Naluyuks of northern Labrador: Views from the printed page

Naluyuks are non-human beings, spirit figures, traversing both the spirit and human worlds of the Inuit people of northern Labrador. This mid-winter event is in part an inquisitional house-visitation with children held accountable for their behaviour. For adults, it is also a visit by non-human beings resonant with Inuit beliefs and is a reminder of another world-view with which to encounter and interpret the current social and physical world. The foundation of the naluyuk event can be established through several avenues including the prehistoric presence of Arctic cultural groups in the eastern Arctic and Greenland, ethnographic accounts, and the over-arching presence of a set of beliefs centred on the sea-woman Sedna. Non-Arctic cultural influences are historic, arising from pursuit by Europeans of the whaling industry and the cod fishery in Labrador waters, the European search for the North West passage, the presence of Moravian missionaries, and contemporary political and economic realities.