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The
Inuinnaqtun Bow Making Tradition
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Building and Talking About Bows
Pitikhiliuqtiit -Building the Bows
Taluaqturvik - The Caribou Drive
Taluaqturvik - The Caribou Drive
Inuinnait used bows most successfully by using shooting blinds or talut along known caribou travel routes. Often talut would be part of a taluaqturvik or caribou drive system. A taluaqturvik consisted of several elements. A number of talut were constructed with stones covered in tundra. Archers would hide behind these talut and shoot their bows at passing caribou.
Kringaudlik of Bathurst Inlet shooting arrow from bow at Cape Wollaston. May 19, 1916.
(Rudolph Anderson/CMC/39039)
Women would drive the caribou from behind towards the pitiktarvik by waving their arms and making sounds. When someone is driving the caribou it is referred to as unguuqtuq. The caribou that is being driven toward the talut is referred to as taluliaqtuq. Click on the diagram to the right to see an Inuinnaq's drawing of a taluaqturvik.
A taluq at Tahikaffaaluk. Photo by Andrew Stewart.
Kringaudlik (photo on left) was photographed by Rudolph Anderson of the Canadian Arctic Expedition demonstrating the position one would have when shooting from behind a talut. The hiding space behind the barrier is referred to as the talumiuvik. A collection of talut at the end of a caribou drive are called a pitiktarvik. A line of inukhuit or stone markers would guide the caribou in to the pitiktarvik. There would also be interspersed aulaqut, to keep the caribou worried and moving in the right direction. Aulaqut were sticks with a piece of skin or a piece of wood tied on to them to create movement.
Click on image to see a drawing of a taluaqturvik.