The Hiukitak School of Tuktu: collecting Inuit ecological knowledge of caribou and calving areas through an elder-youth camp. Arctic 51

• Main Author: L. Thorpe
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1998
• Subjects: Arctic; inuit
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.541.8241; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic51-4-403.pdf

LENA KAMOAYOK awoke at her usual time(4:00 a.m.) and began to prepare her teachingprops. She squatted into the gentle light coming through the opening in her tent and, with her army knife, she expertly sliced through the Frosted Flakes box. She sawed with excited determination, fastidiously tracing the outline of a caribou she sketched. Within minutes she had produced a target. She would use this to teach the youth how to hunt with a bow and arrows that were already made—she’d crafted them last month, and they had been sitting in a sacred box in her tupiq (tent) ever since. When the youth awoke several hours later, Lena scarcely let them finish breakfast before she wandered up the hill towards the row of talut (hunting blinds). Silently she beckoned the youth from the caribou skin tent and towards her outdoor classroom. Here they would learn