«Nanuq», Polar Bear in Inuit Art and Society
Polar bears - nanuit in inuktitut (singular: nanuq) - are omnipresent in the Inuit culture and the daily life, formerly as today. It is not thus surprising that the bear is a subject of preference for artists in all domains such as carving as graphic arts.
Who saw contemporary Inuit carvings immediately represents himself a polar bear… A dancing bear, do you say? The artistic representations of dancing bears actually appeal to Qallunaat, but this subject is widely spread to answer at the request of the market. Bears commonly walk on the ice, swim or hunt seals but they don’t dance….
“Nanunnguaq” say Inuit people to speak about artistic representations of bears: it can be translated by ” miniature copy or replica of a polar bear ” referencing to the reality.
The artists who carve or draw bears make it from their own experience, because they are also hunters. They know bears very well as they have observed them with attention for a long time; that is why they succeed in representing their body and their movements with so much realism and exactness.
The polar bear is not a harmless artistic subject. Considered by Inuit as an object of greed and a prestigious source ; the bear is the animal who looks like most the Inuit people, taking place at the top of the animal hierarchy. As an Inuk, the polar bear is a predator, what implies relations of rivalry and competition: they hunt both the same game and represent a mutual threat.
A marine and ground mammal at the same time, the bear is cunning, powerful and comfortable in the water as on ground. We say that humans imitate the polar bear’s way of hunting. It is not rare to find bears near villages while they look for food and their strength inspires fear and respect. ” When they are starved, polar bears are not afraid. When they are not hungry, they are afraid of the people” wrote Taamusi Qumaq (Sivulitta piusituqangit, 1988).
Consequently, it is not surprising that the polar bear is so present in the cosmology. He appears as one in the main sources of shaman power by taking place between the invisible powers and the Inuit society. So, shamans often used of bone or ivory amulets representing polar bears.
Today, polar bears are one of the most represented subjects by Inuit artists, thus coming within the tradition.
To learn more about polar bears and Inuit, read :
RANDA, Vladimir, 1986, L’ours polaire et les Inuit, Paris : Sélaf.
