I was born in the community of Lake Harbor and was raised there, not around camps. My mother was Elisapee, but everybody called her Pitsiulak. My father is Tommy Manning. He was working at that time for Hudson’s Bay Company in Lake Harbor and also at camp outside Iqaluit called Iqaluijuik. We used to go visit the outpost camps by dog team. In the winter time, people from the camps would come to Lake Harbor to shop.
My mother died when I was a little girl. That was the year of 1948. She had T.B. She died in a hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and she is buried down there. It was the same year my father came to Cape Dorset to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company, and he left me behind at Lake Harbor. I don’t remember my father leaving for Cape Dorset. He was working for the Hudson’s Bay Company, and he came here to Cape Dorset. They had asked him to travel around North to the other Hudson’s Bay posts-Arctic Bay included-but he refused to go. He came to Cape Dorset because it was close, close to Lake Harbor so he could be near his family.
Later in 1948 my father came back from Cape Dorset to Lake Harbor. He had already found a new wife, and he came back to Lake Harbor to get me and my sister Ainiaq. When we were ready to leave for Cape Dorset and were already in the peterhead boat, my aunt who had been raising me from the time my mother was taken down South could not part with me. I was already in the peterhead boat. But my aunt-my father’s sister-could not part with me, so I stayed there. Nellie was her name. Nellie was looking after me and, during that time, Nellie and George Pitsiulak got together. I grew up with that family. George Pitsiulak worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company too.
I remember another time when my father and stepmother came from Cape Dorset to Lake Harbor on a dog team. They came to adopt my aunt Nellie. I remember Jimmy because I was five years old at the time in 1951. I remember when Jimmy was born. I thought that someone cut my aunt open and out comes Jimmy! That was my belief about how babies were born.
Also at that time of the visit I remember thinking Oh, that is what my father looks like that is what my mother looks like. I remember my step mother Udluriak, speaking to me and asking a question. She was saying (Who am I.) When I would not answer Udluriak would answer (I’m your mother. I’m your mother Udluriak.) And then every time Udluriak asked the question (Who am I to you.) I would say (You are my mother.) I was young enough to believe that she was my real mother. Then one time my father’s younger brother, Joe Aluktut, told me-at a young age-(That’s not your real mother.) And after that I don’t remember. It seems like I fell asleep for three years.
I remember my grandmother, Simatuq. She was a cleaning lady for the Hudson’s Bay Company. She wasn’t just a cleaning lady. She did cooking and sewing and bead work. She wasn’t just a cleaning lady-she was a real woman. Because I learned bead work from my grandmother, I am working at it today, and I like doing it very much. My grandmother did beading for Parkas-like the trim along the cuffs of the sleeves and on the agiti. And my grandmother decorated my father’s sister’s amautiit with beads and also with those big English things. I think they are called (sixpence.) She used to put those down the back. And she made beaded pins, too. I want very much to make pins, beaded pins like my grandmother used to make. I don’t have any right now. I am just on the way to seriously doing beadwork. I am collecting my mind to doing beading. There is another thing I remember from long ago about my grandmother. Down near Lake Harbor there is a place where you can catch cod fish. One time, my grandmother had pilot biscuits and she had cod and she chopped it up into bits and pieces and added onions and put it inside a stove. She had pilot biscuits, cod and onions, and put this in an oven. I remember that from when I was a little girl because my grandmother did it. Up to that point I could remember my grandmother. And after that point, that’s when my grandmother died. But because I was seven years old, I was able to think and remember things, and I remember that my grandmother was very capable of doing a lot of things.
Another thing I remember is that there was a medical ship named C.D. Howe. My uncle and aunt were put on that medical ship to go down south, and I came down here to Cape Dorset in 1955. That was Nellie and George Pitsiulak they had T.B. and they went on the C.D. Howe. Because my aunt and my uncle were taken away, I came to be with my parents here in Cape Dorset. I cried very much when my aunt and uncle left. Because they were my loved ones and they were taking them away, I cried and I didn’t want them to go. They were taken away by helicopter from the land to the ship. You would never know when those people who had been taken away were going to come back. The planes going back and forth were very rare. Not knowing when they were coming back-or if ever-was very hard.
After that, I came to Cape Dorset, knowing that I was going to be growing up with my real family. That was like an extension on my life. After 1955 I started growing up with my real family-with my real sisters and brothers. The other part of my life from 1955 on down, that was a different life, a different way of life with my aunt and uncle. I think I have had two lives! Thinking of families-a family is good if they have the same values in life. When I was growing up with my aunt and uncle and they had all these kids. We would eat together as a group. We would all eat together the big old family. That was what it was like in Lake Harbor. When I came here to Lake Dorset, the same kind of family thing, with all of us together. Good feeling. Really together. And because Udluriak was very good at sewing we always had warm clothing to wear. Because of our father we had skins. Udluriak always sewed clothes for the kids. Nunavut is “cold” Nunavut means “our land”. It’s a cold place. And even though it is very cold our step mother always sewed clothing for us-for as many kids as there were plus our father. We always had warm clothing.
Udluriak was very much a bead maker too. I never saw her doing any beading. But she always had beaded things that she had made lots of them. And Aggeok, Peter Pitseolak’s wife, she always did beading too. Too bad I never saw them beading. I always saw the beadwork all finished. My sister, Annie Manning has little bits of that beading. My whole family was around me here in Cape Dorset. We all had the same father but different mothers, but we are family just the same.
The very first carving I ever did was over in R.C. Valley (the valley where the Roman Catholic mission once stood.) in 1963. My very first carving was a female head, just a head. As I was doing that carving, Mark Pitseolak started coming towards me. I was carving near a little pond. When Mark Pitseolak started coming, I threw that carving in the pond. I was very shy, and we were just getting together at that time. Now I am so sorry! That was my very first carving.
The next year, I got married. It was an Inuktitut marriage-arranged. We got married the 21 of July, 1964. My husband was Mark Pitseolak. That is when I really started doing some carving. Mark Pitseolak was an adopted son to Peter Pitseolak, and Peter Pitseolak was a carver. Peter Pitseolak was my father in law, so I started helping him by filing and also sand papering after he had finished his carvings, to help smooth them out. My husband started helping Peter Pitseolak with his carvings too, not just me. Then I decided I was going to start carving too.
At that time, the Co-op was charging for stones. I bought a stone for 10 bucks. I couldn’t lift it, it was so big. So my husband carried it home for me, and I carved it. The very first carving I did was of woman-women with a baby on her back in an amauti. After I finished it, my husband carried it back for me. It was really heavy. I got 110$ for it, and I Paid the 10$ out of that 110$. That one in 1967 was my first one that I got money from, that one of a woman. After that time I started carving birds, seals, fish, and whales. I used to like doing Ukpiit a lot. That was that time, but I do not make too many Ukpiit now.
Because everybody was making seals and fish and everyday things that they see and that they could easily carve, I wanted to do something different. If I think about something like my carvings then I think about it and want to make it a reality. I think, and my thought have to come out. I make my thoughts a reality in my carvings. For me, carving is not just a way to get money, it is a way of expressing myself and making myself understood. I like the carvings I have done. I have kids now and grandchildren. They are going to be growing up, and they are going to see these things. I don’t carve all the time, only rarely. Recently I have been re arranging my mind for doing more carvings and expressing myself.
In my life, I have had many experiences. One of the most meaning full was when I finished my carving of myself (Oopik Going for Water.) with beadwork like my grandmother used to make. When I finished the carving, I took it to the Co-op. I think it had been sent down South already when Jimmy (Manning, Assistant Manager of the West Baffin Co-operative) said to me “You really put yourself into this-your full physical and mental self,” as if to say “I am proud of you.” I will always remember that. It really touched me. Being the Co-op person, Jimmy receives a lot of carvings, and he doesn’t just take them. He tells a person “You could improve here,” and “you could do this.” If a carving could have been done better, he says that.
Recently, I was with the Inuit organization called Pauttuutit (the Inuit Women’s Association based in Ottawa.) They were meeting in Kuujjuak last week, and I was part of that group. A lot of women were expressing themselves very openly to other women. And I was a part of that. My reason for talking about this group is that I started to see how women think, how they have an artistic way of forming things, like carvings, sewing and female art-any way of sewing traditional clothing. That’s what I started realizing: that women have real important roles. That was when I realized that women can do a lot. Women are very capable. They have been capable for a long time, but it is just now that their capabilities are coming out in the open. I was proud to be a part of that women’s group because it made me realize women are good, that women are strong. I think if my grandmother were alive, she would be proud too because she was very capable.
My mother died when I was a little girl. That was the year of 1948. She had T.B. She died in a hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and she is buried down there. It was the same year my father came to Cape Dorset to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company, and he left me behind at Lake Harbor. I don’t remember my father leaving for Cape Dorset. He was working for the Hudson’s Bay Company, and he came here to Cape Dorset. They had asked him to travel around North to the other Hudson’s Bay posts-Arctic Bay included-but he refused to go. He came to Cape Dorset because it was close, close to Lake Harbor so he could be near his family.
Later in 1948 my father came back from Cape Dorset to Lake Harbor. He had already found a new wife, and he came back to Lake Harbor to get me and my sister Ainiaq. When we were ready to leave for Cape Dorset and were already in the peterhead boat, my aunt who had been raising me from the time my mother was taken down South could not part with me. I was already in the peterhead boat. But my aunt-my father’s sister-could not part with me, so I stayed there. Nellie was her name. Nellie was looking after me and, during that time, Nellie and George Pitsiulak got together. I grew up with that family. George Pitsiulak worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company too.
I remember another time when my father and stepmother came from Cape Dorset to Lake Harbor on a dog team. They came to adopt my aunt Nellie. I remember Jimmy because I was five years old at the time in 1951. I remember when Jimmy was born. I thought that someone cut my aunt open and out comes Jimmy! That was my belief about how babies were born.
Also at that time of the visit I remember thinking Oh, that is what my father looks like that is what my mother looks like. I remember my step mother Udluriak, speaking to me and asking a question. She was saying (Who am I.) When I would not answer Udluriak would answer (I’m your mother. I’m your mother Udluriak.) And then every time Udluriak asked the question (Who am I to you.) I would say (You are my mother.) I was young enough to believe that she was my real mother. Then one time my father’s younger brother, Joe Aluktut, told me-at a young age-(That’s not your real mother.) And after that I don’t remember. It seems like I fell asleep for three years.
I remember my grandmother, Simatuq. She was a cleaning lady for the Hudson’s Bay Company. She wasn’t just a cleaning lady. She did cooking and sewing and bead work. She wasn’t just a cleaning lady-she was a real woman. Because I learned bead work from my grandmother, I am working at it today, and I like doing it very much. My grandmother did beading for Parkas-like the trim along the cuffs of the sleeves and on the agiti. And my grandmother decorated my father’s sister’s amautiit with beads and also with those big English things. I think they are called (sixpence.) She used to put those down the back. And she made beaded pins, too. I want very much to make pins, beaded pins like my grandmother used to make. I don’t have any right now. I am just on the way to seriously doing beadwork. I am collecting my mind to doing beading. There is another thing I remember from long ago about my grandmother. Down near Lake Harbor there is a place where you can catch cod fish. One time, my grandmother had pilot biscuits and she had cod and she chopped it up into bits and pieces and added onions and put it inside a stove. She had pilot biscuits, cod and onions, and put this in an oven. I remember that from when I was a little girl because my grandmother did it. Up to that point I could remember my grandmother. And after that point, that’s when my grandmother died. But because I was seven years old, I was able to think and remember things, and I remember that my grandmother was very capable of doing a lot of things.
Another thing I remember is that there was a medical ship named C.D. Howe. My uncle and aunt were put on that medical ship to go down south, and I came down here to Cape Dorset in 1955. That was Nellie and George Pitsiulak they had T.B. and they went on the C.D. Howe. Because my aunt and my uncle were taken away, I came to be with my parents here in Cape Dorset. I cried very much when my aunt and uncle left. Because they were my loved ones and they were taking them away, I cried and I didn’t want them to go. They were taken away by helicopter from the land to the ship. You would never know when those people who had been taken away were going to come back. The planes going back and forth were very rare. Not knowing when they were coming back-or if ever-was very hard.
After that, I came to Cape Dorset, knowing that I was going to be growing up with my real family. That was like an extension on my life. After 1955 I started growing up with my real family-with my real sisters and brothers. The other part of my life from 1955 on down, that was a different life, a different way of life with my aunt and uncle. I think I have had two lives! Thinking of families-a family is good if they have the same values in life. When I was growing up with my aunt and uncle and they had all these kids. We would eat together as a group. We would all eat together the big old family. That was what it was like in Lake Harbor. When I came here to Lake Dorset, the same kind of family thing, with all of us together. Good feeling. Really together. And because Udluriak was very good at sewing we always had warm clothing to wear. Because of our father we had skins. Udluriak always sewed clothes for the kids. Nunavut is “cold” Nunavut means “our land”. It’s a cold place. And even though it is very cold our step mother always sewed clothing for us-for as many kids as there were plus our father. We always had warm clothing.
Udluriak was very much a bead maker too. I never saw her doing any beading. But she always had beaded things that she had made lots of them. And Aggeok, Peter Pitseolak’s wife, she always did beading too. Too bad I never saw them beading. I always saw the beadwork all finished. My sister, Annie Manning has little bits of that beading. My whole family was around me here in Cape Dorset. We all had the same father but different mothers, but we are family just the same.
The very first carving I ever did was over in R.C. Valley (the valley where the Roman Catholic mission once stood.) in 1963. My very first carving was a female head, just a head. As I was doing that carving, Mark Pitseolak started coming towards me. I was carving near a little pond. When Mark Pitseolak started coming, I threw that carving in the pond. I was very shy, and we were just getting together at that time. Now I am so sorry! That was my very first carving.
The next year, I got married. It was an Inuktitut marriage-arranged. We got married the 21 of July, 1964. My husband was Mark Pitseolak. That is when I really started doing some carving. Mark Pitseolak was an adopted son to Peter Pitseolak, and Peter Pitseolak was a carver. Peter Pitseolak was my father in law, so I started helping him by filing and also sand papering after he had finished his carvings, to help smooth them out. My husband started helping Peter Pitseolak with his carvings too, not just me. Then I decided I was going to start carving too.
At that time, the Co-op was charging for stones. I bought a stone for 10 bucks. I couldn’t lift it, it was so big. So my husband carried it home for me, and I carved it. The very first carving I did was of woman-women with a baby on her back in an amauti. After I finished it, my husband carried it back for me. It was really heavy. I got 110$ for it, and I Paid the 10$ out of that 110$. That one in 1967 was my first one that I got money from, that one of a woman. After that time I started carving birds, seals, fish, and whales. I used to like doing Ukpiit a lot. That was that time, but I do not make too many Ukpiit now.
Because everybody was making seals and fish and everyday things that they see and that they could easily carve, I wanted to do something different. If I think about something like my carvings then I think about it and want to make it a reality. I think, and my thought have to come out. I make my thoughts a reality in my carvings. For me, carving is not just a way to get money, it is a way of expressing myself and making myself understood. I like the carvings I have done. I have kids now and grandchildren. They are going to be growing up, and they are going to see these things. I don’t carve all the time, only rarely. Recently I have been re arranging my mind for doing more carvings and expressing myself.
In my life, I have had many experiences. One of the most meaning full was when I finished my carving of myself (Oopik Going for Water.) with beadwork like my grandmother used to make. When I finished the carving, I took it to the Co-op. I think it had been sent down South already when Jimmy (Manning, Assistant Manager of the West Baffin Co-operative) said to me “You really put yourself into this-your full physical and mental self,” as if to say “I am proud of you.” I will always remember that. It really touched me. Being the Co-op person, Jimmy receives a lot of carvings, and he doesn’t just take them. He tells a person “You could improve here,” and “you could do this.” If a carving could have been done better, he says that.
Recently, I was with the Inuit organization called Pauttuutit (the Inuit Women’s Association based in Ottawa.) They were meeting in Kuujjuak last week, and I was part of that group. A lot of women were expressing themselves very openly to other women. And I was a part of that. My reason for talking about this group is that I started to see how women think, how they have an artistic way of forming things, like carvings, sewing and female art-any way of sewing traditional clothing. That’s what I started realizing: that women have real important roles. That was when I realized that women can do a lot. Women are very capable. They have been capable for a long time, but it is just now that their capabilities are coming out in the open. I was proud to be a part of that women’s group because it made me realize women are good, that women are strong. I think if my grandmother were alive, she would be proud too because she was very capable.