The Thule Culture is still very much alive when you encounter the Inughuit clan at the very top of the world in Greenland. The Inughuit did not meet the missionaries until 1910 and as such have been able to retain their traditional drum songs and folklore, as well as the traditional hunting methods.
Oral storytelling is important part of our tradition to keep passing on to the next generation when it was about the life of the nature and the life of everything. The stories are telling us how to survive in the harsh Arctic with only stars as lights in the long night winter of 4 months with no sun.
With these traditions of storytelling and drum singing, as well as hunting I'll transport you into a life you would have not thought could still exist in our modern world of information and globalization the world seen by the explorers of 19th and 20th centuries still exists and the Inughuit live it every day.
I give speeches about Inughuit´s culture inherited through ten thousand and ten thousands of years generations by telling the stories and singing the traditional songs. In this culture and tradition everything is life and life is all that everybody should be aware of and respect by adapting to the life of the nature. Not reverse.
Through the spoken stories and singing the songs you are guided to the old forgotten memory to remind you your origin life with the nature and universe. This wisdom is my heritage from my ancestors to pass on.”
Language: Inugtut - Kalaallisut - Danish - Swedish - English
The spoken stories and the traditional songs are the only medicine to connect to the life!
Lectures
Life as a hunter in the northmost village, Qaanaaq, Greenland
For thousands of years, the Inughuit people have been dependent on nature and the vital hunting.
The options are the many different ways of hunting the different animals like seal, walrus, narwhal and polar bear on the ice in winter season covered with dark and cold with no daylight for four months as well as in summer season with the sun orbiting above the whole spring and summer season.
In all hunting’s there is always the wisdom of the ancestors guiding how to adapt to be the part of the nature to live the life and survive the extreme harsh climate no other civilizations, but Inughuit in the Arctic could survive with the wisdom of their ancestors.
Have we separated ourselves from Nature? It is a question that the audience may ask.
The culture of the Inughuit people
We had everything and didn’t need anything else but the life in the nature. What we needed we found it everywhere in the nature.
In the year of 1910 the white man came to our village and told us that the life we were living was wrong. The Europeans wanted everyone to adapt to their way of thinking and living. Our traditional way of singing, our drum songs, was banned and the drum was considered the devil's tool. This led to our traditions and our culture being hidden and about to be forgotten. The white man took everything from us, but they coulden't take the most imported thing, our fundament, our culture.
Through the spoken stories and singing the songs you are guided to the old forgotten memory to remind you your origin life with the nature and universe. Sharing the ancient stories and drum songs inherited from our ancestors. It is the stories about the life, tradition and culture of the Inughuit people seen from inside and also applies to the stories of the Shamanistic traditions that are more secretly.
I portray life and the native Inuit wisdom and worldview, the ancient traditions and social values of the Arctic and links in to the world we now live in.
The impact of climate change on the Inuit people
In northern Greenland, the Inughuit’s have lived for thousands of years. In order to survive, they had to adapt to the harsh living environment and defy storms, ice and cold. The climate change that has been going on for decades is most evident in the Arctic with melting glaciers and rising temperatures.
This is a major threat to both humans and animals, who have lived as one with nature and its changes for thousands of years.
Climate change affects hunting animals as well as the weather systems we depend on. However, hunters feel that they are the ones who will pay the price for the pollution of the West and the climate impact.
Despite always looking after the animals they hunt, the pressure from the outside world is increasing not to hunt, which is the very basic prerequisite for life on these latitudes and the end of it would be the death for the Inuit culture in Arctic.
Voices about the lectures
Karlshamns bibliotek 7 mars 2019
Kustbevakningen, Karlskrona
28 mars 2019
Hej
Tack för den intressanta föreläsningen!
Det var många som blev berörda av Hivshu och det blev flera intressanta samtal efteråt.
Vi hade behövt några timmar till!
Hälsa och tacka så mycket.
Vänligast hälsning
Marianne Magnusson
Ethno Music Festival, Sommelo 3 juli 2019
Dear Hivshu,
Your performance in Sommelo Kuhmo were extremely impressive and very touching. Your message of your own ancient culture is universal and also so important for our planet and for all people and every living being on the earth. Today we have no other change to save the globe than listen to your singing and drumming: ”life is all, all is life" and we all have to learn to respect deeply the nature we still have.Your attitude on your ancestors in so beautiful, wise and humble.
We are very rich when realising the fact: we have feet to walk and hands to work - and hug! We don’t need anything more.
Thank you for visting in Kuhmo
Marja-Stiina Suihko
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