New children’s book inspires Inuit, north and south, to enjoy the land

The new children’s book Wild Eggs: a tale of Arctic egg collecting was published and released by Inhabit Media in October. (IMAGE COURTESY OF INHABIT MEDIA)

Originally from Iqaluit, Suzie Napayok-Short is an interpreter and translator living in Yellowknife. (PHOTO COURTESY OF TUSAAJIIT)

Suzie Napayok-Short often thinks about life through the perspective of Akuluk, a young Inuk girl who lives in a southern city.

Akuluk is a fictional character, but one Napayok-Short knows well; while she was born and raised in Nunavut, for 26 years she’s made her home in Yellowknife, where she works as an interpreter and translator.

Many of her Nunavut schoolmates followed a similar path — marrying and raising their families in the South.

On a trip to Whale Cove to visit her parents years ago, Napayok-Short’s father took her egg collecting on a nearby island well-known for its bird colony.

She was struck by what fun the outing was: a traditional Inuit activity that hasn’t changed over time.

So she returned home and wrote the story down, from the viewpoint of a young girl named Akuluk, who visits her grandparents in Nunavut for the first time.

Four years later, Inhabit Media published the children’s story: Wild Eggs: a Tale of Arctic Egg Collecting, Napayok-Short’s first book, illustrated by Iqaluit artist Jonathan Wright.

In the book, released earlier this month, Napayok-Short said she is portraying mainly Inuit families she knows, who maintain distant but valued connections with Nunavut, or the North’s other Inuit regions.

“[Egg collecting] is still a tradition practiced there. It’s just when you live in a city you don’t think about those things,” she said.

“The main thing is that we have to respect our environment, the land, the birds and the wildlife.”

In Wild Eggs, Akuluk visits her grandparents in Nunavut for the first time.

She’s skeptical about the trip, but when she arrives, her grandparents take her to Munnilik, or the place that has eggs, where thousands of eiders, geese and mergansers fill the sky.

In the early summer, the island is covered in nests made of down and filled with different coloured eggs, a sight that fills Akuluk with awe.

Akuluk’s grandfather explains the “rules” for collecting eggs: only take from nests with four eggs or fewer. Other nests must remain untouched to allow baby birds to hatch.

Back at home, eggs are tested in a pot of water. Eggs that float to the top can only be used for cooking, ones that stay at the bottom are best for eating and cooking.

Those are the ways Inuit have collected eggs for centuries, Napayok-Short said, in an effort not to disrupt the natural cycle.

“Every time I visit the North, the elders tell me that young people don’t follow the traditional ways, which were sustainable,” she said.

“[For example] you don’t shoot the first caribou in a herd; it will scare away the others. This generation now shoots as many caribou as they can.”

Her message for readers, young and old, Inuk and non-Inuit: take advantage, but take care of our natural surroundings.

“If you want to enjoy your environment, it’s up to you to respect it,” she said. “I want today’s children to leave their computers and go outside and have fun.

“It’s a different kind of wealth.”

That’s how Akuluk sees it now, Napayok-Short said, and she hopes to travel back to Nunavut soon.

You can purchase a copy of “Wild Eggs” in both English and Inuktitut at Arctic Ventures in Iqaluit, in English at most major booksellers or online at Amazon.ca.