Qulliq Explained

The qulliq[1] or kudlik[2] (Inuktitut: ᖁᓪᓕᖅ|qulliq, in Inuktitut pronounced as /qulːiq/; Kalaallisut; Greenlandic: '''qulleq'''; Inupiaq: '''naniq'''), is the traditional oil lamp used by many circumpolar peoples, including the Inuit, the Chukchi[3] and the Yupik peoples.[4] The fuel is seal-oil or blubber, and the lamp is made of soapstone.[5] A Inuktitut: qulliq is lit with a stick called a Inuktitut: taqqut.

This characteristic type of oil lamp provided warmth and light in the harsh Arctic environment where there was no wood and where the sparse inhabitants relied almost entirely on seal oil or on whale blubber. This lamp was the single most important article of furniture for Inuit in their dwellings.[6]

History

It is uncertain in which period the seal-oil lamps began to be used. They are part of a series of technological innovations among the Arctic peoples whose introduction and spread has been partly documented. Oil lamps have been found in sites of Paleo-Eskimo communities dating back to the time of the Norton tradition, 3,000 years ago.[7] They were a common implement of the Dorset culture and of the Thule people, the lamps manufactured then showing little changes compared with more recent ones.[8]

In Inuit religion, the story the Sun and the Moon involves the Sun carrying a Inuktitut: qulliq oil lamp.[9]

Among the Netsilik if the people breached certain taboos, Nuliajuk, the Sea Woman, held the marine mammal in the basin of her lamp. When this happened the angakkuq had to visit her to beg for game.[10] This story also inspired a New Year or Quviasukvik tradition in which three lamps were extinguished and relit during the first sunrise.

Historically, the lamp was a multi-purpose tool. The Arctic peoples used the lamp for illuminating and heating their tents, semi-subterranean houses and igloos, as well as for melting snow, cooking, and drying their clothes.

In present times such lamps are mainly used for ceremonial purposes. Owing to its cultural significance, a Inuktitut: qulliq is featured on the coat of arms of Nunavut.

A Inuktitut: qulliq was lit to commence the investiture ceremony of Mary Simon, the first Inuk, and indigenous person, to be appointed to the position of Governor General of Canada, in the Senate Chamber, 26 July 2021.[11]

Description and use

The Inuit oil lamps were made mainly of soapstone, but there are also some made of a special kind of pottery.[12] Sizes and shapes of lamps could be different, but most were either elliptical or half-moon shaped.[13] The taqquti or wick trimmers, also known as lamp feeders, were made of wood, willow, soapstone, bone or ivory.[14]

The wick was mostly made of Arctic cottongrass (suputi), common cottongrass[15] and/or dried moss (ijju/maniq Inupiaq: peqaq)[12] [16] It was lit along the edge of the lamp, providing a pleasant light.[17] A slab of seal blubber could be left to melt over the lamp feeding it with more fat.[18] These lamps had to be tended continually by trimming the wick in such a way that the lamp would not produce smoke.[19]

Although such lamps were usually filled with seal blubber and the English term 'seal-oil lamp' is common in writings about Arctic peoples, they could also be filled with whale blubber in communities where there was whaling.[20] However, the term 'whale oil lamp' refers to a different kind of lighting device.[21] Generally caribou fat was a poor choice, as was the fat of other land animals, seal oil being a more efficient fuel for the lamp. Women used to scrape the skin of a freshly skinned seal with an ulu in order not to waste any fat.[18] [22] Once the seal skin was stretched and dried it would be scraped using a halukhit[23] to remove the dried fat.

Realizing that these lamps were such an important fixture of the Inuit household that "when the family moved the lamp went along with it", Arctic explorer William Edward Parry (1790–1855) commented:

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Inuinnaqtun to English Dictionary . 7 August 2024 . 81 . 27 March 2014 . Agulalik . Gwen . . Gwen . Ohokak . Margo . Kadlun . Betty . Harnum.
  2. Web site: 'The hardest part of being from a Northern Indigenous community is all the deaths'. 10 February 2019. 8 January 2024.
  3. Web site: Edward J. Vajda, The Chukchi . 12 July 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20180621093128/http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ea210/chukchi.htm . 21 June 2018. dead .
  4. Web site: National Museum of the American Indian : Yup'ik (Yupik Eskimo) Lamps. 2011. 30 April 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110430021903/http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/results.aspx?objtype=Furnishings+(Home)&objid=Lamp.
  5. Web site: PRISM - Blubber Lamps. 12 July 2016. 24 October 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151024083633/http://ku-prism.org/quicktimeVR/Websites/Blubberlamps.html. dead.
  6. Joyce, T. A. & Dalton, O. M. (1910) Handbook to the ethnographical collections. British Museum. Dept. of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography Joyce,
  7. Book: Dumond, Don E. . Coastal Adaptation and Cultural Change in Alaskan Eskimo Prehistory . William . Fitzhugh . Prehistoric Maritime Adaptations of the Circumpolar Zone . The Hague . Mouton . 1975 . 0-202-33075-3 . 168 .
  8. Web site: Far North Traditions. 10 September 2004. https://web.archive.org/web/20040910195409/http://daphne.palomar.edu/ais130/Lectures/fnorth.htm.
  9. Web site: eCUIP : The Digital Library : Science : Cultural Astronomy. ecuip.lib.uchicago.edu. 14 October 2023. 22 September 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220922094844/https://ecuip.lib.uchicago.edu/diglib/science/cultural_astronomy/cultures_inuit-4.html. live.
  10. [#Ras65|Rasmussen 1965]
  11. Web site: Mary Simon officially becomes Canada's first Inuk Governor General . 26 July 2021 . 31 May 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220531112543/https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mary-simon-installed-as-governor-general-1.6114622 . live .
  12. Web site: Alaska Native Collections - Oil lamp. 12 July 2016. 18 March 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220318074002/https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=488. dead.
  13. Web site: The Inupiaq and the St. Lawrence Island Yupik Cultures of Alaska. 2011. 5 February 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130205031755/http://www.alaskanative.net/en/main-nav/education-and-programs/cultures-of-alaska/inupiaq-and-stlawrence-island/.
  14. Book: Uqalurait: An Oral History of Nunavut . 11 March 2020. Bennett. John. Susan. Rowley. McGill-Queen's Press. 19 May 2004. 302. 9780773570061.
  15. Web site: Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/. 31 March 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20110605181230/http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/_ca/www/cyeran.htm. 5 June 2011. dead.
  16. Web site: Fact Sheet: Information about the Qulliq. 11 March 2020. 25 September 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200925133534/http://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/fact-sheet-information-about-the-qulliq.pdf. live.
  17. Web site: A woman demonstrates the use of a stone oil lamp, resting on a metal stand. Gambell, 1960. Anchorage Museum. 12 July 2016. 26 February 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220226063723/https://alaska.si.edu/media.asp?id=830&object_id=488. dead.
  18. Web site: Eskimos and the Long Winter Darkness. https://web.archive.org/web/20120728052631/http://www.ralphmag.org/GD/eskimo-reading.html . 28 July 2012.
  19. Book: Josephine Diebitsch Peary . Josephine . Peary . Marie . Ahnighito . 1903 . Children of the Arctic . F. A. Stokes Company . New York . 6534622 .
  20. Web site: Glossary Kudlik. Macdonald Stewart Art Centre. 31 March 2009. 30 September 2003. https://web.archive.org/web/20030930162824/http://www.msac.uoguelph.ca/Engloss.htm.
  21. Web site: Antique Whale Oil Lamps - Demonstration. www.youtube.com. 12 July 2016. 10 May 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200510180705/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbEb7QLUrY0&gl=US&hl=en. live.
  22. Kunuk, Zacharias. 10 May 2019. Silakut Live From the Floe Edge Episode 3, Life at the Floe Edge. 8. 12 May 2022. 25 June 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220625142711/http://www.isuma.tv/silakut-series/silakut-episode-3-h264new. live.
  23. Web site: Ulukhaktok, Inuvialuit Settlement Region. 2021. 11 May 2022. 22 May 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220522135611/http://www.climatetelling.info/ulukhaktok2.html. live.

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