The cold, barren environment around the North Pole influenced every aspect of life for native Arctic people. In Life in the Arctic, students will learn about the landscape, climate, and unique effects of the sun and sky in that part of the world, including the midnight sun, darkness that lasts for months, and the Aurora Borealis. They will look at traditional and modern forms of housing, transportation, and hunting of the Inuit, Yupik, and other Eskimos of the region, listen to folktales and practice and the names of the animals who live there in the native languages. They will explore some of the kinds of artwork created by northern artists, and each make their own version of two traditional forms of handiwork, the storyknife and the Inuksuk.

Storyknives have been used since at least the 1700s young by Yupik girls in southwestern Alaska to play a game in which they gather outside in a circle and take turns telling stories. The storyknives, carved from ivory with lines designs along both side and a handle shaped like a fish or bird, are used to illustrate the story in the snow or mud while it is being told with commonly recognized symbols. The stories may be about actual events in the village, but often they are ghost stories designed to excite the audience. Students will decorate their own plastic storyknives, learn some of the storyknife symbols, and take turns telling a well-known story such as “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” in storyknifing style, playing up the exciting aspects of the tale.

Students will also learn about the tall stone markers used by the Inuits of Northern Canada to point out trails or food caches, send caribou herds their way, or serve as a memorial for friends or ancestors. An Inuksuk can be a pile of rocks pointing in one direction or one rock standing on end. An arch-shaped Inuksuk may frame another one further down the path. Some are built with long strands of moss that blow in the wind, creating a scarecrow effect that send caribou stampeding towards waiting hunters. Another type of Inuksuk resembles a human being with indications of legs, arms and a head out of stone. After studying the different kinds of inuksuit (the plural) and their significance to the Inuit people, students will make their own miniature versions.

Both the storyknife game and the Inuksuk assembly can take place inside or out. While it is suggested each student make a small Inuksuk to set up in an Arctic display and eventually take home, schools may want to let students work as a team to build a medium to large-sized Inuksuk as a landscape decoration or a monument.

Copyright © 2007 Kathy Ceceri

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