Qattayana

In this legend, told by Johnny Ruben Qummana, young Qattayana and his grandmother go with a group of hunters from Kitigaaryuit to Nuvuraq during the fall to hunt seals on the ice. The weather turns bad and the hunters return to the mainland. Because Qattayana and his grandmother are poor and have no one to hunt for them, the hunters close the two of them in their iglu. Qattayana and his grandmother are cold and hungry, so the old woman sings an irinaaq, a helping song, and the moon brings them bowhead whale maktak and blubber. 

He left his grandmother and started off following the people’s trail. When the Inuvialuit saw him coming, they started out to meet him.

All the people in the region were hungry. They had no meat so some of them had gone west toward Tuktoyaktuk, for there were people there. The Inuvialuit left Kitigaaryuit to go to Tuktoyaktuk, where they had meat caches.

As Qattayana got close, he chewed on some maktak from his mitts. When the Inuvialuit reached him they asked him, “Qattayana, what are you chewing?” Qattayana lied and said,
“I am chewing on my grandmother’s oily belt.”

The Inuvialuit grabbed him and tickled him until he spat out what he was chewing. After they studied what he had spat out, they began to shout, “Qattayana and his grandmother have killed a bowhead whale!”

Qattayana told them that in their camp there was enough oil and maktak for people to survive until they could hunt. He showed them maktak from his pouch and mitts. So they followed him down. When they arrived, they cut up the maktak and blubber for the qulliq and for everyone else to share. Afterwards they brought the grandmother and boy up with them.

The grandmother and boy had saved their lives after they had left them to die. They took them to their homes. They had good fortune and the weather improved. They got plenty of seals and even polar bear. The gave all the credit to the old woman’s song for help.