‘A wonderful day to celebrate’: Inuit culture showcased in Ottawa
450 people turn out in blazing sunshine for National Indigenous Peoples Day
Aija Komangapik demonstrates seal skinning, while her cousin Ihuuja Komangapik looks on during Saturday’s National Indigenous Peoples Day celebration in Ottawa. (Photo by Jorge Antunes)
Ottawa’s Inuit came out for a day of drumming, throat singing, country food and a fashion show on National Indigenous Peoples Day.
Organizers said approximately 450 people attended the event in Ottawa’s Annie Pootoogook Park on Saturday, hosted by the Isaruit Inuit Arts organization
After music and speeches, a line of attendees stretching along a small plaza were served Arctic char chowder, seal burgers and seal barbecue.
“It’s always a wonderful day to celebrate,” Nunavut Sen. Nancy Karetak-Lindell told Nunatsiaq News.
“So I always enjoy coming out and seeing other Inuit, because when you live in a city, it’s that much harder to get together with people.”
Karetak-Lindell, 67, noted people in her age group come from a time when Inuit were assigned disc numbers by the federal government for record-keeping, because non-Inuit administrators claimed they struggled with Inuit names.
Her parents and older relatives were treated paternalistically by authorities, she said, and were told what was best for them and how to run their lives.
“So I think the fact that today we can celebrate Indigenous Day all across Canada, certainly is symbolic of how far we’ve come,” she said. “And that we can contribute to this society and the country, instead of being thought of as always spending taxpayers’ money.”
Asentath Kannutaq demonstrates how to cook bannock on a qulliq. (Photo by Jorge Antunes)
Throat singing was the day’s highlight, said Debbie Tookanchik, who is originally from Nunavut, including Baker Lake and Gjoa Haven, but who lives in Ottawa now.
“It’s really nice to see other Inuit people. We are just in a different region [than normal],” she said.
“Because that was their first time seeing that,” she said of her two young boys. Both children had been to Nunavut before, but only when they were babies.
Oo Kierstead, originally from Kimmirut but based now in Ottawa, put on a fashion show featuring her Inuit-inspired clothing. It incorporates traditional designs from an amauti and Inuit tattoo patterns in the fabric itself.
“It’s sustainable fashion, with Inuit-inspired patterns,” she said.
In addition to traditional Inuit food and music, there was a seal-skinning demonstration and a tent where Inuit culture and knowledge was shared.
“We still have a lot to teach, there are still a lot of people in Canada who don’t understand our rightful place,” Karetak-Lindell said.
While National Indigenous Peoples Day is just one day, she said, “For us who fought all our lives to be recognized as contributors to the country and society, it means a lot. It means a lot that we can celebrate our day within the country.”
My father kept our discs, and when he went to trade he would come back with some very
welcome and much needed provisions.
When some of our people came back from extended medical care, their discs indicated
what community they came from.
Why would people consider them brands ? Some of the modern tattoos I have seen are
way worse.
People who should know better, should start talking truthfully and sensible.
I always thank Canadian taxpayers for their help.
It’s curious how history can be shaped by the imperatives of a good narrative structure. Of course stories are important as they help people organize and make meaning of their experiences (even the experiences of others).
A good narrative, as we see here, employs villany and injustice, but also overcoming and triumph.
Both sides of a story can be true. It can be as the senator says and how the first comment says. Of course, if all interactions with traders were bad and unlawful then it wouldn’t have been so easy to erase the nomadic lifestyle as it was in the 60s 70s. Inuit, amicable and observant as they are naturally would have good working relationships with the whalers and traders. It was the federal government who couldn’t survive the trading posts without Inuit and so slaughtered the dogs to keep the inuit stationary. I have heard first hand testimony of CD howe, and TB sanatoriums, residential schools that were peaceful and pleasant while others were horrific and out of the worst horror stories imaginable. Because you find a narrative that you like, does not erase other peoples lived experience,