An Intimate Wilderness by Norman Hallendy

Author:Norman Hallendy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Greystone Books
Published: 2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

IN THE FIELD, ON THE LAND

There is a world of difference between being “in the field” and “on the land.” I navigated those worlds in different ways, using different mindsets.

When I was doing fieldwork, I examined and recorded the conditions, places, and objects that interested me in a disciplined manner, shaped by how I was taught to perceive the world. I used a variety of instruments to measure and record material objects, noted weather, flora and fauna, and employed scientifically acceptable techniques and methodology.

The following excerpt from my field notes, relating to a visit to the Nurrata site, reflects one way of capturing knowledge of a site:

...The site is quite exposed to the prevailing NW winds, leading one to speculate that there was a diversity of food and other resources prominent enough to trade off against ideal settlement criteria. As its name suggests, it is a gently sloping plain dipping toward the sea. The predominant feature of the Nurrata site was a field of grass, probably Cochlearia officials, about one square hectare in size. The site is approx. 311 m in length and 316 m in width, containing over 190 features. The features include graves, stone shelters, tent rings, and refuse pits. The most numerous of the features were the caches. A particularly interesting feature was an alignment 9.1 m in length of walrus jaws arranged in a herringbone pattern leading toward the sea...

When I was out on the land, the experience was sensuous, hence the expression unganatuq nuna, a spiritual connection to the land. I became acutely aware of the sound and touch of the wind, the feel of warmth and the bite of the cold, the glare of the sun and the silence of darkness, the movement of shadows and the stillness of stone, the magic of nothingness and the sense of infinity. My sense of scale was as elastic as my sense of time and distance. I towered like a giant where plant life reached no higher than my shins, yet felt like an insignificant microbe as I looked out on the vastness of the tundra.

Inevitably, the insights that came to me while out on the land differed from the information gathered during a field trip. Consider a solo trip I made back to Igaqjuaq to revisit the ceremonial site known as Qujaligiaqtubic.

The most striking feature at the site is a huge granite hill at the edge of the sea. Rising about thirty-five metres, it has very steep sides, making climbing to its top quite dangerous. At the top is a small, ordinary looking stone that is a tunnilarvik, an object to which one presents a gift in the hope of seeking a favour.

Below the hill, which once was littered with the skulls of polar bear, seal, and walrus, are at least five graves, one having been made with great care. This particular grave was constructed in the form of a domed vault, so that no stone touched the interred body. A single upright stone sat atop the dome.

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