Learning Story – Learning about Inuit Culture

Learning Story – Learning about Inuit Culture

The Week of April 8, 2025

What Happened?

Today we learned about the kudlik/qulliq from special guest Tanya Snow. Tanya is Inuk from Rankin Inlet and lives here in Sombaa K’e. Tanya asked the Bushkids to help her prepare the qulliq, to help her light it and then to help keep it going. She read her beautiful book You Come from the Stars. Then Tanya taught us about throat singing and gave us the opportunity to try it with her.

Why is it Important?

Many Inuit reside in Sombaa K’e and some Bushkids are Inuit. We are so grateful to Tanya for coming to share her culture with us. It is so important that the Bushkids see their own culture in their education at Bushkids. The Bushkids asked Tanya “can you be one of the supervisors here”, obviously feeling a connection with her! We learned that the qulliq is an oil lamp and is used for light, heat, cooking and is often lit for ceremony. We used cotton as the wick but cottongrass can also be used. The oil that is used as fuel can be vegetable oil or oil from animal blubber. We used a stick and worked hard tending to it gently to keep the wick even. 

Tanya taught us how deeply connected the sounds of throat singing are to the Land. We tried to guess what bird or animal sound she was singing and then we tried ourselves. It is done in partners and Tanya shared with us that it can be so fun like a game, you have to try not to laugh and sometimes try to go faster and faster. It’s so important that she shared this opportunity with us because some of the Bushkids were unfamiliar with the significance of throat singing. Tanya was very eager to share this with us and even offered to continue working with one of the Inuit Bushkids who was so interested in it.

What Does This Mean For Next Time?

We will continue to support the Bushkids in having access to different cultures here to ensure they see themselves in the teaching and learning that happens at Bushkids. They were curious about throat singing being a performance – we could possible go to NACC and explore the stage behind the scenes to understand how a performance like that would be supported and staged. We will also continue to work on moosehide with the Bushkids this spring! There are four different hides we have access to and we hope to document the process from start to finish in a book. One hide we will try to keep raw so that we can make some babiche!