Qalgiq

In 2010 I was engaged to travel to the Cambridge Bay, Nunavut to work with Brendan Griebel, an archaeologist specializing in the Thule people of the Central Arctic. I made study of archaeological papers of traditional Inuit gathering structures and Inuit architecture in general, in as much as it can be studied from the tent rings and artifacts that are left over on the permafrost today. I built this mulit-media common house, known as a *qalgiq, *it would have been the gathering place for men during days, preparing for hunts, building traditional technologies, refining and discussing techniques; it would also have been a place for drumming and shamanic ceremony, perhaps at night. In the Central Arctic, the Inuit relied on fish, seal, and caribou predominantly. A summer tent such as this would have been covered with seal skin or caribou; we chose to use seal. The space functions as a gathering place for elders as well as a theater, featuring heritage films drawn from all over the Arctic, many pieces of documentation of land camps in the area, and many items from Isuma TV, the renowned hub Inuit film making, including the creator of Atanarjuak, The Fast Runner. I wrote extensively about my experience up there on my blog, starting here.