by Mark Kalluak
Iqaluit and Toronto: Inhabit Media, 2024.
Reviewed by Kenn Harper
It's hard to believe that Mark Kalluak passed away 13 years ago. He was a dominant presence in the Inuit cultural world for decades.
Mark Kalluak (1942-2011) was a community leader and, in his quiet way, a cultural activist in his home community of Arviat (formerly Eskimo Point) on western Hudson Bay. Throughout his 68 years he was active especially in issues related to language and culture. He worked variously as an interpreter, translator, and teacher, as well as editor of a bilingual regional newspaper, The Keewatin Echo. Somehow he managed to find time to also serve his community as mayor for some years.
When I wrote a special issue of Inuktitut magazine , “Writing Systems and Translations” (Inuktitut, no. 53, September 1983), I was honoured that Mark agreed to write the introduction. Modestly, he wrote about the eventual realization by Inuit that a revision to the syllabic writing system was needed “to make improvements to include certain Inuktitut sounds not covered by the old system”, noting that Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (as Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami was then known) set up a Language Commission “to bring about the solution–the dual orthography–that is in use today.” Mark was far too modest to mention that the Language Commission drew heavily on work that he and Armand Tagoona (an Anglican minister with a passion for language) had already done, in devising the revised orthography.
Inhabit Media has put together an attractive hardbound collection of some of Mark’s stories from Inuit culture. Most of the selections have been published before, one by Nunavut’s Department of Education in 2004, and a number in two volumes published by Inhabit Media as Unipkaaqtuat Arvianit (Volumes 1 and 2) in 2009 and 2010.
But the last quarter of the book, entitled Inuit Beliefs, comprises stories not previously published. In introducing that section, Mark wrote that the “traditional belief system was linked to every area of life, affecting how they [Inuit] worked, how food was harvested and used, how water was used, how relationships were formed and maintained––it affected all areas of life.” In this book, he wrote about how some of those beliefs were “taught, learned, and practised.”
In “Showing Kindness to Orphans,” Mark told in abbreviated form part of the well-known story of Kaugjagjuk, an orphan who was cruelly mistreated by his community members, including his own family. He points out the lesson to be learned from the tale, that “we must always show kindness to people who (sic) we consider to be less fortunate than us, because they can rise up to become more powerful than us, and we ourselves may require their help someday… We are to offer them kindness and help. This is a precious thing to build our memories on.”
Most of the other stories in that section also convey lessons for living. Some are “Avoid Being Stingy About Food,” and “Treating Elders Kindly.” In “Avoid Whistling at the Northern Lights,” he reminds people – all Inuit know this – “We were told to avoid whistling at the northern lights, because if you whistle they will get closer, and the northern lights could cut your head off and play with it like a soccer ball.” Less well-known are two other beliefs about the northern lights: “People believe that if they rubbed their fingernails together, the sound would make northern lights go away,” and “When people wished the northern lights to go farther away, they would call out, ‘I piss on you,’ to try to drive away the northern lights.”
The introduction, by respected Inuit linguist, Jaypeetee Arnakak, points out that Mark had polio as a child and spent many years away from his family in a southern hospital where he had to learn a new language. He drew on his reserves of humility and patience and “decided that he would learn from this experience. This response would serve him well when he got out of the hospital. Because he had learned English while away, he felt he was now able to help both Inuit and qallunaat (white people) to communicate with each other.” How refreshing, in a time when so many Indigenous Canadians want to adopt the role of victim, to read about a man who refused to let life’s adversities conquer him and who instead chose to play the hand he was dealt and become a leader of his people and an inspiration to all.
In introducing some of his stories, Mark is careful to point out that some have many versions told in different places in the Arctic. He often makes a disclaimer, like, “This version of the story is taken from the Hauniqtuurmiut.” The Hauniqtuurmiut, an inland group of Inuit in the Kivalliq region (the area west of Hudson Bay) are his mother’s people, and many of his stories come from them.
Modern Inuit make much of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, sometimes translated as “traditional knowledge.” As Jaypeetee Arnakak points out, “Mark Kalluak lived and personifies the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit principles authentically and genuinely; he was humble, thoughtful, and very caring towards his family, his community, his language, and his culture.”
Mark collected, wrote, translated, and illustrated this book. He began collecting stories, first from his mother, Helen Paurngat Kuugaq, and then from a wider sampling of community and regional elders. A few of the stories he heard from elders from other regions.
The book is lavishly illustrated with Mark’s own drawings. The type is large, and the paragraphs alternate between Inuktitut in syllabic orthography and English translations. The volume is an easy-to-read yet detailed introduction to Inuit traditional beliefs for the general reader, tales told well by a masterful story-teller.
