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Some Inuit in Gojahaven, northern
Canada, have maintained a belief in
shamans, who are thought to have a
special relationship with the landscape
and with the spirits who control it.
upward and realized that the moon
was gradually moving toward him.
It hovered above his head and
transformed into a whalebone
sledge. The driver, Tatqiq, gestured
to Kukiaq to join him, and whisked
him off to his house in the sky.
The entrance of the house moved
like a chewing mouth, and in one
of the rooms the sun was nursing
a baby. Although the moon asked
Kukiaq to stay, he was anxious he
would not be able to find his way
home. So he slid back to earth on
a moonbeam, landing safely at
the very same breathing hole
he had left from.
Sometimes, however, the
Netsilik shamans would send their
souls down to visit Nuliayuk (also
known as Sedna), the mistress of
sea and land animals, at the bottom
of the ocean. Nuliayuk possessed
the power to either withhold or
release the seals on which the
Netsilik depended for food and
clothing. She therefore had great
influence over them. When the
Netsilik broke any of her strict
taboos, she would imprison the
seals. However, if the shamans
ventured down to her watery
underworld to braid her hair, she
was usually appeased and would
release the seals into the open sea.
The shamanic tradition of the
Netsiliks lasted into the 1930s
and 1940s. Within the Netsilik
community, only the shamans
(or angatkut)—who were protected
by their own guardian spirits—
were unafraid of the dangerous
and malevolent spirits that filled
the world. A Netsilik shaman might
have several helping spirits. For
example, the spirits of the shaman
Unarâluk were his dead mother
and father, the sun, a dog, and
a sea scorpion. These spirits
informed Unarâluk about what
existed on, and beneath, the
earth, and in the sea and sky. ■PRIMAL BELIEFS
Au’s mysterious
shamanic illuminationThe following account of
shamanic illumination was
given to the Danish explorer
Knud Rasmussen by Au,
an Iglulik Inuit shaman.
Au recalled a period in his
life when he sought solitude,
was deeply melancholic,
and would sometimes weep
uncontrollably. Then, one
day, a feeling of immense,
inexplicable joy overcame
him. He explained that in
the middle of this fit of pure
delight, “I became a shaman,
not knowing myself how it
came about. But I was a
shaman.” Thereafter, Au
could see and hear in a
completely different way:
“I had gained my quamaneq,
my enlightenment...it was
not only I who could see
through the darkness of life,
but the same light also shone
out from me, imperceptible to
human beings, but visible to
all the spirits of earth and
sky and sea, and these now
came to me and became my
helping spirits.”Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933)
spent many years documenting
the culture of Arctic peoples
during his journeys of exploration.