myths of his people.

From The People of the Sea 

told by Donald Uluadluak 

illus. by Mike Motz

Donald Uluadluak recalled playing with two friends on the beach and in the water near Arviat, Nunavut in 1940.  When a woman with long dark hair like seaweed and pale skin appeared in the water, watching the trio but never speaking, the boys ran away, back to their camp.  It wasn’t until much later that they shared with their families what they’d seen and were told they’d seen an arnajuinnaq, one of the sea-dwellers of Inuit myths.

From The People of the Sea 

told by Donald Uluadluak 

illus. by Mike Motz

Imagine seeing a supernatural creature. Donald Uluadluak and his friends must have been stunned to learn what they had seen.  Startlingly, he reveals that “Our parents told us that, in the past, people of the sea were easy to spot.  But by the time I was a boy, they had become rare and were not often seen.” (pg. 26) I don’t know why these creatures revealed themselves to the Inuit and specifically to Donald Uluadluak and his friends but The People of the Sea gives us a first-hand account like no other.  Whether the reader believes Donald Uluadluak's account or not, there is an honesty to his story, perhaps because of the playful innocence of the children and the earnestness with which they share the story with their families.  Still Mike Motz's illustrations convey a cool creepiness to the story and makes the reader think about the possibility that a supernatural creature visited three boys that day.

Inhabit Media co-founder Neil Christopher provides notes about his interactions and work with storyteller Donald Uluadluak, having helped put the Elder's stories, including Kamik: An Inuit Puppy Story (Inhabit Media, 2012), to paper so that all might share in their knowledge and cultural importance.  Though Donald Uluadluak passed in 2014, his daughter Elizabeth Issakiark ensured his tales would not be lost.  Like Neil Christopher does in his introduction, I would like to thank Elizabeth Issakiark for her dedication to helping share her father’s stories and to Donald Uluadluak for revealing so much personal history and heritage for those of us ignorant of much but interested in learning.  I hope that The People of the Sea is but the first of more Donald Uluadluak’s stories that will be shared with the world.

Donald Uluadluak and daughter Elizabeth Issakiark 

from preface to The People of the Sea

Inuit Spirit: A Colouring Book

by Germaine Arnaktauyok

Inhabit Media

978-1-77227-126-3

48 pp.

Ages 7+

December 2016

This may be a colouring book and I know the expectation is that pencil crayons will be taken to the black-and-white line drawings, but it almost seems sacrilegious to mar Germaine Arnaktauyok’s stunning illustrations.  Perhaps this reverence is essential for all who behold this book as it will ensure that, even if you do take on the near impossible task of bringing new life to Germaine Arnaktauyok’s outlines, you do so with respect, care and an authentic appreciation for her images of traditional Inuit life.

From Inuit Spirit: A Colouring Book 

by Germaine Arnaktauyok

There are twenty-nine different line drawings that may be coloured, from the title page to Neil Christopher’s introduction and the author’s page, though the emphasis is definitely on the 26 drawings set up in double spreads opposite explanatory text about the art.  Some of the art focuses on the natural landscape of the North like the numerous drawings of the tundra plants including willow, lichens, saxifrage, bilberry, and its inhabitants such as the Arctic char, plankton, sea mammals, ptarmigan and gulls.  Other drawings feature characters  from traditional Inuit stories such as the very creepy mahahaa, the taliillajuuq, the qallupilluit, the nanurluk and Sedna, the mother of the sea mammals, as well as scenes from these tales. (See reviews of Way Back Then and Those That Cause Fear by Neil Christopher (Inhabit Media, 2015 and 2016, respectively) for original illustrations by Germaine Arnaktauyok for these and similar stories.) There are also several line drawings of Inuit dress and activities such as drumming.

From Inuit Spirit: A Colouring Book 

by Germaine Arnaktauyok

The text is informative, bringing a knowledge of Inuit life and traditions to help clarify the black-and-white artwork. While the snippets are generally quite brief, the text teaches while helping the reader/colourist discern the elements of the drawing and selecting colours.

Inuit Spirit may not be graced as completely as it could be with Germaine Arnaktauyok’s own colouring version of pointillism–though there is a lengthy discussion of her style being based on squiggles of varying densities–but this colouring book brings an interactive element to her remarkable illustration and to the book’s aim of bringing the art of Inuit life to those beyond the northern areas.  Perhaps by doing rather than just seeing, readers of Inuit Spirit will achieve a new appreciation for Inuit life in general and Germaine Arnaktauyok's art specifically as defining of the northern experience.

How Things Came To Be: Inuit Stories of Creation

by Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley

Illustrated by Emily Fiegenschuh and Patricia Ann Lewis-MacDougall

Inhabit Media

978-1-927095-78-2

80 pp.

Ages 5-11

2015

It may be the end of Aborginal Heritage Month (June) and the end of the school year, but How Things Came To Be: Inuit Stories of Creation will need to be on any booklist that focuses on the Inuit culture or myths and legends.  The unstoppable team of Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, whose collaborations include Lesson for the Wolf (Inhabit Media, 2015) and Tuniit: Mysterious Folk of the Arctic (Inhabit Media, 2015) and who won the 2015 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature, share nine classic creation stories based on the Inuit’s love and respect of the Land, the Sea and the Sky.

In their comprehensive introduction, Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley familiarize young readers with the Inuit concepts of Nuna (the Land) and Sila (Grand Sky or Big Everything), as well as ideas of life and breath, riddles and dreams, and beginnings and endings. It’s a perfect opening for the stories When Things Came to Be; The Land’s Babies; The Battle of Day and Night; How the Caribou Came to Be; How the Sun and Moon Arose; Feathers and Ice; The Deep Mother; The Storm Orphans; and The One Who is Tied.

In the beginning, will was all that drove creation. What is will, but the dream of someone who is awake? (pg. 13)

When Things Came to Be is an all-inclusive beginning of the origins of the earth, flowers, humans and dogs, light and dark, and more, until forgetfulness about people's origins led to the diminishment of their Strength.  But the stories that follow are a record of “a few deeds of those times.  The tantrums.  The strangeness. The foolishness.  And the wonder.” (pg. 18)

The Land’s Babies tells of the time when babies were born of the Land and women had only to search for them, nearby for girls and farther out for baby boys. As such, the Land was everyone’s ancestor.  Light and darkness born out of conflict between the Fox and the Raven is the focus of The Battle of Day and Night.  While the emphases of the origin stories How Caribou Came to Be and How the Sun and Moon Arose are obvious, Feather and Ice is less so, though still deeply rooted in explaining how an infuriated shaman wields her ulu (a crescent-shaped knife) to create icebergs and waterfowl from the Sea in which her husband flees from her.

From How Things Came To Be: Inuit Stories of Creation 

by Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, 

illus. by Emily Fiegenschuh and Patricia Ann Lewis-MacDougall

Cruelty and weakness are the themes of the final stories in this collection.  Frightening elements of a spirit enslaving a young woman and of her father sacrificing her to the Sea permeate The Deep Mother, an origin story of the first seals and walruses and other ocean mammals, as well as the  torrential wrath the Sea can display.  The Storm Orphans spotlights two children whose suffering at the hands of the people of the Weak Sky transform them into Thunder and Lightning. Finally, in The One Who is Tied, the murder of a selfish giant and his wife, and the cruelty towards their orphaned baby creates the spirit Silaup Inua, the furious storm winds.

Completing the collection, Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley append the stories with a discussion About Endings, and provide a Glossary of Inuktitut Terms, both useful in framing and for clarification.  But the ultimate finishing touch to How Things Came To Be is the artwork by illustrators Emily Fiegenschuh and Patricia Ann Lewis-MacDougall who meld the serene Arctic worlds of land and sea with both realistic and supernatural elements and model the Big Everything so vividly. How Things Came To Be is a complete package of story-telling and art for giving voice to classic Inuit creation stories and meaningful discussions of beginnings and endings.

Those That Cause Fear

by Neil Christopher

Illustrated by Germaine Arnaktauyok

Inhabit Media

978-1-77227-085-3

40 pp.

Ages 7-10

June 2016

Those That Cause Fear is another magical collaboration between Nunavut author Neil Christopher and Inuit artist and illustrator Germaine Arnaktauyok whose recent picture book Way Back Then (Inhabit Media, 2015) also focused on the traditional stories of the Inuit.  Here, though, instead of focusing on stories from the past, Neil Christopher highlights twenty frightening creatures of Inuit mythology, evocatively induced by Germaine Arnaktauyok’s soft yet dark manifestations.

In his introduction, Neil Christopher makes clear that this book is about all manner of Arctic monsters, both extant and extinct, whose stories he has gleaned from hunters and elders, and journals of explorers.  If the book conjures terror and dread, as the stories were intended to warn of dangers, then Those That Cause Fear has accomplished its purpose. And heaven help those travellers who lose their way in the Arctic and are visited upon by one of these entities.

 Each two-page spread features an illustration and details of one type of creature, which include the amautalik, dog children, the palraijuq, earth children, Iqallijuq, the giant fish, Inukpasugjuk, Inukpasarjujuk, the battling giants, the sleeping giants, amarujjuat, akla Inua, kajjait, Mahahaa, Nuliajuk, the qallupilluk, Aasivak, taliillajuut, the Tuniit and nanurluk.  (In addition to this comprehensive listing of hidden Arctic dangers, Neil Christopher provides an Inuktitut pronunciation guide.)

Many are massive creatures, giants like the parka-wearing amautalik who steal away those who are lost, or Inukpasugjuk who could step over mountains, or Inukpasarjujuk who fished for bowhead whales as if they were but little fish.  Some are animals like amarujjuat which are magical and powerful wolves; or akla Inua, a grizzly bear in human form, or nanurluk, a giant polar bear as large as an iceberg.  Some live in the sea, others inhabit rivers and ponds, while there are those who seclude themselves on remote islands.  Except for the a few fear-inspiring but innocuous creatures, such as the taliillajuut and the Tunnit, the intentions of many  are cruel and mischievous, hence their moniker of Those That Cause Fear.  They lure, trap, steal, and kill if threatened, embarrassed, hungry or challenged, and they should be feared.

Neil Christopher’s details of these twenty creatures are given substance with Germaine Arnaktauyok’s bold artwork in its earthy tones of browns, greys and taupes, and cold water blues.  Like Those That Cause Fear, the books is brash and stark and mandates caution, an important lesson of most myths.

Aasivak from Those That Cause Fear
by Neil Christopher, illus. by Germaine Arnaktauyok