Shamans and Healing
Peggy is the interviewer:
As told by Lena Kingmeaktook
Peggy
Do you know anything about irinaliuk?
Nuliayuk
I don’t know anything about that. I’ve only heard stuff about it. 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.
Annie
Does it mean that they use shamans while they are using this?
Lena
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 heels a person is when he irinaliuk and heels that person. Its just the same as when we pray for someone and some times he or she is felling better. It’s just about the same thing.
Peggy
Just the same as getting blessed
Lena
Just the same as getting blessed, irinaliuk is heeling someone by doing some sort of ritual.
Annie
Who are they praying to?
Lena
Irinalurktuk is used some times when people cannot catch animals and they need to catch something to survive, and that is when they would catch an animal after they irinalurktuk. 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 this person is sick and is dying and this person or this shaman did their thing and that person did not get better, some one 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 some one and that person may not get better, and then some one else comes and pray for the same person and that person starts to get better, its just the same thing. And that is how I’ve heard it. Some have hard time healing other people and some have better luck at it. And this person who wants to get healed has to make a confession before he or she gets healed, and if he or she does 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 or if the person makes a confession even though he or she is ashamed to say what he or she did, because they want to live for whatever reason he or she may be cured and have a long live. I am like that, but to praying, sometimes I forget to tell someone I trust about something I want to confess about, when someone prays over me and I never confess nothing really happens, but if I confessed and someone prayed over me I would fell better that is why I am living today, its because of this.
I am still alive in year 2000. Even though I some times don’t feel good all the time and don’t have the strength that I use to have, I never feel pain anymore. It’s because of that I am like this. If we been badly in the past or did bad stuff we can go to someone we trust and talk about what we have done and that is when doctors, someone who may pray for you or nurses can cure you. And that is how the shamans and people who irinaliuk use 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.
Shamans
As told by Bernadette Uttaq
Shamans were very helpful because we did not have any nurses in the old days. They cured the sick people. They cured sick people, when there were no nurses. They were very good to have and we were thankful. It didn't matter that they were shamans because they were trying to do a good deed in helping other people. BUt some of them would use their power to show off their tricks, they would kill people and go against other people, because they were different people.