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Amauti


The amauti (also amaut or amautik, plural amautiit) is the parka worn by Inuit women of the eastern Canadian arctic. Up until about two years of age, the child nestles against the mother's back in the amaut, the built-in baby pouch just below the hood. The pouch is large and comfortable for the baby. The mother can bring the child from back to front for breast-feeding or for eliminatory functions without exposure to the elements. This traditional eastern Arctic Inuit parka, designed to keep the child warm and safe from frostbite, wind and cold, also helps to develop bonding between mother and child.

The amauti can be made from a variety of materials including sealskin, caribou skin or duffle (a thick woollen cloth) with a windproof outer shell. Children continue to be commonly carried in this way in the eastern Arctic communities of Nunavut and Nunavik, but the garment is sometimes seen in the Northwest Territories, Greenland, Labrador, Russian Arctic and Alaska. Cloth amautiit has gradually displaced skin garments.

Many external viewers think that the child is carried in the hood of the amauti, and this erroneous depiction can be seen in many works of art. This is not the case. The hood is enlarged in an amauti to permit both child and mother to be covered together, while the child is actually carried in the enlarged and extended back of the garment. The child rides with his or her belly against the mother's back and with knees bent. The garment is secured at the waist with a tie or belt which prevents the child from slipping down from the pouch. The weight of the child is carried across the shoulders of the garment although this weight is typically re-distributed by two more ties which form a "v" from the collar bone, with the base secured by the tie at the waist. A final tie attaches to the front edge of the hood, permitting the mother to either open the hood for a curious child to emerge and take in the surroundings, or to pull the hood across closing the child away from the wind and elements.


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