The Inuit word “katajjait” is usually translated in English by “throat singings” – katajjaq is the singular. Actually, in Inuktitut (the Inuit language) katajjaq refers to a game where two women imitate animal voices and natural sounds like the one from feet walking on the ice or the one from the wind and the sea. [...]

My name is Sakkariasi Tukkiapik and my disk number is E8-719. March 28, 1968, I started writing the following stories. I deeply appreciate the fact that I have been receiving notebooks to write my stories. My problem is that I have forgotten parts of the stories I know, but I will attempt to write them [...]

Elisapee Nutarakittuq, born around the year 1930, grew up near Qikiqtarjuaq and Naujaaqjuat (Baffin Island) in Nunavut; she shares recollections of her childhood :
The first thing we would do when we woke up in the morning was put on our clothing and boots and go out for fresh air - even before eating breakfast. Everyone stepped [...]

The text “What it means to be an Inuk” was written in August 1960 by Abraham Okpik who was the first Inuk appointed to the Northwest Territories Council in 1965. Reading this text, I was really impressed by the accuracy of Abraham Okpik’s reflection on the fact that Inuit live the Qallunaat’s way to the [...]

The myths are a part of the traditional Inuit culture and were orally passed on by generation in generations. Today, the elders tell these stories to the youngest, inherit from their parents and their grand-parents. Some stories are very popular in the Arctic thus, inspiring the contemporary artists in sculpture as in graphic arts.
The story [...]

The following text is extracted from the Inuit Encyclopedia by Mitiarjuk, written between 1965 and 1967 by Mitiarjuk Napaaluk, Inuk from Kangirsujuaq in Nunavik.

It is said that, in the past, the northern lights were a thing much feared. When they were large and frequent and could not be left behind by those who travelled at [...]

The representation of a mother and her child in sculpture is not a frequent subject in the Inuit art contrary to the qallunaat art (not Inuit) where this topic appears in the religious as profane representations. This theme remains relatively recent in the history of Inuit art although it is more present in contemporary graphics [...]

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 [...]

The origin of the living beings is one of the most popular Inuit myths in the Arctic as well in non Inuit territories. It is about the story of Uinigumasuittuq ” the one who did not want to get married “, so called Takannakaaluk ” the Big there below “; more known by Qallunaat as [...]

But what is an inuksuk*? Characteristics of the Arctic Regions, inuksuit are simply stony piles (inuksugait in inuktitut) which the silhouette sometimes looks like humans… But let us Paaliin Pilip, an Inuit author Inuit from Iqaluit, explain it :
Inuksugait always had a very big utility. They had different meanings. Inuit had at first two wayss [...]