Examining & explaining
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Painted designs
2002
Examining & explaining
Virginia Minock: Ipuun [ladle]. They’re still being used nowadays but not as fancy.
Neva Rivers: Makut manigpak.
(These are so smooth.)
John Phillip, Sr.: Angassanek wangkuta pilaqait wangkut nunamteni.
(In our village we call them angassaq [ladle].)
Neva Rivers: Tauna-gguq arulamiruksuarlua-ll’. Imkut flat-alrianeng pilget arulamirutmeng piaqaat. Imna-llu ipuuksuaraq. Soup-aliiluki pitukeput. Soup-alilriameng piaqata pilutuluki.
(That is a small arulamirun [ladle]. Those ones that are flat are called arulamirun.
That one is called an ipuuksuaraq [small ladle]. We use them for soup. When they made soup of some they used them.)
Joan Hamilton: Ladle. And then there’s one that’s flatter for—
Neva Rivers: Stirring.
John Phillip, Sr.: Yaassiigenqellriit taukut arulamirutneng.
(The arulamirutet [ladles] are more square-shaped.)
Neva Rivers: Yaassigenqeggluki ilait takluteng.
(They are more square-shaped and some are long.)
John Phillip, Sr.: Ii-i, takurluteng.
(Yes, they are longer.)
Joan Hamilton: And what you call them also depends on the length.
John Phillip, Sr.: Ii-i, iliini amllermeng ilungqerpegnateng.
(Yes, sometimes they don’t have a deep curve.)
Painted designs
Suzi Jones: And are they always painted a little bit with the red?
Neva Rivers: Everything has to painted, not to leave it like this [plain]. They have to paint them all the time with the red and black.
Joan Hamilton: Ciin?
(Why?)
Neva Rivers: Design-arluki kenekluki pituit.
(They care about them so they design them.)
Joan Hamilton: Because they treasure them and value them.
Neva Rivers: We all have red clay. This [red coloring] is from the clay, what they made it from.
They make sure they put oil on it, so it [color] will stay longer.
Virginia Minock: And it won’t crack.
Neva Rivers: And it doesn’t wash off. It will be reddish all the time. They never leave it like this, pale all the way. And they have to put fancy [designs] in here [bowl], just to make it look pretty, for decoration. Un’ maa-i quletmun qaralingqerrluni (there are decorations going upwards (on handle)].
Virginia Minock: Nallunailkutaqaat?
(Does it show that it’s theirs?)
Neva Rivers: Qaraliuciqait. Qaralilituut makuneng to make it look pretty.
(It would be their design. They put these kinds of designs to make it look pretty.)
Neva Rivers: Atuunrilengraata piugtacimegcetun.
(They put any kind of decorations even they don’t have a succinct meaning.)
John Phillip, Sr.: Pinrilengraata qaralililarait piullermegneng iliit.
(Some just put any kind of decoration that they want.)
Joan Hamilton: Sometimes the decoration is just for aesthetics, personal preference, not necessarily with a story.
Neva Rivers: You just make a design. Not to leave it [the meaning] clear all the time.
Joan Hamilton: Seal una-ll’ cauluni.
(And what is this [design inside ladle], a seal?)
Neva Rivers: Qerruinaq. Naug im’ imkut augarniarci narulkaraaqameng qerruinek kanavet, kukgam nuvua imna augarcetuli kanavet pikan wani uum qerruinamun. Nayirmeng qerruumalriameng pingqerciquq una. Kaputeng angllungremi una qerruinaq avani pingmaqluni.
(A harpoon float. When they throw a harpoon down there and the harpoon head detaches and this buoy is connected when it goes down there. This would have a ringed seal harpoon float. When it pokes through, even if it dives, this harpoon float with stay surfaced.)
John Phillip, Sr.: Qerruinaa-gguq wani-wa.
(This is its harpoon float.)
Joan Hamilton: This is a seal that’s been harpooned.
A man made all of the wooden utensils needed by his family including serving ladles and spoons. He gathered the wood he needed in summer and crafted these objects during winter in the men’s communal house.
The drawing of a seal hunt on this ladle recalls a traditional ritual practice. Women greeted seals that their husbands had killed, using an angassaq [ladle] to offer the animal fresh snow or drinking water and to sprinkle moisture on the animal’s flipper joints. Her greeting was believed to complete the seal’s journey from water to land, to satisfy its thirst, and please its spirit so that it and other seals would come to the hunter again. Paintings on ladles and food dishes represented stories that were owned by individual families.
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