« Return to the Inuit legends list

To the Church in Kuujjuaraapik

This is a story about how Inuit lived after the arrival of the first missionaries and before the Inuit had big boats, snowmobiles and communities with ministers and churches.

The church in Kuujjuaraapik

A long time ago, there was only one church to serve all the Inuit on the coast of Hudson Bay. That church was in Kuujjuaraapik. Inuit from all along the coast would travel to Kuujjuaraapik to go to church. People traveled from as far north as Salluit. They also came from camps around Ivujivik, Puvirnituq, and Inukjuak.

Eventually, the other communities along the coast had their own churches and had their own ministers. But before that, some people had to travel very long distances to go to church.

Inuit attended church only in the winter. They could not get to church in the spring because they did not have big boats yet. In the winter, they could travel by dog team when the ice was hard.

In those days, everyone traveled to Kuujjuaraapik, even the very old people. Some people were poor. The poor people had only a two- or three-dog team for traveling to Kuujjuaraapik. At that time Inuit wore caribou and sealskin clothes. In the winter they wore kamiks on their feet, which went up to their knees. Some people became very sick on the trip, and died.

While travelling to Kuujjuaraapik, the hunters were always on the lookout for seals. When a hunter harpooned a seal, the dog team was sent off to find another seal hole. When a seal was caught and killed, the traveling group stopped for the night. While the hunter prepared the seal for eating, the men built an igloo around the hunter. After the igloo was finished, the travelers gathered inside the igloo to eat. Following the feast of fresh seal meat, the people wanted to smoke and drink tea so they made tea with rosemary, and chewed tobacco.

The Inuit tried to get back north to their homelands before the ice began to melt. If spring came quickly and the ice began to melt, they would have to set up camp and wait for the ice to melt completely. While they waited, they would make kayaks. Then they completed their trip home by kayak on the open water.

Artiste : Adamie Yugalak

Life on the land

In the springtime people moved to the islands, so they could hunt for seals and make kayaks from their skins. In the spring, men wore parkas made from big flour bags, and rabbit skin hats. They also used the big white flour bags to make seal hunting blinds, called tarramigautik. Hiding behind the white cloth, the hunters were able to sneak up very close to the seals.

In the springtime, the Inuit cut up their winter kamiks to make kneepads. On their feet they wore waterproof kamiks.

In the summertime, Inuit moved inland and lived there for the season. They hunted caribou, fished, and picked berries.

During the fall they moved again, this time to a place where they could find fuel such as moss and willow. They collected lots of fuel, so they would have enough to last a long time. They stored the fuel in several locations. Inuit tents were kept full of plenty of moss and willow fuel.

During the coldest days of winter, Inuit moved to the inland lakes where they could fish and be close to a supply of fresh water. They continued fishing until it was time to travel back south to Kuujjuaraapik to go to church. This cycle of life went on until missionaries had built churches through­out the Inuit homeland, and Inuit no longer had to travel to Kuujjuaraapik to go to church.

Unknown artist

Excerpt from: Unikkaangualaurtaa (Let's Tell a Story)