IQALUIT, Canada — Inuit women in
Canada’s
far north are bringing back a lost ancient tradition of facial tattooing that
missionaries once declared “evil”.
اضافة اعلان
Time-honored tattoos for Inuit women include
V-shapes on temples, dots on cheeks, and lines on chins.
A tattoo artist uses a shiny needle to dot ink on
the temple of Micheline Kilabuk-Cote, 37, a symbol depicting the close bond she
has with her two sisters.
Kilanuk-Cote is a civil servant in Iqaluit, the
capital of the Nunavut territory. She said she has been “wanting to do this for
a very long time” to reclaim her heritage and honor her mother, who died 19
years ago.
“I hadn’t had a chance to really connect with her
and her culture,” she told AFP, explaining that her mother had been denied an
opportunity to be tattooed. “This is for her.”
Strikingly visible on the chin, forehead and chest,
such traditional tattoos were for a long time a means to transmit information
about the life of a woman, her interests, or her status in the community.
Some had their fingers and hands tattooed to honor
Sedna, the goddess of the sea in Inuit mythology. Others on thighs indicated
that they were mothers.
But the practice faced opposition from Anglican and
Catholic churches that sent missionaries to the Arctic. They said “tattoos were
evil”, Gerri Sharpe, president of Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, which
represents Inuit women in Canada, told AFP.
Bit by bit, the tradition faded.
But a few years ago, an Inuit artist started a
revitalization project after learning that the last traditionally tattooed
Inuit woman was dying. Hovak Johnston traveled to northern communities to teach
different techniques for Inuit women of all ages to get tattoos.
Public figures have also contributed to the art
form’s rise, such as Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, who at age 25 became the first Inuit
woman with a facial tattoo to be elected to Canada’s parliament in 2019. She
served a single two-year term.
Then in 2021, Shina Nova, an Inuit singer and
influencer, posted videos of her tattoo session, viewed more than 40 million
times on TikTok.
Healing and therapeutic
There is strong demand for
the tattoos wherever there are Inuit, says Zorga Qaunaq, who recently led a
workshop with six people in Iqaluit.
The Inuit university program staffer does two
tattoos a week at her home in the national capital of Ottawa — home to the
largest population of Inuit outside of the far north. It mainly receives young
people aged 20 or 30, but also a few teenagers.
“It’s healing and therapeutic” for some Inuit, she
said.
After leaving the north when she was young, the now
34-year-old said she felt “disconnected” from her culture. Getting a tattoo was
a way of asserting her identity. “It’s empowering to have my tattoos,” she
said.
Gerri Sharpe, 52, with markings on her fingers,
wrists, and face, echoed this sense of pride.
“They are very significant and sacred,” she said,
adding that she showed off her tattoos to
Pope Francis during his visit to
Canada in July to apologize for abuses at church-run Indigenous residential
schools. The pontiff made a stop in Iqaluit.
“It was important
for me to show him that we still had our tattoos, (that) they are still alive
and well and being revitalized, that (the tradition) was not lost,” she
explained.
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