Qalaherriaq [Erasmus Augustine Kallihirua]. 1851-1855. Hunting Scenes. pencil and crayon on paper.13.2 x 17.0 cm. Reproduced courtesy of Canterbury Cathedral Archives (CCA-U88/A/5/8/2). 

Of Qalaherriaq's six surviving drawings, ‘hunting scenes’ is the most expressive of his Inughuit life and Inughuit relations to their dogs and the wild animals of their environment. The drawing is made up of three horizontal strips. The equal spacing between the three strips, as well as their consistency in scale and motif, implies that the drawing is a coherent composition wherein the three strips are connected. But how? The bottom strip might be the start to a specific story (or stories), which then unfolds in the two strips above. Conversely, the bottom strip might not refer to a specific event, but rather be an everyday meeting of Inughuit men to exchange information and prepare for a long hunting trip. In this case, the two scenes above could be similarly generic, conveying knowledge of hunting and gathering practices more generally, as opposed to a specific occasion(s) or unique event(s). 

Continuing the polar bear motif of his drawing above, this essay focuses on the left side of the middle strip, which shows a polar bear hunt. We see a bear being attacked by dogs sent out by the hunters to stall her. In her frustration at the dogs who bite and bark at her, she does not run away, however, but instead steps towards the hunters. Behind the dogs, two hunters emerge from behind a wall made of sledges, likely put up to conceal the hunters’ whereabouts. The two hunters who approach first are the most experienced and best prepared to take down the bear – with the other hunters behind them waiting, watching, and learning.  

The polar bear was highly important to the wellbeing of Qalaherriaq's people. Its meat was used for food, its skin for clothing, and its powerful presence filled their culture with hunting stories and myths, wherein tales of intimate and embodied contact between species flourished. Qalaherriaq’s representation of the polar bear addresses this, as do his human figures (who are all wearing trousers made of polar bear fur). While the Inughuit made clothing from the skin of several different animals such as birds, hare, fox, seal, trout and reindeer, trousers made from bear skin were (and still are) the most practical to the hunter because they are warm, durable, and easily shed both ice and snow.  Although their relationship to the bear and other wild animals was based in the hunt, the Inughuit deeply acknowledged their interrelatedness and mutual ontologies. In their cosmology, hunting formed part of a world-renewing circle of which both hunter/human and animal were part. Qalaherriaq demonstrates this by representing a crucial point in the hunt; the moment when the animal decided to offer herself up to the hunter. The animal offered itself up so that the hunter could live. In return the hunter ensured, through the proper treatment of the dead animal, that it would live on in a different form. 

Essay by Ingeborg Høvik and Axl Jeremiassen