Twenty

Nunavut Gov/Donna Barnett

Marc Tungilik, 1905–86 Repulse Bay

I once made a false tooth for a Roman Catholic priest out of a polar bear’s tooth.

I was born in the Pelly Bay area, in 1905 I think, and I grew up near Spence Bay, Pelly Bay, and Holman Island. I moved to Repulse Bay in the mid-1940s because my uncle, Akkiutaq, was living there. There was a lot of game here then, especially seals. The only houses I can remember were the HBC and the other trading company, Revillon Frères. Later, with my family, I moved down to Ukkusiksalik.

I started carving ivory when I was still up in Pelly Bay. I am one of a kind; it’s impossible for other carvers to make them so small. When I see something, it’s usually far away, so that’s why I make them very tiny. Back then, the HBC here would trade a package of tea and a package of tobacco for one small carving. Later, when money arrived, they paid me one dollar for a carving. I supported two families with my carving. I once made a false tooth for an Roman Catholic priest out of a polar bear’s tooth.

In Ukkusiksalik, in the 1950s, we lived mostly around Piqsimaniq. We used a qarmaq that must still be there. We lived there because the caribou hunting was good around there and there were lots of char in the river. Tavok’s family and Inusatuajuk’s family were there too, at Piqsimaniq.

Life was not exciting, just a matter of everyday survival, hunting caribou by walking inland, and seal from a little homemade rowboat, and catching Arctic char when they came up the river. We had a stone weir and we caught the fish in there with our kakivak.

People are always happy to go to a plentiful land — that is how I felt about going to Ukkusiksalik.