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More than a tale

Storytelling key to Inuit cultural survival

Chris Puglia
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Apr 07/03) - Michael Kusugak can remember going out on the land with his family near Repulse Bay, where he grew up.

He reminisces constructing an iglu, the floor lined with furs for bedding. Every night he would beg his grandmother to tell him a story.

NNSL Photo

Michael Kusugak shares stories with children at the Iqaluit Centennial Library. Aside from reading from his new book, Baseball Bats for Christmas, he also shared some traditional Inuit tales and treated the children to a story illustrated by string. - Chris Puglia/NNSL photo


"My grandmother told me some of the most wonderful stories I have ever heard," he recalled fondly.

"My grandmother always had lots and lots of stories to tell."

To the Inuit, spinning a story is more than an art form, it's a way to pass knowledge down through generations, he said.

"It was a way for our elders to teach us morals for us to live by," said Kusugak.

That is how this well-known Northern children's author approaches his books.

For the past 15 years he has shared stories relating to his youth and Inuit culture with children from a variety of backgrounds.

His latest book, Baseball Bats for Christmas, has been printed in Inuktitut, English, French and Japanese.

Kusugak was in Iqaluit on March 29 for a book signing at the Iqaluit Centennial Library.

During his visit a few children had the privilege to listen to him share the book's story and a few others.

Baseball Bats for Christmas, which is being filmed by CBC as a narrated dramatic story telling, is based on a true story from Kusugak's past. The film will be aired next Christmas as part of a Christmas special to promote Canadian authors.

In the fall when he was six years old, Kusugak was sent to Chesterfield Inlet, away from his family, to attend residential school.

The next fall he ran away and hid in the hills until the plane back to residential school had left.

He decided to skip school that year.

In the winter another plane came bearing Christmas trees.

"It was the best Christmas we ever had," he said.

The children of the community cut the branches off the six trees that were shipped to the community and used them for baseball bats.

"We played baseball all spring and all summer and every time we broke a bat we'd just go and chop up another tree," said Kusugak.

Storytelling is very important to Kusugak who prefers freestyle storytelling even to reading from his own books.

He also prefers telling his stories in Inuktitut, he said the language has a magical way of making a tale come to life.

Nowadays the tradition of storytelling is fading, said Kusugak, because of influences like television and radio.

"When I was a kid, Kiviuq (a traditional Inuit folk legend) was the biggest hero and today no one really knows about him, but they know everything about Hollywood," he said.

Terrie Kusugak, Michael's niece, is a young girl who does know the value of storytelling.

She is one of the actors cast for the CBC special on the book. She is also a fan of traditional Inuit stories and believes they're important.

"They are from long ago and they are important because long ago Inuit were different," she said.

All in all she says her uncle's stories are "cool."