The Story of the Thunder House
As told by Lena Kingmeaktuq
Across the Netsilik River were a brother and sister; the two were very small and they had no mother and father. At that time people never kept orphans the way they keep orphans today, just because it was hard for people at that time to feed families other than their own. The people could not care for the two little ones and did not want anything to do with them so they left them behind when they went across the river The two were just children at the time when the other people left them. The brother and sister were very upset and they cried for a long time. After a long time the two children started looking for anything that they could find where the people that left them had their tent.
One child found pieces of rocks that can make sparks when you hit the rocks together. The other child found a piece of caribou skin, just a small piece of caribou skin. The sister and brother started to sing. And the sister start to sing and she sang "Aningaak Aningaak hiulunuuk ijajuqi" (part of an ajija song that the two children sang, trying to figure out what they could be. 'Aningaak' and 'ijajuqi' doesn't mean anything but are just part of the song. 'hiulunnuk' means, 'what can we become?') saying all the animals that are stronger than humans, polar bears, musk-ox, wolfs and other dangerous animals, and wonder which animal to become, animals that can kill humans. The little girl was singing and saying all the dangerous animals and wondering which animal they can become. Because they were so frightened that they were by themselves, and they were so hurt that they decided to become something powerful and that way they could get their revenge. We can become caribou ijajuqi, she would sing. She would say an animal and say ijajuqi at the end of each animal she sang and her brother would respond by saying "if we were to become polar bears we would charge with our huge teeth" the sister then said what about musk-ox and the brother responded by saying "we would charge with our horns".
His sister mentioned all the dangerous animals and could not think of any more and said "aningaak aningaak hulunuuk ijajuqi kalulunukluniik ijajuqi" (thunder and lightning) (literally, song then 'what can we become?' then song, then 'thunder and lightening') as soon as the sister said that the brother shook the caribou skin and it started to thunder rapidly and the sister started to hit the pieces of rocks and that is when the lightning started.The rock between Qiqiqtaqtuuk and Ikaujaak is the house of thunder and lightning. The two children that were left behind made it and that is why they call it the thunder house. The children wanted to scare the people. They wanted their revenge because they were so hurt that they were left behind.
The people that went across the river without the two children were hit by the lightning. Their tent and everyone had been hit and every time they got hit by the lighting it was like they were still sleeping but they were ashes. The children that they left on the other side of the river were attacking them.
The brother and sister that were left were orphans and they sang. They were big enough that they made a house out of rocks and a shelter for themselves. Because they did not have a tent, they built a shelter.