Uvavnuk

Uvavnuk was an Inuit woman born in the 19th century, now considered an oral poet. The story of how she became an angakkuq (spiritual healer), and the song that came to her, were collected by European explorers of Arctic Canada in the early 1920s.

Uvavnuk's story was written down by the explorer Knud Rasmussen, who grew up speaking Greenlandic, which is closely related to Inuktitut. Uvavnuk's story was told by Aua, a cousin of her son Niviatsian, both of whom were also spiritual healers. Aua acted as an informant for Rasmussen, who was collecting cultural material such as folktales and songs. The two men met in February 1922, in the vicinity of Lyon Inlet, north of Hudson Bay. Given this location, Uvavnuk has been considered an Iglulik person. Aua was then living in a settlement of 16 people, all related to him and thus to Uvavnuk.

Another version of Uvavnuk's story was written by one of Rasmussen's companions on the Fifth Thule Expedition, Peter Freuchen. In his 1961 Book of Eskimos, after half a century living in the Arctic, Freuchen tells the meteor story slightly differently, calling it "grotesque in its mysticism".

Rasmussen entitled this story "Uvavnuk is struck by a ball of fire", which he thinks is a meteor. This is the only story about her in that volume of the Thule Report; what is given below is the first translation from the Danish, by W. Worster.

Uvavnuk had gone outside the hut one winter evening to make water. It was particularly dark that evening, as the moon was not visible. Then suddenly there appeared a glowing ball of fire in the sky, and it came rushing down to earth straight towards her. She would have got up and fled, but before she could pull up her breeches, the ball of fire struck her and entered into her. At the same moment she perceived that all within her grew light, and she lost consciousness. But from that moment also she became a great shaman. She had never before concerned herself with the invocation of spirits, but now imiEru'jap inua, the spirit of the meteor, had entered into her and made her a shaman. She saw the spirit just before she fainted. It had two kinds of bodies, that rushed all glowing through space; one side was a bear, the other was like a human being; the head was that of a human being with the tusks of a bear.

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