Celebration of the Seal unites Inuit, Fur Institute of Canada

Dressed in sealskin, children at the June 22 Celebration of the Seal stand near the three freshly-killed seals brought in for the occasion. (PHOTO BY DAVID MURPHY)

After an hour-long build up during the fifth-annual Celebration of the Seal in Iqaluit, three large seals were devoured within minutes.

Some people who are new to eating seal looked on with admiration, while the experienced dove in with knives and hungry bellies.

Many of those who came out to Sylvia Grinnell Park for the event, put on by the Government of Nunavut on June 22, bundled up in thick seal skin clothing to keep warm on a chill summer’s evening in Iqaluit.

Arctic char and caribou were also offered to those brave enough to endure the cold and damp conditions, but performances by children from the Tumikuluit Saipaaqivik child care centre, who sang the “Seal Hunting Song” wearing seal skin outfits and hand puppets, seemed to warm the spirits of the crowd.

There were also Inuit games and short speeches from Terry Audla, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, James Arreak, Nunavut’s minister of environment, and Rob Cahill, the executive director of the Fur Institute of Canada.

The Fur Institute, based in Ottawa, is an ally of the Government of Nunavut, Arreak told the crowd of about 100.

The Fur Institute recently partnered with ITK in a legal challenge of the European Union seal product ban, which has seen the price of seal pelts drop from $70 to $25.

Backed by the Nunavut Department of Environment, the Fur Institute held their annual general meeting in Iqaluit June 21 to June 24, with more than 100 delegates coming to Iqaluit for the meeting.

Many delegates also attended the Celebration of the Seal, where Cahill said “it is an honour for us to be here to celebrate the seal.”

“The seal is as important to easterners as it is to you,” he said, referring to the Atlantic Canada seal hunt. “We’ve travelled together… now we fight in court together.”

After the speeches, it was time to eat: hunters began cutting the seal meat for the community feast and members of the Fur Institute took close up pictures with their “seal cam,” getting a candid look on how to butcher the seal while preserving as much of it as possible.