Eskimo Pie: A Poetics of Inuit Identity (Modern Indigenous Voices) - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Norma Dunning is an Inuit writer, scholar, professor and grandmother. She grew up beyond the tundra and lived mainly in smaller, northern communities across Canada. She will say that she grew up in the places that no one would ever think to drive to. She completed all three of her university degrees within 9.5 years. She won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award in 2018 for her short story collection Annie Muktuk and Other Stories. In the same year, she won the Writers' Guild of Alberta's Howard O'Hagan Award for the short story "Elipsee", and was a shortlisted finalist for the City of Edmonton Book Award. She is the mother of three sons and grandmother to four children. Dunning writes in both poetry and prose, with poetry being her first go-to when it comes to creative work. Through the support of other Indigenous writers, Dunning came to realize that what she writes matters, although it remains difficult for her to share her work widely. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta.

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An Old Inuit Woman

An old Inuit woman ambles out onto the cool, morning Tundra

little girls on either side, holding hands as one.

She is the Elder,

they are the learners.

She takes them to the crest of the small hill

where the girls bend to gather twigs.

It is a simple task.

What they bring back will start the fires

boiling the caribou.

What they bring back will feed the embers

on the damp spring nights while others sleep.

The girls run about the hill making tiny piles of sticks

bringing them back to the old woman

whose wrinkled brown hands feel the length

and snap the small willows to an even size.

She feels for how dry they are and wraps them

one by one into a piece of caribou hide.

The little one scamper on either side of the hill

at the end of their task, the Elder slaps the ground hard.

Two heads turn towards the sound of the shudder.

The girls rush to gather the old woman

helping her stand,

one on each side.

The old woman keeps the bundle of willows

tying it around her crooked back.

She takes a hand from each little girl

And they guide the Elder back to camp.

The old woman is blind

and the girls are deaf.

Together they complete a worthy task.

It is how they maintain their importance to the group.

It is how they keep themselves alive.

Mamaqtuq (good tasting or smelling)

Roll out of my hides

to smell the winds.

Looking every way

for the shadows to

show. Women gather

twigs and moss, kill

kuutsiuti,

the smaller keepers of

small life.

Ilnautuq.

Crawling, sliding along

Taalu,

smelling the winds.

An Eskimo Proclamation

We came here to make you better

Teaching you church and how to knit sweaters


Changed your names and made them right

You dirty little animals full of fight


Taught you how to wash your hands

Took you off your hostile lands


Brought you into our enlightened age

Gave you names on a census page


You're happier than you've ever been

A better side of life you have finally seen


Our mission is soon complete

You will no longer eat raw meat


You'll soldier on in our god's name

You lowly people we have tamed


You will thank us for this soon one day

And on your land, we will forever stay