Friday, September 22, 2006

Going Hunting


Here's a little background to yesterday's posting. The picture above shows Enuki Kunnuk bringing his boat to the water's edge across the sea ice. Enuki is the father of Zack Kunnuk who made the film 'Atanarjuat - the Runner' a few years ago.

We'd launch the canoes and head out looking for seals and walrus. Often this meant being out for several days in whatever weather there was. Finding walrus was a happy situation because of the large amount of meat they possessed. They weigh well over a ton, and that feeds a lot of dogs during the winter.

This picture of walrus suddenly waking up on a pan of ice gives an idea how close you have to get if you intend to harpoon the animal. As they can sink once killed, it's important to have a line in your kill even when hunting with modern rifles. Tricky work for which only the brave and skilled need apply...

1 comment:

clairesgarden said...

I am impressed with the good quality of these pictures, is it taking a lot of time to scan your slides in?
they still look a bit scary to me. is hunting these walrus a tradition still carried out today?
in my optimistic hope of oil ending and everybody having to slow down their lives, grow their own food etc. my theory is those who today listen to their granparents advice(like growing veggies or hunting, even how to use a sewing machine to make practical not fashinable clothing) will be able to give this advice to their grandchildren, who will be in sore need of it by then. todays 'people' mostly think tomatoes come from the supermarkets all year round, what do you mean in season?