Exploring Traditional Lifestyle in Sanikiluaq: Conversation with an Elder

Mina Rumbolt

“As our lives as Inuit have been so deeply changed by colonization it is important that I try to reach back to the knowledge that people of my mother’s generation possess… to better understand my own past.” Mina achieves this through conversations with an Elder, her mother, about the traditional lifestyle of the Inuit on the Belcher Islands before they moved to the permanent settlement of Sanikiluaq. This “reaching back” is part of the process of increasing their Qaujimajatuqangit – their knowledge of Inuit beliefs, laws, principles and values as well as traditional knowledge, skills and attitudes. This autoethnography is framed by Mina’s understanding of culture: “Culture influences how I think… It shapes every part of who we are.”