To Sew or Not to Sew?

Napatsi Folger — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:42:10 GMT

NOTE: This post previously submitted in the "Your Arctic: issues" section of this site, by Victoria Simigak from Nuuk, Greenland

To Sew or Not to Sew?

After living in Nuuk, Greenland for 5 years, I have come to recognize and appreciate the importance of making and wearing traditional Inuit clothing such as kamituinnat (sealskin kamiks), amautik (baby carrier), atigik (parka), qarlikajaat (snowpants), etc. When I wear my wolf and sealskin kamiks here in Nuuk, I get alot of compliments and awws and oooos. It is rare in Nuuk for people to wear traditional kamiks unless they are worn with the Greenlandic National suit used only on special occassions. One of my students asked me what the occassion was when I wore my kamiks to school. 4 - 5 years ago, it was very rare to see women wearing these but it is starting to be common for the locals to wear them. I haven't seen any men wearing theirs. The public at large is wearing trendy hiking boots, seal skin with rubber soles and European fashion boots. What I question though, and I can use myself as an example, is how can Inuit at large continue sewing the traditional kamiks?

I grew up with many siblings, 3 sisters and 2 brothers. One of my recalled memories is my mother enslaving us girls to do chores so she can juggle her work and her sewing projects. Every year, I used to get atigik (homemade parka filled with goosedown, hooded with a fox fur), new kamiks along with new pualuk (leather mittens) and qarlikajaat (downfilled snowpants). Multiply those hand and machine sewn clothes with us 5 siblings! Wow, my mother was a busy goose. I also recall telling her I want to learn to sew too. Many times, my mother's excuse not to teach me was that it will be quicker if she does it herself. After trying few times and getting the same answer everytime, I gave up in my interest to sew Inuit clothing. But wouldn't it be much quicker if 4 hands sewed together for the 7 beings in the household? I should have asked that question 20 years ago. I kind of blame my mother for my inactiveness for sewing.

The advantage I had in those days though was the school culture classes where we learnt how to make pualuk, kamik, qalliniq (beaded toppings for kamiks) etc. Thanks to those limited hours of lessons, I can make pualuk and have an idea about threading and needle work. But like everyone says, it is never too late. On a scale of 1 - 10 I would say my sewing level is 4. On the other hand, in a land where no young girl has sewing classes in the school like Nunavik, compared to a Greenlandic woman in my agegroup, my sewing level is 6 or 7. Greenland doesn't have a parka-making tradition, unlike Nunavik and Nunavut. Greenland has many sewing shops to make the famous Greenlandic seal skin products from jackets to pualuk, qarlikajaak, hats, purses, agenda covers etc. Sewing is very commercialized in the country rather than taking it on as a home hobby. After being in Nuuk for one year, I was eying the sealskin pants which glided and shined as the person wearing then walked in stride. It was a real eye catcher for me. I could not resist but order a pair myself so I went to the local sewing shop and had my lower body measured to have custommade pants. The pants were ready in no time and wiped my boyfriends wallet clean. Alhough this business in Nuuk is convenient and employs local people, it does not encourage self efficience in sewing for one self. Will Nunavik and Nunavut end up in this kind of dependence if the younger generation don't continue the home sewing?

One of my favourite clothing topic is the amautik. Wearing an amautik in Nunavik/vut is very normal just it is normal to wear underwear. In fact, it is so normal that one can say there is an unspoken competition in having the most beautiful amautik in a hometown. Who has the best color? Who has the best design? Who has the best fur? Who can make their own amautik? On the contrary, Greenlandics at large do not wear such a thing (very few in the upper and eastern Greenlandic towns wear amautik). The silent competition is with European style strollers. The appearance of the stroller has much to do with the mom's ego just as it is in Nunavik and Nunavut with the amautik.

What I find disheartening in this unique European Arctic country is that an amautik is very foreign for Greenlandic people. When I was wearing my Canadian-made amautik four years ago with my son Gabriel, people were often shocked that there was a baby in the back! The question I heard so many times were "Is there a baby in there? Can he breathe? Will he fall? Is he going to live? How will you take him out? How do you put him in?". Will such questions and attitude ever develop about cultural clothing in the Canadian Arctic?

Much has changed since my mother's childhood in Nunavik, to my youthful days and becoming a mother in the 1990's. Today's Arctic has more "teenage moms" who haven't had the time or experience in learning traditional Inuit sewing, let alone satsifying the huge demands of learning how to juggle parenting, childrearing, and working. These challenges were possible until the late 1990's. Now there appears to be no room for continuance as Inuit are challenged with heavy economical and social issues such as alcohol abuse and suicide. There is really no room for improvement in cultural activities. Young people would rather play hockey, play PS2, Xbox, smoke pot, party, look on the internet and so on. A common way of thinking for young Inuit nowadays is "Leave the sewing to the grandmother". Yet, the grandmother will not be there forever, but the internet will. Should Inuit put a website on the internet such as "learn how to sew Inuit clothing"? What about the quesion of the copyrights and the talks about intellectual property? Will the internet method of teaching how to sew be viably effective for a 17 year old Inuk girl about to have her new born baby?

Despite the downfall of traditional sewing in younger Inuit generations in the past decade, someone has taken notice. Inuit leaders and passionate people of Inuit communities are making positive progress to change this saddening reality. In terms of sewing, one of Nunavik's highlights are independent workshops happening in various communities who were given financial and moral support from their local municipalities. Workshops include amautik making, kamik workshops, yarn braiding, and skinning/tanning. These workshops are encouraging Nunavimiut and Nunavummiut in sharing strengths and weaknesses in traditional sewing. For example, experienced and professional kamik makers from Pannituuq, Nunavut had given courses in Salluit, Nunavik in this past January 2008. This is an incredible turning point because in the past, the only form of communication exchanges between these Arctic territories and provinces had been through religious friendships. Now one can see that a new dimension of friendship is growing. Now we can share real cultural backgrounds using our language and our cultural pride. For instance, this new way of sharing converts alcohol abuse to cultural use. These workshops motivate and maintain Inuit to become proud of our talents just as a mother is proud to carry her beautiful baby on her back.

Although Inuit in Siberia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland have great common backgrounds, yet each country is divided depending on which dominant culture they have "adopted" in new lifestyles. On a deeper level, Greenland is highly colonized and adapted to European customs. One can see some of the habits and the traditions that have been inaugurated immensely onto Greenlandic society's national mentality. So much so that the usage of strollers were highly fashioned when they were introduced in the mid 20th century. Greenlandic Inuit no longer used the amaat (Greenlandic term for amautik - traditional baby carrier). So there was no more to carry but only to push. Push what? Push away the identity.

One of the outcomes of this awkward dilemma was Greenland's clothing commercialization. Resulting from Greenland's procedures of commercializing Inuit clothing, was the promotion of tourism and employment to local people. It has also drawn much trade and exchanges between Canadian and Greenlandic Inuit, which varies by strong and weak communications depending on the willingness of the elected politicians' support on the matter. If there are more future Inuit cultural exchanges, how can Canadian Inuit learn from the Greenlandics? What could the Inuit Canadians teach the Greenlandics? One thing for sure is that us Inutuinnait (pure Inuit) could re-learn together that it is okay to wear traditional fur clothing. It is okay to learn sewing. It is okay to teach each other - commercialized or not.

But what hidden picture do you see in this controversy? Who is the main character in this play? What role do they have in the theme? Is it the woman's primary role to kickstart the cultural esteem? Should more men go hunting so they can provide skin to sewing? Perhaps the elementary and high schools in Nunavik could use themselves as examples in teaching sewing to Inuit students. Maybe the self governace dream can start independent sewing and hunting departments. The only answer is that everyone, man or woman, jobless or a politician, youth or elder all have a role in boosting our cultural talents.

So. . . ? Will you sew?

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To Sew or Not to Sew?

To Sew or Not to Sew?