Around the lit qulliq, in the warmth and comfort of the iglu, Inuit elders diligently pass down stories to younger family members they themselves heard from their own elders. These histories and legends, retold with careful attention to detail, are often laced with crucial lessons about how to live a good life.
Many of these legends have, in recent years, been depicted in visually stunning ways by Inuit artists and storytellers. Watch just some of the Inuit’s most enduring legends here.
Main Image: Still from Taqqut Film's The Giant Bear
Qalupalik
Young Anguti ignores warnings from his parents and elders and goes to play by the shoreline… where Qalupalik is waiting.
Nunavut Animation Lab: Qalupalik, Ame Papatsie, provided by the National Film Board of Canada
Mahaha, the Tickle Monster
Aluki, a little girl, is out collecting firewood for her family when she is lured onto the thin sea ice by Mahaha, that sinister and perpetually-grinning monster.
Watch it here.
Produced by JerryCo Animation and Kingulliit Productions, 2016.
Nanurluk, The Giant
Can a starving hunter outsmart and outlast the last monster polar bear, which can grow to the size of an iceberg?
The Child-Snatching Troll
A busy mother and father leave their baby in the care of a elderly blind woman. Mistaking a visitor for the baby’s mother, the old woman gives the baby to a troll.
Watch it here.
Produced by JerryCo Animation and Kingulliit Productions. 2016.
