Inuit

• Archeological evidence

  ▣ Inuit culture had skills and technology to harvest large whales, seals, caribou, muskox, fish and birds, depending on the season and location.

  ▣Before Europeans arrived, Inuit handcrafted their own tools from resources found on the land and in the animals they harvested
• The natives hunted sea animals from single-passenger, covered seal-skin boats called qajaq. The Inuit have traditionally been fishers and hunters.
•  Inuit in Boat made with Skins called an Omiak Photograph - Alaska

  
• About 55,700 Inuit live in 53 communities across Northern Canada

  For more than four thousand years, they have occupied the Arctic...
• Dog Sleds (qamutik)

  
• Traditional Inuit tent made from seal or caribou skin.
• Traditional clothing; left: seal, right: caribou.
• The Inuit believed in animism:

  ▣all living and nonliving things had a spirit. That included people, animals, inanimate objects, and forces of nature.

  ▣ When a spirit died, it continued living in a different world- the spirit world.

  ▣The only people who had enough power to control the spirits were the powerful religious leaders called the Shamans

  ▣ Shamans also wore carved masks-mostly representing animals- while performing their rituals. It was believed that masks had powers that enabled them to communicate with the spirits.
• Sedna, the Goddess of the Sea

  ▣ She lived at the bottom of the ocean and controlled the seal, whales and other sea animals.

  ▣ •The belief was that if Inuit made her happy, she would continue to provide them with food.
• Music and Dancing

  The main instrument of Inuit ceremonies and dances was the shallow, one-sided drum.

  •made from caribou skin, or bladder stretched over a wooden hoop.

  In song and dance they told stories of the spirits.
• SINGING IN INUIT

  ▣ Throat singing, performed by two women in competition, used different sounds made in their throats and chests

  ▣ A ceremony called a 'Bladder Dance' was often held after a large hunt
• Family Life

  The family is the center of Inuit culture and co-operation and sharing are basic principles in Inuit society.

  Inuit share the food they have hunted and everyone does his or her part to help those in need.

  Inuktitut is still spoken in all Inuit communities
• myths and legends (spiritual forces, shamans)
• What do Inuit art show? (subject matter)

  ▣ Animals (polar bears, seals, caribou, white wolves)

  ▣ Artic birds( owls, ravens)