polar bears that can be killed is strictly regulated — the annual quota for the whole Thule district is just 24. The skin of an adult bear will usually provide three pairs
of trousers, as well a great deal of meat, for a hunter and his family. The only part of the animal that isn’t used is the liver, which contains a very high concentration of vitamin A, making it poisonous to both men and dogs. This is some- thing the early polar explorers discovered the hard way — many of them died after consuming it. Throughout the winter, hunters continue to search for
seals at breathing holes and also at the floe edge. In the northern part of the Thule district, they also hunt walrus; in winter, this is fraught with danger, and normally two or more men will hunt together. As well as requiring a plentiful supply of clams and other molluscs, walruses tend to stay where strong currents keep the sea ice thin so they can break through to breathe. As a result, hunters often have to walk for hours on newly formed ice, so thin that it bends under their weight. When a walrus surfaces, the hunter will get as close as possible to the hole before throwing his harpoon. If it finds its mark he quickly loops the harpoon line around an ice-pick, which he holds against his foot until the walrus is
Inuit hunters work as a team to drag a dead walrus up onto the sea ice. Pitoraavik, northwest Greenland, 1977.
forced to surface for breath. At that moment, he kills it by shooting it in the head with a rifle. Standing on thin ice, holding a harpoon line with a wounded walrus on the end, is a heart- stopping exercise, but hunters are prepared to risk it for the chance of a catch that can provide a ton of meat or more. Once the walrus is dead, its
carcass is hauled up onto the ice by either a team of dogs or a group of hunters. It’s then dragged to safer, thicker ice where it can be butchered — one particular Inuit favourite is clams fresh from the stomach of a newly killed walrus. The flesh is also used for a popular Inuit delicacy called igunaq— to
Above: Qingaq, seal hunting at the floe edge near Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada, 1990.
Right: Thomasi rests inside an igloo. Nunavut, Canada, 1990.
make it, meat is cut into pieces and placed in large bags sewn from the skin. These bags are sealed and buried under stones for a few months until their contents has fermented, and become tasty and tangy — it’s eaten raw. The Chukchi, Siberian hunters on the Bering Strait, ferment walrus meat in much the same way and call it kapalkhen. It’s not just the quantity of meat a walrus provides that makes it so desirable — the flesh and fat is also extraordinarily sustaining for both humans and their dogs. At the end of a cold day on the frozen sea, a meal of freshly boiled walrus will keep you warmer for much longer than seal. Although in most coastal Inuit communities, hunters prey mainly on marine
mammals, in some areas they also travel inland during the winter to hunt caribou or fish such as Arctic char and lake trout, using nets set under the ice. At this time of year, they also trap Arctic foxes — although markets for this fur have declined, Arctic peoples still use it to make clothing.
March/April 2012
above & beyond
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