Some call them the Inuit Indians or
the Inuit tribe and even more commonly, Eskimos. As an Inuit art gallery we hear
these terms used all the time. This page has been created to help educate people
as to who the Inuit are and to help build an appreciation for these wonderful
people and their amazing artistic ability.
The Inuit people are the most widely dispersed group in the world still leading
a partly aboriginal way of life.
They live in a region that spans more than 3,500 miles. This region includes
Greenland, the northern fringe of North America, as well as a sector of eastern
Siberia. Inuit are racially distinct from the North American Indians. In fact,
the Inuit are closely related to the Mongolian peoples of eastern Asia. The
Inuit - Aleut languages are unrelated to any American Indian language groups.
At no time did the Inuit possess a national or well - defined tribal sense. The
Inuit emphasis was always on the local and familial group rather than on
associations based on land and territory. The terms Inuit Indians, the Inuit
Indians, Inuit tribe and Eskimo are not the correct names for these kind and
gentle people.
Inuit simply means
'The People' in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit and Inuit is the name they
wish to be known by. Inuit - their rightful name, replaces 'Eskimo' a term
based on a Algonkian word meaning 'eaters of raw flesh.'
In the words of Jose Kusugak, president of Inuit Tapirisit Kanatami, an
organization that represents Inuit from Labrador to the Northwest Territories,
"In Canada and America we are trying to make people understand that we are a
distinct people and not Indians... We want them to understand that Inuit work
real hard to get children educated and make sure they hold on to their culture."
-
The Inuit population was approximately 50,000 at the time of the first
widespread contact with Europeans.
An estimated 2,000 Siberian Inuit lived near the Bering Strait, the Alaskan
Inuit numbered about 25,000.
The Central Eskimos who inhabited northern Canada numbered about 10,000. The
Labrador Inuit totalled
about 3,000, while the Inuit on Greenland totalled about 10,000.
The terms "aboriginal" or "native"
people apply not only to the Inuit, but to the North American Indians, and Métis.
The term "First Nations" however refers only to Indians.
There are three distinct aboriginal groups in Canada :
* North American Indians (population: 554,290)
* Métis (population: 210,190)
* Inuit (population: 41,080) (Source: 1996 Census of Canada)
Much of the attention the Inuit people and their culture receives has been
brought about as a result of their tremendous skill as artists, particularly as
stone carvers, printmakers and recently creators of jewellery. Inuit art was
first brought to the attention of the world outside of the North by James
Houston in the late 1940's. James Houston also taught the Inuit people how to
make prints. Today, the Inuit support themselves primarily through the sale of
their art. In the award winning documentary film "Songs in Stone" which was shot
primarily on Baffin Island, James Houston recollects that historic moment when
he first received a stone carving as a gift from an Inuit man. To learn more
about the art of the Inuit people and James Houston
click here
houston-north-gallery.ns.ca
Canada - Thanksgiving - Il Giorno del Ringraziamentonovembre “indiani” e “inuit” ... spesso dimenticati ma
onorati dai canadesi che li chiamano “First Nations”
canada - going deeper - The Ecological Indian: Myth and History
Indians sometimes used all the meat from animals
they killed, and they sometimes did not.
To conserve a resource, in its most widespread definition, means not to waste
it. Indians who ate only the buffalo’s tongue, only the fetus, or only the hump,
or who abandoned bulls because they preferred cows, were not by definition
conservationists - unless the definition is altered.
A member of a group of Eskimoan peoples inhabiting
the Arctic from northern Alaska eastward to eastern Greenland,
particularly those of Canada.
Eskimos
A group of peoples inhabiting the Arctic coastal
regions of North America and parts of Greenland and northeast
Siberia
Native American
A member of any of the indigenous peoples of the
Western Hemisphere. The ancestors of the Native Americans are
generally considered by scientists to have entered the Americas
from Asia by way of the Bering Strait sometime during the late
glacial epoch.
First Nation
An organized aboriginal group or community, especially
any of the bands officially recognized by the Canadian government.
status Indian
A federally registered member of a band or First
Nation, having special status under Canadian law
treaty Indian
A status Indian belonging to a band that has
signed a treaty with the federal government.
There
are only very few Inuit, but millions of qallunaaq (white
people) just like mosquitoes. It is something very
special and wonderful to be an Inuk- we are like
the snow geese. If we abandon our Inuit ways, or no
longer find it important to use our language, we will be
nothing but just another mosquito -
Abraham Okpik, 1979
the Inuktitut word for computer is qarasaujaq — "something
that works like a brain" — while qulimiguulik, meaning "that
which has something going through the space above itself is
Inuktitut for helicopter.
In Inuktitut, there are several hundred basic verb endings, as
well as variations depending on the sound system. Take, for
example, the verb root malik - "follow."
maliktunga — "I follow"
malikkassik — "because you two follow"
malikkit — "follow them!"
malikkuttikkuk — "if we two followed those two"
malingmangaakku — "whether I followed her"
nunavut.com
There are only very few Inuit, but millions
of qallunaaq (white people) just like mosquitoes. It is
something very special and wonderful to be an Inuk- we are like
the snow geese. If we abandon our Inuit ways, or no longer find
it important to use our language, we will be nothing but just
another mosquito.
Abraham Okpik 1979
www.halfmoon.org/
The story
about Inuit words for snow is completely wrong. That language
group uses multiple suffixes, so you can derive not 50, but 150
words for snow.
itre.cis.upenn.edu
La storia degli inuit civilizzati
dai missionary raccontata per la prima volta in inuktitut
Il regista Zacharias Kunuk e il suo team parlano di "The
Journals of Knud Rasmussen"
.......
È la storia della civilizzazione bianca che ha spazzato un mondo
legato agli sciamani, dei missionari Oblati che si
stabilizzarono nel Grande Nord canadese per prendere sotto la
loro cura pastorale gli aborigeni di quelle zone. Ancora oggi
esistono una quindicina di diocesi missionarie degli Oblati
all'interno del Circolo Polare Artico
.......
Il film è stato giraro a Igloolik (a 850 chilometri da Iqaluit,
capitale di Nunavut) ed è ambientato negli anni Venti, quando i
missionari hanno portato il Vangelo alle nazioni autoctone del
Canada. «Nessuna ambientazione falsata, tutto è originale, anche
i posti dove abbiamo girato», spiega ancora Cohn. «Abbiamo
realizzato questo film basandoci sui diari dell'esploratore Knud
Rasmussen durante i suoi viaggi attraverso l'artico. Abbiamo
estrapolato i suoi racconti da due volumi scritti proprio dopo
la sua esperienza a Igloolik: appunti che raccontano la
spiritualità di que-sto popolo. Grazie a lui siamo riusciti ad
avere uno spaccato reale della vita di quei tempi. Sappiamo come
vivevano, come si procuravano il cibo, cosa è successo.
Rasmussen è stato l'unico ad avere un contatto diretto con gli
inuit perché parlava la loro lingua.
corriere.com
Aboriginal
Inuit Languages Protected in Nunavut, Canada Two traditional
First Nation languages have received official protection in the far
northern province of Nunavut…..The legislation, a victory for First
Nation groups, states that the 30,000 residents of Nunavut (called
Nunavummiut) have a right to use their mother tongue. Both public and
private sectors must provide services in an Inuit language. As a result,
all signs in Nunavut will include Inuit language. The new law takes
effect on July 1, 2009... pajamadeen.com
INUIT: UNA LEGGE NE PROTEGGE LA LINGUA
- dal 2009 uno stato autonomo
Una legge votata all’unanimità pochi giorni fa presto cambierà la vita
quotidiana nel Nunavut: tutte le insegne e i servizi saranno anche
previsti in linguaggio Inuit. L’Inuit Language Protection Act prevede,
infatti, che i 30mila residenti di questo territorio nel nord del Paese
abbiano il diritto di esprimersi nella lingua natia e che queste vadano
protette dal pericolo di estinzione. Le nuove leggi che regolano
l’utilizzo delle lingue Inuit - tra cui Inuktitut e Inuinnaqtun –
entrano in funzione il 1 luglio e saranno rafforzate negli anni a
venire. Un commissario veglierà sull’applicazione della nuova legge. “Il
linguaggio degli Inuit è il cuore della nostra cultura e della nostra
identità”, ha dichiarato in un comunicato stampa il Ministro per la
Cultura del Governo del Nunavut, Louis Tapardjuk. “Abbiamo preso forti
misure al fine di assicurare che il linguaggio Inuit sia e rimanga al
centro delle attività quotidiane, lavorative e d’istruzione del Nunavut.”
Gli impiegati del Governo, i clienti nei negozi, ristoranti e altre
attività commerciali avranno accesso al linguaggio Inuit, mentre i
servizi municipali saranno resi disponibili entro i prossimi 4 anni. Per
quanto riguarda l’insegnamento, il linguaggio Inuit sarà obbligatorio
dal prossimo luglio per gli studenti della materna e delle prime tre
classi elementari e obbligatorio per tutte le classi entro il 2019.
Infine, diventerà il linguaggio di lavoro nel servizio pubblico a
partire dal 18 settembre 2011. nlcanada.fly.webing.net
indigenous people
Inuit are a people who live near the Arctic. Their
homeland stretches from the northeastern tip of Russia across Alaska and
northern Canada to parts of Greenland. Inuit refers to the people formerly
called Eskimos. The term Eskimo comes from a Native
American word that may have meant 'eater
of
raw meat'. They prefer the name
Inuit, which means 'the people' or
'real people' and comes from
a language called Inuit-Inupiaq. The singular of Inuit is
Inuk, which means 'person'.
As the Inuit spread eastward, they modified their way of life to suit the Arctic
environments they encountered. They caught fish and hunted seals, walruses
and whales. On land, they hunted caribou, musk oxen, polar bear and other
small animals. They used animal skins to make tents and clothes.
They crafted tools and weapons from the animals'
bones, antlers, horns and teeth. In summer, they traveled in boats covered with
animal skin, called kayaks and in winter, on sleds pulled by dogteams.
Most Inuit lived in tents in the summer and in
large sod houses during the winter.
When traveling in search of game in winter, they built
snowhouses.
collections.ic.gc.ca snowwowl racine.ra.it
15 marzo
giornata internazionale
delle foche
protezione foca
resta il rischio che i cacciatori ora
attendano qualche giorno in attesa che i cuccioli di foca groenlandica
mutino il pelo in modo da poter continuare a importare i prodotti
derivati da tali animali nell'Unione europea. La richiesta alla
Commissione e' dunque che si dia vita a una proposta volta a vietare
l'importazione, l'esportazione e la vendita di tutti i prodotti derivati
dalla foca groenlandica e dalla foca cistofora crestata, senza per
questo produrre conseguenze per la
tradizionale caccia alla foca praticata
dagli INUIT, attivita' che comunque rappresenta soltanto il 3% del
volume di caccia attuale -
ansa
EU rejects appeal for
ban on Canadian seal products
The European
Union's executive commission rejected appeals Friday for an EU-wide ban
on the import of seal fur products to force the closure of Canada's
annual seal hunt....
EU would take "all necessary
steps to ascertain the use of humane hunting standards for seals, and if
deemed appropriate, propose … to take action in wake of "the high
level of public concerns" over the issue....
www.cbc.ca
•Il 98% delle foche
uccise hanno un età tra i 12 giorni di vita e i 3 mesi di vita: sono
quindi “cuccioli” a tutti gli effetti, considerato che questi mammiferi
possono raggiungere i 30 anni d’età.
Caccia
la maggior parte dei
cuccioli sono morti alla nascita perché dati alla luce nelle acque, a
causa delle condizioni climatiche che stanno sciogliendo i ghiacciai, e
non in grado di nuotare nelle prime settimane di vita. La maggior parte
delle foche sopravissute sono state uccise a fucilate, a distanza, dalle
barche e poi recuperate spesso agonizzanti.
Stop al commercio delle foche
canadesi
L'Olanda ha varato un provvedimento che vieta l'importazione, il
commercio ed il possesso di prodotti provenienti dalla caccia alle foche
canadesi, a prescindere dall'età degli animali uccisi. Il divieto
riguarda la foca dal cappuccio e la foca della Groenlandia, due
esemplari artici cacciati e commercializzati in particolare dal Canada,
mentre esclude i prodotti degli Inuit, le popolazioni native della
tundra che catturano gli animali con metodi tradizionali.
corriere
native americans 
