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Ungava
Inuit
Regional
Overview
Ungava Inuit occupy the Quebec-Labrador Peninsula north of
the treeline and live along the coastline of Hudson Strait,
Ungava Bay, and the eastern shores of Hudson Bay. Their communities
include Sanikiluaq, Inukjuak, Povungnituk, Ivujivik, Salluit,
Kangiqsujuaq, Ovaqtaq, Kangirsuk, Kuujjuaq, Kuujjuaraapik,
and Kangiqsualujjuaq. The mainland is administered by the
province of Quebec and the Belcher Islands by the government
of the Northwest Territories. The terrain is one of rolling
rocky outcrops, shallow ponds, and some abrupt cliff faces.
The sub-arctic vegetation of grasses, sedges, willows, and
forbs supports a caribou population which fluctuates dramatically
and greatly affects Inuit life.
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The are also lesser numbers of arctic hare, arctic fox,
wolf, and ptarmigan. The lakes and rivers have large numbers
of arctic char, lake trout, whitefish, and pike; some of the
lakes support populations of fresh water seals. The productive
coastal areas sustain populations of ringed seal, bearded
seal, walrus, beluga, polar bear, seabirds, and waterfowl,
in addition to marine invertebrates such as sea urchins, sea
cucumbers, and mussels. Inuit who live along the southern
edges of the region collect driftwood from the beaches or
harvest tress along the river. In Sanikiluaq, hunters collect
wood on a regular basis for tools, campfires, and wood stoves
that heat their carving tents. Historically, trade between
the coastal and island populations of Inuit was extensive.
For example, islanders exchanged bearded seal skin soles and
ivory tools for caribou skins and caribou skin clothing from
mainlanders. Occasionally, Inuit from Ungava Bay and northern
Labrador also traded with each other (Taylor 1984). There
was little trade between Inuit and the Algonquian Indians,
including the Cree, to the south, although interaction has
increased during the last century.
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The first recorded meeting between Ungava Inuit and Europeans
occurred with explorer Henry Hudson on Digges Island in
1610. The two groups began by amiably exchanging gifts,
but the transaction ended in a murderous dispute (Asher
1860, Graburn 1969). In the early seventeenth century, a
series of explorers searching for a northwest passage through
North America to China brought trade goods, and in 1750
the Hudson's Bay Company established its first fur-trading
post on the east coast of Hudson Bay. Over the next 150
years, whalers, missionaries, and traders had a minimal
effect on the Ungava Inuit. In 1903 the firm Revillon Freres
established trading posts, which in 1936 were absorbed by
the Hudson's Bay Company (Saladin d'Anglure 1894). The Belcher
Islands were virtually untouched by non-Natives until 1912
when Robert J. Flaherty mapped the area. In return for his
work, the Canadian government named the largest of the islands
after him. The islands remained relatively isolated, except
for explorations by prospectors and geologists, until approximately
thirty years ago. Today hunting, carving, and municipal
jobs are the main sources of income. In spring and summer,
several families camp on the many islands, where they hunt
marine mammals, fish, and collect eider down and eggs.
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Historical
Clothing
Ungava Inuit used seal, caribou, and occasionally bird skin
for clothing. A clothing style unique to this region is that
men's and women's parkas had both front and back tails. Women's
amauti were decorated with a band of beading attached from
one shoulder to the other. Another unique characteristic of
Ungava Inuit is that women wore their long hair braided, rolled,
and knotted just in front of each ear. They often carried
their sewing equipment within these chignons (Saladin d'Angkure
1956-71). Detailed descriptions of historical styles worn
by Ungava Inuit are available in Turner (1894, 1979), Pharand
(1970-71), Guedon (1974), Saladin d'Anglure (1984), and Oakes
(1992a). Inuit on the Belcher Islands often depended on bird
skins rather than caribou skins for clothing, as the few caribou
that did exist on the islands were exterminated by ice storms
in the 1870s. Islanders turned to eider duck skins as a plentiful
and warm substitute and used them for parkas, stockings, over
boots, bonnets, and bags (Saladin d'Anglure 1956-71, Oakes
1992a). Meeko (1989) goes so far as to state that if there
were no eider ducks on the Belcher Islands, there would be
no people. Fish skin and seal intestine were also used occasionally
for parkas (Saladin d'Anglure 1956-71). Eider skin parkas
were worn with pants, boots, and inner slippers of ringed
or bearded seal, polar bear or dog skins. Today, however,
polar bears are taken primarily to sell to southerners, who
make them into rugs. Until the 1960s, all members of the community
wore eider skin parkas.
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In
1988, two hunters, Samwillie Iqalaq and Moses Novalinga Sr.,
were still wearing them on winter hunts because, as Moses
Novalinga Sr. explains, eider parkas are warmer than southern-style
clothing.
Contemporary
Clothing
Contemporary Ungava Inuit ensembles include southern-style
garments purchased from the local Northern or Co-op stores
or mail order catalogues. They combine this clothing with
items the women make from imported fabrics, local skins, and
locally collected eider down. Women carrying children wear
an amauti made from white cotton or polyester twill, lined
with material such as flannelette, duffle, sheepskin, or down.
The hood is trimmed with arctic fox, dog, or occasionally
arctic hare. Men, women, and children put on down-filled pullover
hooded parkas for windy, winter weather. Down is also used
to insulate other items, including mitten liners, inner slippers,
wind pants, bunting bags, and baby booties (Oakes 1991b).
In the past, a few caribou skins were acquired through intersettlement
trade with Inuit from Quebec (Turner 1979), a practice that
continues today. For example, Annie Novalinga obtained caribou
skins from her brother while visiting him in Inukjuak. In
the 1970s reindeer were introduced from Tuktoyaktuk, and the
community controls the hunting pressure on the reindeer. Very
little of a reindeer is wasted: all the meat is eaten, the
leg skins are used for boots, the body skins for outer clothing,
the bone for tools, and the sinew for sewing thread. Ungava
Inuit believed that in order not to offend the seals, boots
made from caribou skin should not be sewn during the spring
seal hunt (Turner 1894, Guedon 1974). Today, rules that regulate
sewing are more relaxed, though it is rarely done on Sundays.
Both men and women know how to sew, although most of it is
done by women. Seamstresses thoroughly enjoy watching the
annual men-only fabric bootmaking competition during the Christmas
festivities in Salluit.
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Footwear
Skin boots remain an important part of Ungava Inuit material
culture, although skin boot production is becoming less common
as more and more people buy southern-style mass-produced footwear.
In most communities, seamstresses follow traditional established
footwear patterns passed down from one generation to the next,
but individual creativity, the availability of skins, and
communications with neighbouring groups also influence boot
styles. Footwear made by Ungava Inuit includes several distinguishing
design features such as numerous unusual vamp-sole combinations,
a variety of materials, and many decorative touches have evolved
from interactions between mainland and island communities.
One boot has a flat sole and a vamp that encircles the entire
foot. Another popular boot has a flat sole, a side strip surrounding
the foot, and a small vamp. An unusual sole and vamp combination
is created in a boot with a pleated sole sewn to a vamp that
surrounds the entire foot. The pleats on the sole are diffused
and are larger than those made by Iglulik or Baffinland Inuit.
Rows of stitches hold the pleats in position around the heel.
The sole comes higher up the back of the heel than on boots
made by Caribou Inuit. Pleated soles are often made from bleached
seal skin, and flat soles from seal, caribou, or non-traditional
materials such as vinyl, cowhide, and rubber. Leg sections,
which are cut from duffle, vinyl, caribou skin, and seal skin,
usually have very little gathering at the centre of the vamp-leg
seam. Duffle leg sections are decorated with wool embroidery.
Haired seal leg sections are decorated with simple geometric
or linear shapes similar to Caribou Inuit designs but unlike
the complicated Iglulik and Baffinland Inuit ones. Caribou
leg skin boots are made without any decoration on the leg
section.
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