Historical
Clothing
In the nineteenth century, parkas with beaded decoration as
well as long, broad front and back tails were distinctive
items of Caribou Inuit clothing (Birket-Smith 1929, Driscoll
1980). Kamiks made before 1900 appear to be made of two pIeces,
a leg section and a sole. There may have been a centre front
seam extending from the leg section to the toes, and the sole
was a separate piece sewn to the leg section without any pleating.
Detailed information on historical styles is available in
several sources (including Birket-Smith 1929, Marsh 1976,
Driscoll 1980, Oakes 1991a, Hall et al. 1994). Women's footwear
consisted of boots worn with thigh-high stockings (Birket-Smith
1929). The boots had a vamp, leg section, inner sole, and
outer sole. The top of the leg section tapered to a small
point at the upper thigh and was fastened with a loop or bone
button to a belt. A side pouch, similar to the one used by
Iglulik Inuit, was also a feature of Caribou Inuit boots.
Birket-Smith (1929) suggested that the side pouches were used
to carry small children, and Greenlandic Natives are known
to do so according to McGrath (1986-89). Ulayok Kaviok (1985-87)
said the pouches were used to store and dry caribou skin diapers.
A diaper was a large section of caribou neck skin that was
set under a naked baby carried in the mother's parka pouch.
When the baby soiled a diaper, the mother replaced it with
a clean diaper that she kept in one of her other boot pouches.
She
then freeze-dried the soiled diaper, cleaned with a caribou
brow tine or dull scraper,
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and
placed it in the empty boot pouch to dry. A third diaper was
stored in the other boot pouch, ready for use while the second
diaper was drying. In addition, a mother usually placed her
mitts in a boot pouch for safekeeping while she breast-fed
her baby. These boots with pouches are worn occasionally today
for theatre and Halloween costumes (Oakes 1991a).
Contemporary Clothing
Over the last sixty years, many changes have affected traditional
Caribou Inuit lifestyles and clothing (Oakes 1992b). During
the 1920s, Anglican and Roman Catholic missions and private
trading posts were first established throughout the Keewatin.
Today, communities have indoor skating rinks, small shopping
malls, Arctic Co-operatives, Northern stores, nursing stations,
scheduled air flights, regular mail delivery, and many other
facilities and services. These changes have increased the
availability of mass-produced fabric clothing such as sweatshirts,
blue jeans, sweaters, and jogging suits. However, people of
all ages continue to wear caribou and seal skin clothing,
as well as fabric clothing made in traditional styles. Hunters
still wear inner and outer layers of caribou skin clothing
in extremely cold winter weather. Some seamstresses decorate
parkas with beaded pieces purchased from craft stores, combining
these beaded pieces with rickrack, bias tape, and other trim
to create innovative, modern variations of the traditional
beaded parka.
Footwear Caribou
Inuit wear haired caribou skin boots whose soles are made
of caribou rather than seal skin. This style of boot is also
made by Iglulik and Baffinland Inuit, but Caribou Inuit use
it more extensively.
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Caribou Inuit are also the primary makers of the caribou skin
boot worn with all the hair to the inside, bu they seldom
make caribou leg skin boots. According to Sally Qimminu'naaq
Webster (1994), Caribou Inuit call short kamiks 'saaluqitiq'
and call kamiks for everyday wear 'kubluuq'. She also says
that in the past they used fish oil to waterproof kamiks called
'ipirausiq'. Seal skin boots made in the southern part of
the Caribou Inuit region are very similar to those of other
communities, but there are noticeable differences. The straight
leg section is much narrower than the full, gathered leg section
of the Iglulik and Baffinland Inuit. The height of the back
heel seam is slightly lower than that used by Labrador Inuit
and much higher than that used by Inuit in Greenland. The
geometric decorative designs on the section are simpler than
those on Iglulik and Baffinland Inuit boots. Soles made by
Caribou Inuit have diffused pleats that are larger and bulkier
than those made by Baffinland Inuit. Caribou Inuit rarely
use ankle straps on their boots, but they do use ties on their
over slippers.
The Symbolism of Footwear Footwear is often
reffered to symbolically when discussing social issues such
as religious devotion or community spirit. For example, an
Anglican minister in Arviat gave a sermon in which he drew
parallels between different degrees of devotion shown by church-goers
and the different amount of wear seen on the skin, hair, and
seams of winter boots. Ekuma Parr, an elder from Cape Dorset,
drew a similar parallel between the stitches holding boots
together and the importance of community members working together
to maintain their informal economy.
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