Lena Kingmeaktuq
Date of Birth:May 23, 1937Place Born:Arviqtutiaq
Parents: Mother ~ Annie Kayuqyuq aka Hivuraq
Father ~ Johnny Kayuqyuq
My Father was Johnny Kayuqyuq and my mother's name was Annie and people called her Hivuraq. But that was not her name - but they called her by that name.
I was told that I was born by a place called Arviqtutiaq. I wonder if my birth date was accurate, because a policeman wrote my birth date, it must be close to the date I was born because of that. My birth date was written for 1937. I was born when it was warm enough to use tents; I was born May 23, 1937.
Hunting at Netsilik Lake
The Netsilik Lake and river area was a place for people to hunt. When people did not have guns and other hunting gear, Netsilik area was it for people to survive. Even people today that can still hunt go there to hunt, that is why it should not be disturbed. There are good fish there.
Fishing at Netsilik River
When I was a child I was not around Netsilik lake area. I was raised over by Gjoa-Haven area. The very first time I came to Taloyoak area was in 1962. But I know some about Netsilik lake and Netsilik river area. I can talk a bit about the area, from what I've heard.
That lake, Netsilik, had a river that was small at one time. at one time people use to make fish weirs. The fish are always going up and the lake so people used to catch them at the river, because the river use to be shallow there. Because of the fish that go up the river, people use to catch them using a fish weir. That was the first thing I had heard about the river of Netsilik from my father. The Netsilik River was a place for people to catch fish. People used Trainuituk to catch fish using fish weirs, and it was the land of a lot of people. But there was always a lot of Tuniit living by the Netsilik river area. At that time one Tuniik just had a baby. this Tuniik that had just had a baby was hungry, and she wanted fish so she went in the river to catch fish in the fish weir. That is how the river flooded and got very huge.
That is how I've heard the story.
Stories of Fighting
The Inuit before us were not very good, they were very bad. Today some people don't like other people but they are much better Inuit since there are laws. They don't kill each other any more. I've heard that the Inuit from long ago killed each other without hesitation. That's how they were.
That is how I've heard it.
Men in those days used to hit each other by the head to fight for women. They would even stab each other for woman. The Inuit long ago used to throw away newborn baby girls and they fought for the women. The men were fighting for women and killing them when they born if they were not boys. That is how they were.
If there was a man that was a good hunter he could be killed for that reason too. If a person was killed and his family heard who killed him they would also seek revenge. That is how Inuit use to be, but today, because there are policemen, it has changed. Even though some of us think they are bad. Even though they aren't always nice to each other. But the people before us used to even stab each other, not with panas or metal but with antlers, they must get them really sharp. I know that the bones can get sharp. But the antlers must get sharp too. They knew how to get them sharp from experience. They've been using them for knives for so long, and I've heard that they use them for killing people too. Sometimes when a person was too big for another person to kill, they would have another man or two other men help to kill the man. That is how they used to be, the Inuit before us. We Inuit would have been more today if there was not so much killing. Stabbing each other and using harpoons using bow and arrows, that is how they killed each other.
That is how I've heard it, it must have been scary at the time.
Shamans
I also heard that because we had no bible, no doctors, and no nurses, my parents and other's parents used to heal other people by using shamans and irinaliuktuk but I've never heard of irarnaluktuq. But my parents told me about it before, that is how I know about it.
When the mothers are birthing the babies, people would want some babies to become shamans and then some wouldn't want some babies to become shamans. If a certain child is chosen to be a shaman when he or she grows up, the mother of the newborn child has to go in backward, and when the mother is going in backwards she will stop just before she makes it all the way in and goes back out. And that is how they use to make people become shaman. That was the Netsilik way of becoming a shaman.
The first man named Qaquqtiniq, he was an old man, and because his mother did that he was a great shaman. Because he was a great shaman, he was very powerful. When Qaquqtiniq was middle age, Nuliayuk, my namesake Nuliayuk, our namesake Nuliayuk, came up by Netsilik Lake during the spring. She lives in the sea because she was left to drown in the sea. When she came up on the ice at Netsilik Lake - I wonder why she came up at Netsilik Lake - Qaquqtiniq started to go towards Nuliayuk by sneaking up on her with his harpoon (they did not have any guns at that time). When Qaquqtiniq was close enough to hit Nuliayuk with his harpoon he stood up, ran and harpooned Nuliayuk. Because the rope was long on his harpoon, he had the rope tied around his waist. At that time Qaquqtiniq had a parka that was made of caribou skin. When the parkas were just made they would be as white as snow. When he harpooned Nuliayuk he was being pulled by her toward the hole in the ice and when he was very close to the hole he got her stuck, that is when the rope broke and Qaquqtiniq fell back to the ice. By the time Qaquqtiniq got home he was soaked, so soaked that his parka was all wet.
And that is how I've heard the story. I think it ends there.
Irinaliuktuk
I've only heard stuff about Irinaliuktuk. I only heard that people use to heal people by using it. Because my father hated people that did that I hardly know about it.
This is how I think it works. You know when we want someone to get better we sometimes pray for that person. That is how someone that is not a shaman heals a person is when he Irinaliuk and heels that person. It's just the same as when we pray for someone and sometimes he or she is feeling better. It's just about the same thing. Just the same as getting blessed, Irinaliuk is healing someone by doing some sort of ritual.
Irinalurktuk is used sometimes when people cannot catch animals and they need to catch something to survive. This is when they would catch an animal after they Irinaliuk. If we today were hungry and prayed to catch an animal we may catch something, it was just the same thing. That is how I've heard it. If a person is sick and is dying and another person or shaman did their thing and the sick person did not get better, someone else may use Irinaliuktuk and that person may not get better right away but they may get better slowly. And us who believe in God might pray for someone and that person may not get better, and then someone else prays for the same person and that person starts to get better, it's just the same thing. And that is how I've heard it. Some have a hard time healing other people and some have better luck at it. The person who wants to be healed has to make a confession before they are healed. If they do not confess even though the shaman knows what the person has done, the shaman cannot heal that person. The person could die because of this. If the person makes a confession, even though they are ashamed to say what they did, because they want to live for whatever reason they may be cured and have a long life.
I am like that, but with praying. Sometimes I forget to tell someone I trust about something that I want to confess about, so when someone prays over me nothing really happens. If I confess and someone prays over me I feel better and that is why I am living today. I am still alive in year 2000. Even though I sometimes don't feel good all the time and don't have the strength that I used to have, I never feel pain anymore. It's because of that I am like this. If we behaved badly in the past or did bad stuff we can go to someone we trust and talk about what we have done. This is when doctors, someone who may pray for you, or nurses can cure you. And that is how the Shamans and people who Irinaliuk used to heal people. The Shamans use to heal people that way and people use to heal other people using Irinaliuktuq.
That is how I've heard it.