Call it Home
The Inuit
Teacher’s Version
This kit is designed to be used in the Arctic / Subarctic Gallery. Enter the
museum galleries and make your way through the Earth History Gallery.
Begin with the Inukshuk.
The Inuit are the aboriginal people of the Canadian Arctic. Inuktitut is the
Inuit language. The word Inuit means the people. You will learn other words in
Inuktitut today.
Stop 1 – Inukshuk and Polar Bear
1. Inukshuk is an Inuit word. What does the word mean?
something resembling a person
2. How was an inukshuk used? Give one example.
as a sign post to chart a course, caribou fences for hunting
Polar bear were dangerous and difficult to hunt. When they were hunted, their
fur was used for winter pants and blankets.
3. How large was the polar bear?
544 Kg.
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4. What animal has the polar bear hunted for food?
a seal
Many seal hunting trick and techniques used by the Inuit are said to have been
learned from watching polar bears. Take out the samples of polar bear and seal
fur and pass them around to the students.
5. Describe the fur of the polar bear and the seal.
6. Why are the furs different colours?
camouflage - white snow (bear) and dark water (seal)
7. Why is the seal’s fur much shorter?
to reduce drag under the water
Stop 2 – The Beluga Whale
Move to the Beluga whale. For the Inuit along the coast, the beluga was
and important resource.
8. Why is Manitoba called a maritime province?
645 km Arctic Ocean coastline
9. What large marine animal do you see here?
beluga whale
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10. Describe what happened in this scene?
11. How many people could use the kayak?
only one
12. What things did the whale provide?
meat, blubber (oil for lamps), skin, bones for tools
13. What other kinds of food do you see in the diorama?
birds and their eggs, kelp
Stop 3 – The Tundra
14. The environment where the Inuit live is called the tundra. Describe the tundra?
flat or nearly flat, treeless plain, low growing plants
15. What does the word tundra mean?
a frozen plain
Explain that the there is a layer of permanently frozen ground just below the
surface. This is known as permafrost. While plants played a minor role for the
Inuit, they did make use of berries, mosses, cotton grasses and small shrubs.
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Stop 4 – Traditional Culture
This area looks at the traditional culture of the peoples of the north through the
early time of European contact. Stress to your students that this is not how people
live in the north today.
Questions 16 - 34 can be answered by looking at the display cases across from the
Caribou. You may wish to continue guiding your class through as a whole group.
Or, have the students work individually or in small groups in the area and then
regroup to discuss their answers.
The bag contains a number of replicas that relate to artifacts in these cases. You
can use them at the appropriate stops or lay them out on the bench in front of
the caribou. Please remind your students to handle the items carefully using two
hands.
Dwellings
16. What is an igloo? Describe what it looks like.
What is it made out of?
a dome-shaped snow house, blocks of snow are
laid in a spiral pattern
17. What three tools do you need to build an igloo?
snow probe, snow knife, and shovel
18. How many people lived in an igloo?
one or two nuclear families – 5-10 people
19. What is a tupik? When is it used?
cone shaped tent with a caribou skin covering,
used in the summer
Raw Materials
20. Choose one item from this case. What is it? What is it made of?
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Food Resources
21. What did the caribou provide for the Inuit?
food; skins for clothing, tent covers, kayak; bones for tools; sinew for thread
22. What other food did the Inuit eat?
fish, ptarmigan, musk ox, seal
The Amautik
23. What does the word amautik mean?
to carry
24. Who wore an amautik?
the amautik is a woman’s park; baby was carried in the
pouch on the back; the fullness of the body allowed
women to breast-feed their babies while keeping them in their parka
25. What are the pouches at the knees used for?
possibly to store small objects (think cargo pants), story and dry caribou skin
diapers, kneeling pads, warming the feet when sitting
Recreation
26. What did the Inuit do to have fun?
27. Why is the ajagaq (ring and pin game) a good game?
What skill could practise learn while you play with it?
practise eye-hand coordination for hunting
Household utensils
28. Name two traditional materials that the Inuit used to
make things for their home?
stone, wood, bone, hide, horn
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29. What was used to give light in the igloo?
a soapstone lamp called a kudlik
Clothing
30. Why does caribou skin make such good clothing?
strong, light weight, air spaces in the hair act as a natural insulator
We the Dene
The Dene (Chipewyan) people live in the Arctic
Subarctic with the Inuit. Their traditional lands are
south of the Inuit, closer to the tree line.
31. What has been used to decorate this
clothing?
porcupine quills
32. What new trade good is being used for decoration?
beads
33. How have the designs or patterns changed with the new material?
more floral
34. The Inuit tools worked very well in their environment. European traders brought new materials to the Inuit like metal, beads and cloth. The Inuit began to make traditional tools with new materials. Find a tool that has a new material in a traditional tool. Describe how it is made?
ulu –metal blade, nails in fishing spear, cloth and bead decoration
Stop 5 - Northern Transitions
35. The remaining questions are found in the northern transitions area.
What important changes happened in the north in the 1900’s.
railway construction, hydroelectric power, mining development
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36. Why was it difficult to build the railway in the north?
muskeg or permafrost in the ground
37. What city is at the end of the railway line?
the port city of Churchill, MB.
Mining
38. What do you think the expression “single industry town” mean?
a town build based on the exploitation of a single resource, in this case a mining community
39. Name a metal that is mined in northern Manitoba?
nickel, gold, zinc, copper
Hydroelectric Power
40. Where was hydroelectric power developed in Manitoba?
along the Nelson River
Conclusion
If you have taken part in the formal program in the Grasslands Gallery, you
can compare and contrast how people lived in the two areas of the province.
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Discuss the differing environments and how people adapted to that
environment. What was the impact of European trade on aboriginal culture?
41. Give three words you can use to describe the traditional culture of the Inuit.
42. How is life different for the Inuit and First Nations people in the north today?
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Artifact List
1. Sample of polar bear fur
2. Sample of seal fur
3. Snow Knife – small scale-model version of a knife used to cut blocks of snow
for constructing an igloo
4. Ulu – a woman’s knife with a curved blade; this knife is made with a metal
blade, traditional knives would have used a stone blade
5. Kudlik (Lamp) – used for both heat and light and tended by the women
•wicks were made from cotton grass (see tundra diorama) or moss and then soaked in oil
•made of soapstone, the softness of the stone made it easy to shape, also not a good conductor of heat (used to today for laboratory table tops and fireplace linings)
6. Snow goggles – worn to prevent snow blindness, protect the eyes from both
the sun and reflected light from the snow
7. Porcupine quills (and photo of a porcupine) – a traditional material used
for decoration
8. Trade bead chart – trade good introduced by European traders
9. Fishing spear – head or leister
10. Snow Shovel – to use grasp the handle with one hand and the toggle on the
back of the shovel with the other
11. Snow Probe – use to determine if the snow is the proper consistency for
constructing an igloo
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Games – used for entertainment but also to improve hand-eye coordination;
students are welcome to try them out
12. Ring and pin game – hold the wooden pin, swing the bone in an out and
upward motion and try to catch it on the pin
13. Bone toss game – as above, the object of the game is to try to skew both a
weight and a hole in the hide in one motion
14. Buzzer Game – hold the loop of hide taut between your index fingers (hold
at first joint) with the knot under one finger and the piece of bone suspended
in the middle; twirl the bone and hide so that hide becomes tightly twisted;
the trick is then to gently tug and release the hide with your fingers so that is
repeatedly twists and un-twists
•similar to button games played by pioneer children