Kamiks and cooking
First test of my kamiks, completed just in time for the weekend: "Wow bravo, then you're ready for marriage," said an Inuit friend, laughing. Skins of seal, sheep, some caribou to enlarge over-kamiks, inside socks with various textiles... and I am like in slippers, ultra light and fluffy! Liza and Eva have not missed advices throughout this production. The pleasure of useful sewing from skins is something that we well share together. Previously Eric and Kavovow brought me the skin of a seal after hunting. I was able to treat it from the beginning. Liza showed me: first remove any grease using a frequently re-sharpened ulu, reach the leather, without making any hole, a good half day of work for me, one hour time for her! After cleaning, the skin is stretched over a frame outside, where it dries out a few days to become stiff as cardboard. Then comes the time to make the skin more flexible: treading the skin as much as possible in all directions before softening it with an ulu curve and blunt. So finally, the skin is ready for sewing. Hunted animals here are entirely used. Meeka, in one of her cooking classe in the evening, provided us with factsheets detailing all good nutrients from each animal. Beluga, seal, narwhal, walrus, caribou, polar bear, muskox, ptarmigan, arctic char, algae. Elder women demonstrate some traditional culinary or medicinal uses, with animals, plants or mushrooms. Each session is an opportunity to cook a new recipe that is eaten on the spot. This time it is the discovery of kinoa! But of course, this is also an opportunity to get together with women and share in a good mood. Everything is done to help: raffle with many prizes and leftovers to bring home!