Polly’s Inuit Project

RACHEL ATTITUQ QITSUALIK

It is difficult, sometimes, to field the e-mails I get from students and educators of various countries, especially when they obviously expect to hear about Inuit as being one of the last innocent peoples of the world, untouched by social or political problems. The peoples of many other countries really do believe that Inuit live their day-to-day existence as in the “Nanook of the North” film, igloos and all.

With inevitable awkwardness, I try to inform whomever I can. Invariably, my own difficulty lies in trying not to seem angry, for it is embarrassing for me to have to explain that Inuit now run so many well-funded institutions, and a few enjoy so many modern amenities, at the same time that poverty and crime and substance abuse run rampant.

How do I reconcile such facts, for example, with descriptions of traditional Inuit sharing practices?

It is rare, then, that those from other cultures can comprehend this paradox of Inuit modernity. But over the last few days, I corresponded with a New Zealand father and daughter who did understand. The daughter immediately seemed to grasp the inadequacy of her class questions, while the father understood the importance of what he termed “harsh reality.” It greatly heartened me.

So I wanted to share this event, as well as to thank Polly and her dad.

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Dear Rachel:

My name is Polly. I am 9 years old, and I live in New Zealand. I have some questions for you:

Do Inuit eat seals, seaweed, polar bears, and cows? What do Inuit spend their time doing apart from, hunting, fishing, traveling, building igloos and playing in the snow?

These are questions my class asked for a school project. Don’t blame me if they’re really stupid!

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Hi Polly:

Coastal Inuit eat seals (but then again, so do Scandinavian and African coastal peoples — since seals are yummy). The seal specialists were always those known as the Netsilingmiut (pronounced net-sil-ING-mee-oot), which means “People of the Seal” in Inuktitut, the most common Inuit language.

Coastal Inuit eat seaweed (then again, so do people from the Maritimes provinces of Canada).

Some Inuit eat polar bears, except for the liver, which contains so much Vitamin A that it is highly poisonous.

Inuit eat beef imported from the south into stores in northern communities. Inuit go grocery shopping like everyone else, since they can’t all hunt all the time.

Today, Inuit pretty much live as southerners do. They live in houses. They watch cable TV and use the Internet. The government and churches have pressured Inuit to stop hunting, fishing, traveling, and playing in the snow, because they want them to go to church and pay taxes.

Unfortunately, there is not a lot of business in the northern communities, so many are unemployed. They get angry, frustrated, and sad.

Unfortunately, many kill themselves, use drugs, drink alcohol, or sniff solvents to escape from their unhappy lives. The children attend elementary and high school, college or university if they can. The adults hold any jobs that they can find, and generally have to work in offices all day long. Only on their days off of school or work can children or adults go hunting, fishing, or traveling (or the children can play in the snow).

Very few Inuit know how to build igloos anymore.

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Dear Rachel:

I’m Polly’s dad, and I just wanted to say thanks to you for your detailed reply to her questions. She’s very excited to have made contact with a “real” Inuit person on the other side of the world! I was sad to read about the ways that colonization has affected the Inuit people. In New Zealand a very similar thing has happened to the indigenous people ( the Maori), who have mostly suffered after being colonized by European people in all kinds of ways, with high rates of unemployment, drug abuse etc. Your answers to Polly’s questions have injected a bit of “harsh reality” into her class project. I think that’s a good thing. I don’t like the idea of school projects that treat other peoples like objects of interest and gloss over the uncomfortable facts. Once again, thanks for your reply, Polly will write back herself sometime soon.

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Thanks, Polly, to you and your dad.

Pijariiqpunga.