Beatrice Deer
Chanteuse

Canadienne

A song by Beatrice Deer.

In 1899, Aukkauti was a kind and gentle man living in the Akulivik region with his family and other Inuit. Using his musket rifle, he went hunting with his friend Kumainnaq’s son. To his horror, he accidently shot the boy and killed him. He came back from his hunting expedition alone and informed his friend Kumainnaq of the tragedy with deep sadness. Aukkauti then returned to the accident site with a polar bear pelt so he could bring the boy’s body home. While he was gone to do this, Kumainnaq sought revenge and murdered Aukkauti’s wife and 2 children in their igloo. The gentleman Aukkauti returns to the camp and sees his slain family and becomes enraged and kills Kumainnaq and his wife. Soon after, a man named Aullaluk arrived at the camp with his wife and young son. Seeing blood at the entrance of the igloo, Aullaluk’s wife yelled with glee because she was sure she was about to eat some fresh seal meat. Instead, she encounters the enraged Aukkauti who is surrounded by death and falls victim to him. Aullaluk realizes what’s happened and runs for his life, leaving his young son behind. This tragedy led Inuit living in the vicinity to flee as far as Kuujjuarapik and Kangirsujuaq. After a couple of years, an older man named Sallualuk and his three adult sons were traveling and came across the lone Aukkauti and approached with caution. By this time, Aukkauti had come back to his gentle self again. Sallualuk had pity for him and allowed him to live with them, but the elders had decided the fate of Aukkauti already. By traditional Inuit law, Aukkauti had to be killed to pay for what he did.

This is a true story about an old woman who encountered a polar bear and killed it with nothing but her walking stick and mittens. It is said that she walked far behind her family because she was old and frail as they traveled the lands looking for animals during the famine. Also, children had priority on the dog sled leaving no space for Elders. Part of Inuit values was allowing the younger people to survive during the famine before Elders since they’re the future and Elders have lived long already. As the old woman walked at night by herself, she met the large mammal and without any weapons on her, she thoughtfully placed her mittens at the end of her stick and as the bear opened its jaws lunging at her, she jabbed the stick into his throat choking it and killing the massive bear. She reached her family at dawn as she often did and shared the good news about the fresh meat for everyone.

This legend is how the first fog came about. A hunter saw a giant in the distance had nowhere to hide in the tundra. All there was left to do was play dead as the giant came close. The giant considered himself lucky for finding the supposed dead hunter for he found something to eat. After a long journey carrying the hunter on his back to his dwelling, the giant went down for a nap. The hunter found an axe and killed the sleeping giant with it and fled the dwelling. As he fled, the giant wife pursued him. The giant wife couldn’t reach the hunter who was across a deep river and the hunter bamboozled her into drinking all the water to get to him and she did. She drank and drank until she exploded into a mist covering the land.

Music by Beatrice Deer and Christopher McCarron
Lyrics by Beatrice Deer and Marc Déry