Cooking Outdoors

Description

Artist Statement * One is watching the other. We had fires of anything we could find., outside as well as inside. While he lived, Tommy Nuvaqirq could turn his hand to all manner of things, and he could make a cooking stove out of almost anything. I recall fondly the stews we cooked outside, and how delicious they were. When the stew was ready, someone would cry Uujuq! and we’d all run to the fire for a feast. In spring and summer, we were inland after caribou, with Markusie Pitsiulak. We’d summer up there, and when we came back to the sea, there would be more stews, using the seal meat we’d all been missing inland. The two in the chair were having fun each trying to push the other off the chair. We didn’t play like they do today. The least little thing made us happy, and we didn’t cause trouble. From time to time, we’d be able to forget for a while about the search for food, when our larder was full. White man’s food was also available from time to time, and when we had anything to trade for it, we’d get a little bit. We elders grew up on seals, or whales or caribou, so we think of these things as our real food*