Kiviuq

Kiviuq is an epic hero from legends important to the Arctic Inuit culture. Born as a human, Kiviuq learns to impersonate a seal and takes on a quest to avenge his father’s murder. He is successful, but becomes lost and wanders the world trying to find his way home. Kiviuq encounters many mythical and supernatural beings and has numerous adventures along the way that are retold in hundreds of legends. His stories have been passed orally from generation to generation. In modern times, there has been increased interest in sharing the Kiviuq legends in different formats, and some have been produced as plays and multimedia presentations. Kiviuq was also immortalized when one of the moons of Saturn was named in his honor.

Background

The Inuit are Indigenous people of the Artic regions in Alaska, Greenland, and northern portions of Canada. For centuries they were a nomadic people who survived mostly by hunting and fishing. In contemporary times, a majority of Inuit live in Canada.

Oral history is very important to the Inuit. Their Elders preserve their past by telling stories to the younger generations. There was a time, however, when telling these stories was discouraged. In the past, many Inuit children were pressured to attend European-run schools that discouraged Indigenous language, customs, and practices. As a result, some Inuit children grew up without hearing these stories. Many gave up speaking Inuktitut, the Inuit language, and could no longer understand all the stories. Some began to fade from memory.

In the twenty-first century, however, there was a resurgence of interest in preserving these important aspects of Inuit culture, including Inuit mythology. Numerous efforts were made to portray the legends in play form or by having actors depict the characters while Inuit Elders tell their stories in Inuktitut. These legendary stories often deal with natural topics or convey Inuit values. Topics include the origin of the world, hunting, caring for nature and other people, love, birth and death, respecting elders, and the afterlife. In many stories, human characters interact with speaking animals or even become animals. A key element of many Inuit stories is the presence of alternate worlds and the supernatural. In their religious tradition, shamans can travel to these alternate worlds and dreams can carry important messages.

Some of the most important legends revolve around the lives and adventures of humans who traverse the boundaries between the Earthly world and the alternative worlds in the sky, beneath Earth, and under the oceans. Among the most important figures in Inuit legends are Mahaha, a sea demon that tickles its victims to death; the shapeshifting Ijiraat; Sedna, a young girl who becomes a caretaker of the sea creatures; Lumiuk, a blind boy who escapes abuse and recovers his sight when he seeks shelter in the sea; and Kiviuq.

Overview

Kiviuq is a legendary hero featured in hundreds of Inuit myths and epic stories. He is also known as Kiviuk, Kiviok, Qiviuq, Qooqa, Qayaq, and other variations. Kiviuq is revered for the courage, wisdom, and moral strength he demonstrated. He was clever and full of helpful knowledge that enabled him to survive on his wandering adventures. In addition to his heroic characteristics, Kiviuq was said to have supernatural powers to heal and is revered as a shaman. There is no story related to his death, and the Inuit consider him to be a living being.

According to the most common origin story for Kiviuq, he was the child of a Tuutalik, or a half-man, half-seal being. Kiviuq’s father was a hero. He helped the Inuit seal hunters find the holes in the ice seals use for breathing. One day, though, the Tuutalik was betrayed by those he helped when they stabbed and killed him as he surfaced from a hole. The orphaned Kiviuq was raised by his paternal grandmother, who wanted to avenge her son’s death. By chewing on a seal skin Kiviuq scavenged from the beach, she made it large enough to fit the boy. Then she taught him how to hold his breath for hours on end and swim like a seal.

When he was ready, Kiviuq went into the water near where his father’s killers were hunting caribou. Believing the boy to be a seal, the men excitedly headed out in their kayaks to kill him. He cleverly lured them far from shore, then his grandmother summoned a storm that swamped most of the boats, drowning the men. Kiviuq jumped into one of their kayaks and made his way to shore.

As he approached, he was warned away by some spirits and chased by giant clams that issued further warnings. Unsure whom to believe, the boy paddled away. Eventually, he came to shore near a house but was chased by a woman cooking humans. As he fled, he and the woman exchanged threats, and when Kiviuq split an iceberg with his harpoon, the woman realized she could not defeat him. Kiviuq paddled away. He had avenged his father and proven his worth.

After that first adventure, he wandered, having other adventures as he tried to find his way home. Some of those other adventures find him traveling by foot, riding a dog sled, or being carried by large fish. There are also variations of his origin myth that have him being trained to be a seal by the grandmother of a bullied boy, who Kiviuq avenges by killing his tormenters. In still another version, Kiviuq himself is the bullied child.

In 2000, astronomers discovered new moons orbiting Saturn. In keeping with past practice, the men were allowed to name their discoveries. New moons and similar space objects are often named after characters from the mythologies of different countries and cultures. Canadian astronomer John J. Kavelaars, one of the men who discovered the Saturn satellites, suggested naming five of them after characters in Inuit mythology, including Kiviuq. The Kiviuq moon has a radius of five miles (eight kilometers) and orbits Saturn at a distance of seven million miles (just over eleven million kilometers).

Bibliography

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Houston, James. “Inuit Myth and Legend.” Canadian Encyclopedia, 4 Mar. 2015, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/inuit-myth-and-legend. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.

“Inuit.” Government of Canada, www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100014187/1534785248701. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.

“Inuit Nunangat.” Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada, indigenouspeoplesatlasofcanada.ca/article/inuit-nunangat/. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.

“Kiviuq.” NASA Solar System Exploration, solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/saturn-moons/kiviuq/in-depth/. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.

Petten, Cheryl. “Naming Saturn’s Moons.” Windspeaker Publication, 2003, ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/naming-saturns-moons. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.

Robb, Peter. “Long Banned, the Inuit Legend of Kiviuq Comes to the Stage.” ArtsFile, 17 July 2017, artsfile.ca/long-banned-the-inuit-legend-of-kiviuq-returns-to-the-stage/. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.

“Tell Me A Story: The Great Kiviuq (a Canadian Legend).” Times Herald-Record, 28 Jan. 2011, www.recordonline.com/story/lifestyle/2011/01/31/tell-me-story-great-kiviuq/50268532007/. Accessed 20 Apr. 2023.