Churchill, MB: Itsanitaq Museum (8/3/2023)

Thursday, August 3, 2023 (continued)

Lunch was again at the Ptarmigan Restaurant;
a bison burger on a focaccia bun, with fries

Itsanitaq Museum in Churchill, MB was founded in 1944
by Jacques Volant, a Catholic missionary, to preserve
artifacts of the indigenous people of northern Canada

Itsanitaq Museum Inukshuk behind Fireweed

Quite an extensive collection for a small town, with Inuit
carvings  and artifacts that are among the finest and oldest
in the world dating from Pre-Dorset (1700 BCE) through
Dorset, Thule and modern Inuit times

Taxidermied Odobenus rosmarus/Walrus was
captured in 1969 at Coral Harbour, Northwest Territories

Coral Harbour is now located in the new territory of Nunavut, which separated from the Northwest Territories in 1999.

Hunter Stalking a Bear, Muskox, and Caribou (in
walrus tusk ivory) with holes and pegs of a cribbage board

The tiny Lemmus trimucronatus/Brown Lemming
(Lemmings was on many Bingo cards!)

Lagopus muta/Rock Ptarmigan (on the
Tundra Buggy, the Lagopus lagopus/
Willow Ptarmigan completed my Bingo)

Man Spearing a Bear Through the Snow
(by Torsis Pilikapsi, from Igloolik, Nunavut)

Tupilait figures (from Kulusuk, East Greenland) were
avenging monsters carved by a practitioner of
shamanism, which were given ritualistic life and placed
in the sea to seek and destroy a specific enemy

Igloo fireplace or lamp is a carved soapstone pan filled
with fat that is usually surrounded by Arctic cotton as wicks;
a pot is suspended from a net of braided caribou sinew

Tiny one-inch polar bears hunt ringed seals (KSS)

A dancing walrus in copper

Man with Snow Goggles (used by the
Inuit to prevent snow blindness, dating
back to c 1200) (KSS)

Examples of Inuit snow goggles

Woven lyme grass basket and lids

Loon skin shoes (KSS)

Dog Team (2010, by Darryl Ukalik) is made from bowhead whale baleen;
what looks like hairs hanging from the bottom is the fringe of baleen,
which is used by a class of whales to filter out water and trap the food

Carving Up a Walrus is made from whale bone

Miniature Inuit Tools (c 1940s) are carved by the Sammurtok
family, St Theresa's Hospital in Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavuk

Hunter Carrying Home Caribou Meat
(by Lucassie Echalook)

The description is written in Syllabic
on the bottom of the sculpture

Syllabic and Roman Orthography; 
the Syllabic letters represent the most
common syllable sounds, and although
originally created for the Cree language,
can be used with any of the Inuit dialects

Thule Swimming Birds (c 1000-1800 CE) are
a mystery because they do not show the whole bird,
but are quite realistic

Next: Parks Canada Visitor Centre.