Tuktuit “Caribous” in Inuit Art and Society
In the Inuit society of past as of the present, tuktuit ” caribous ” (tuktu in the singular) occupy an important place. In the contemporary art, in sculpture as in pictorial art (painting, drawing, print), the caribou is one of the most represented games with the polar bear and the seal.
The caribou remains mostly represented by the male artists. Indeed, men know perfectly well caribous to have carefully observed them for a long time while the hunting. The artists can reproduce their movements, their attitudes or their expressions into carving or graphics so realistically.
The caribou is for example Tim Pitseolak’s favorite theme in Kinngait and also Andrew Qappik’s one in Panngiqtuuq. The animal can be represented lonely or in herd as main topic of the artwork or as game in a hunting scene. The caribou is also often associated with traditional myths.
Formerly, caribous were essential for Inuit as source of food and raw materials for the clothing making, the construction of summer tents in skins, the sled dogs manufacturing and tools in bone and antlers, as well as realization of carvings and amulets.
The Inuit writer Taamusi Qumaq explains in inuktitut: ” The caribou is a walker and a game. He was used formerly enormously by our ancestors and their descendants: the skin was considered as garment, its meat as food, its nerves were threads, its skin was considered as tents by our ancestors. “ (Translation from inuktitut)*.
Today, Inuit still hunt caribous all the parts of which are used: we eat their meat, raw, frozen, dried or boiled; their skin are still used for clothes as mittens and their bones and antlers are carved.
* Reference :
Taamusi Qumaq, 1991, Inuit uqausillaringit. Les véritables mots Inuit / The genuine Inuit words, Québec : Association Inuksiutiit Katimajiit / Inukjuaq et Montréal : Institut Culturel Avataq, p.224.
