Nanook of da North.

A little something before starting today's workload.


Last week, while waiting at home for the iPhone, saw this on my blood bro's table, picked it up, and watched it.

Nanook of the North.

A 1922 silent film documentary about the life of Nanook ("the bear" in his language), an inuit eskimo, and his life in the Canadian Arctic region.

What intrigued me was the invisible relationship between the director/cameraman, Robert Flaherty, and Nanook. Although the film-maker never appeared in the film, the fact that Nanook let him in on his life creates an invisible bond between them.

The director's first trip was meant to be arctic exploration, with Nanook as a guide. His team didn't spend more time exploring than surviving the bitter cold. He casually took a film with the camera he brought, but when he was doing post-production editing, the originals caught fire and little could be saved.

In 1921, he decided to set off on a second trip on his own, specially to create a film on the eskimo people. To make it special, he chose to focus around the life of Nanook and his family.

Nanook is known in the region as a great hunter - one of the best in fact. While few could manage to hunt more than 1 polar bear a year, he had killed 6 in the past half a year. All this without any advanced tools, just a Walrus-tusk spear, a Walrus-tusk knife, and his bare hands.

The film showed him hunting for salmon with amazingly few tools, with his agility as his most valuable tool.

Then there was the hunting of walruses, which are monsters in the sea, but helpless on land. His family ambushed a pack which was sunbathing on shore, and 1 walrus is enough to feed them for a week or so.

Also, there was the hunting of giant seals; They live mostly underwater, but as mammals, they need to take a breath every 20 minutes. Nanook spotted one of these small breathing holes in the polar glacier, and caught one with a spear and rope, and the combined pulling of his whole family, kids included.

Then, there was his nomadic lifestyle, having to constantly find new ground to hunt for fresh food, which was absolutely scarce in the region.

Watching him build a complete igloo in an hour with nothing more than his walrus-tusk knife and the frozen snow in the ground, was a marvel in itself.

I mean, he even made a window for the igloo within 10 minutes.

How?

He carved out a block of clear glacial ice, cut a hole in the packed-snow igloo, and slot it in.

This is necessary, as without a window, it would be almost completely dark inside (they have to cover up the entrance with a slab of packed snow, or they won't survive the cold).

Their clothes by day become their pillows by night.

And for them, everyday is a struggle.

But I was reminded of one harsh fact.

We survive by hurting others.

Watching the hunting filled me with as much awe as pain for the hunted.

That is the way we humans live, that is the way we survive.

I really want to change that.

Some day.


And who can forget, the rubbing of noses, the "eskimo's kiss"?
They can't lock lips cos saliva will freeze and they'll be stuck together.

I've done this rubbing of noses for some time, but after knowing this fact, it has become even more special than a kiss.

It's a salute to the Inuit way of life.


After the film was completed, Nanook asked Robert Flaherty to stay longer, and film more things. But Robert had to go.

A year after Robert left Hudson Bay in North-west Canada, Nanook had starved to death in the winter cold, but his family was saved by other eskimos.

The film is a testimony to the staunch spirit of the Inuit people, their way of life, which many of us cannot imagine.


That aside, last night, at the Bday bbq at West Coast, I learned the full name of Yiran's bf from Holland.

It started with me thinking his name is Hughs, then Clarisse correcting me and telling me it's Guus.

We exchanged namecards yesterday and his name read "Auguustinus Goortz".
It's pronounced, Ow-hughs-tea-nass Hawrtz.

Thought it sounded really nice and majestic.

Time to work now.