Inuksuit
Baffin Island is the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world. As the brief arctic summer approaches, migrating murres begin to arrive. Tiny plants emerge a few weeks later. Snow still remains, such as in the crevices of the ancient innunguaq in this scene.
Among the arctic Inuit people, “innunguaq” refers to an object in the likeness of a human*. Innunguait (plural) have been erected since ancient times on Baffin Island to point the way to a special place, as is this miniature seems to be doing.
*Hallendy, N. (2009). Tukiliit: the Stone People Who Live in the Wind. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press. pp 28-29.
