Production

Series Short Synopsis:

INUTUQAIT UQAUJUIGUSITUQANGIT is a series of thirteen twenty-two-minute videos that capture the voices and memories of Inuit elders, preserving their invaluable cultural histories.

The series emphasizes the importance of diverse perspectives and the need to safeguard them against loss. Throughout the episodes, viewers meet various elders, including men and women,

who share insights about their roles within the community, the significance of traditional practices, and the evolving nature of life in Nunavut.

Elder men discuss the hunting tradition, reflecting on its changes and the responsibility of passing skills to younger generations. Female elders talk about their crucial roles in educating children and transforming the hunt into necessary materials for survival. The series highlights the deep connection between the Inuit, their land, and their animal companions, dog teams, which continue to play a role in modern life.

INUTUQAIT UQAUJUIGUSITUQANGIT also explores the impact of change on Inuit culture, emphasizing the elders' perspectives on balancing traditional ways with modern influences. By comparing old and new knowledge, the series underscores the wisdom gained through experience and the importance of elders in navigating contemporary challenges. Ultimately,INUTUQAIT UQAUJUIGUSITUQANGIT serves as a poignant reminder of the value of cultural heritage and the lessons it imparts for future generations.

Series Long Synopsis:

INUTUQAIT UQAUJUIGUSITUQANGIT is a series of thirteen, twenty-two-minute videos that seeks out Inuit elder images and voices and that share with us, the memories of lives lived and the invaluable record that those memories preserve. When we find voices that are different than our own, that represent diverse cultures, that provide us a window through which we can view other times and different places, if we are wise, we value them greatly and preserve them against loss. That is what INUTUQAIT UQAUJUIGUSITUQANGIT will do. We will meet elders from across the north. We will meet families, husbands and wives, brothers, sisters, and individuals who paint pictures with words, and create images of culture and history. Over the thirteen episodes of INUTUQAIT UQAUJUIGUSITUQANGIT, we talk with elders about the roles they play in community life, what is expected of them and what they expect of themselves. We listen to elder men about the hunt, the way it has changed, their memories of it as young men and its essential importance to the community and to family. How it is the place of the men to pass on the skills of the hunt to their children and to ensure as best they can that its singular essential place in Inuit culture is safeguarded in the modern world. We talk with female elders about their traditional and now modern roles in the education of the children, the skills required to turn the spoils of the hunt into clothing, tools, and shelter. We come to understand how important they are to the fabric of community and family and how often they are essential to the survival of life and of culture. We come to understand the bond between the people and the land, the animals of that land and the traditional partnership between the people and the dog team that often, even in the modern world of machines, they still aid travel, work, and communications. Perhaps most importantly INUTUQAIT UQAUJUIGUSITUQANGIT listens to the elders view of change, how it affects the struggle to maintain and preserve the old ways while being open and welcoming to the new. How change has made it so important to look at their roles in the life of the community, how their experience and sense of history make them so essential in the quiet struggle to live life with change, and the ever-present dangers of the conflict change can bring. We listen to comparisons of the old ways and the new, of the old knowledge and the new lessons to be learned. Above all, we get a sense of what wisdom can mean in our modern world as we listen and understand from where it comes, and what it has taken to acquire.