Pelly Bay’s marionettes are coming home

SEAN McKIBBON and MICHAELA RODRIGUE
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Kiviuq and his fellow puppets will be coming home to Pelly Bay in seven to 10 days, Nunatsiaq News has learned.

The six seal skin and whale bone marionettes made by Pelly Bay elders to depict the legendary traveller Kiviuq are being “repatriated,” Pelly Bay SAO Marla Limousin said just as Nunatsiaq News went to press this week.

Confiscated by U.S. wildlife officials for violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the puppets became the centre of an international controversy.

“There were so many people who supported their return, they (the U.S. government) didn’t have much choice,” said Limousin.

She first received word of the return from Dan Butterworth, the Rhode Island marionette artist the puppets were originally sent to for repairs. But later she heard it again from Peter Ittinuar, a policy adviser with Nunavut’s Department of Sustainable Development .

“There are so many people who have been working on it. I’ve got to figure out some way to thank everyone,” she said. As far she knows, there will be no fines levied against the hamlet and the puppets will be returning via regular mail.

The seizure prompted protests from the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, and lobbying efforts by the Canadian government’s Department of Foreign Affairs.

Butterworth even went to his congressman about the issue to see if he could help.

“I’m very relieved, I knew how much work had gone into the dolls. I’m very relieved and very happy,” said Nunavut MP Nancy Karetak-Lindell. Her office acted as a liaison between Pelly Bay and foreign affairs officials, and was the first place Limousin turned to for help.

The puppets, which took more than a year for elders to make from seal skin and whale bone, were intended to teach children in Nunavut about Inuit heritage. Limousin said the elders planned to film a puppet play depicting the adventures of Kiviuq and then distribute the videotape around the territory.

Karetak-Lindell said the incident shows the act, which prohibits marine mammal products from entering the U.S., needs to be amended. Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik has said the act is unjustified, given the high population of seals in Nunavut.

“People took it as an opportunity to bring to light the difficulties we experience due to U.S. regulations,” Lindell said. She added it should also remind everyone the U.S. is a separate country and often has different rules and regulations.

“Up here we are so tied into the Internet it doesn’t seem like there are any borders or barriers,” said Limousin. “In the South it seems like the barriers are so huge.”