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Stamp: Inuit - Hunting (four designs - two designs per pane)
Denomination: 12¢ Seal Hunter and 12¢ Fisherman´s Dream, 12¢
Disguised Archer and 12¢ Hunters of Old
Date of Issue: 18 November 1977
Design: Reinhard Derreth
Printer: Ashton-Potter Limited, Toronto
Quantity: Seal Hunter/Fisherman´s Dream - 20,500,000, Disguised Archer/Hunters
of Old - 20,500,000
Dimensions: 36 mm x 30 mm (horizontal)
Perforation: 13
Gum Type: P.V.A.
Paper Type: Coated-one-side lithography
Printing Process: Lithography (5 colours)
Pane Layout: Seal Hunter/Fisherman´s Dream: 50 stamps se-tenant; each
design appearing alternately across and down the pane (checkerboard pattern)
commencing with the Seal Hunter design in the upper left corner. Disguised
Archer/Hunters of Old: 50 se-tenant; each design appearing alternately
across and down the pane (checkerboard pattern) commencing with Disguised
Archer in the upper corner.
Plate inscription: Seal Hunter/Fisherman´s Dream: In the side margins
facing in at the four corners: Ashton-Potter Limited, Toronto Design: Reinhard
Derreth: Dessin. In the top margin facing in and in the bottom margin facing
out: Fisherman´s Dream/Pitaloosee: Rêve du pêcheur Seal Hunter:
Artist unknown/Artiste inconnu: Chasseur de Phoque Disguised Archer/Hunter
of Old: In the side margins facing in at the four corners: Ashton-Potter
Limited, Toronto Design: Reinhard Derreth: Dessin In the top margin facing
in and in the bottom margin facing out: Disguised Archer: Lypa Pitsiulak
& Solomon Karpic: Archer déguisé Hunters of Old: Parr:
Chasseurs d´antan
Tagging: All general tagged
Copyright: These stamps are protected by Canadian Copyright laws and
international copyright convention.
INUIT - HUNTING
Few could flee the comfortable South for the severe Arctic, to hunt
for a living using methods portrayed by these stamps. The Inuit, however,
either mastered the techniques or starved.
Food preferences and hunting systems varied greatly in the vast polar
sweep from Alaska to Greenland. Seals or caribou were mainstays of the
human diet and were sometimes supplemented by whales, walruses, fish, bears
and birds. Lacking fresh fruits, the Inuit obtained vitamin C, (which cooking
destroys) by eating raw meat. Indeed, the word "Eskimo" is an Algonkian
term for "raw meat eater". Scurvy often killed early European explorers
who were squeamish about uncooked meat. Before dining, nevertheless, prudent
individuals let the meat freeze to a temperature far below zero degrees
Fahrenheit. This reduced the danger of acquiring a deadly dose of trichinosis,
especially from bear or walrus flesh infested with the trichina worm. A
repast of rare bear finished off all but three members of the Jens Munck
expedition to Hudson Bay in 1619-30.
The season determined the proper way to seal, In winter, dogs sniffed
out snow-covered breathing holes in the ice. The hunter, sometimes in minus
sixty degree weather, then lurked near the hole and harpooned the seal
as it came up for air. To avoid warning the quarry, it was essential to
remain quiet and to leave unaltered the light pattern reaching the hole.
A line tied to the detachable harpoon head prevented the wounded seal from
escaping, but if the line became tangled around a hand, an exceptionally
powerful beast could rip off a man´s fingers or pull him into the water.
In summer, the hunter pursued seals by kayak, or stalked them as they basked
on the ice, Since the seals awoke every thirty seconds, the hunter either
hid behind a white screen or pretend to be a seal until his victim dozed
off again.
The Inuit were continually plotting against the caribou, spearing them
as they crossed rivers, driving them into pounds, and digging pits in the
snow for them. Sometimes two men, having sighted caribou, would conspicuously
walk away. One kept going while the other hid. When the curious animals
investigated the decoy, the concealed partner riddled them with arrows.
Some Inuit groups, to make good providers of newborn boys, would wipe them
with the skin from a caribou bull´s forehead.
The real challenge was the quest for the polar bear, a creature powerful
enough to swat a one hundred-pound dog twenty feet into the air. Dogs cornered
the prey allowing their masters to dispatch it with spears or arrows. Occasionally
someone would anchor the blunt end of his harpoon in the ground. When the
enraged behemoth charged, it impaled itself on the sharp end - a very accommodating
gesture! The Inuit welcomed the rifle with enthusiasm.
The Inuit stamps were designed by Reinhard Derreth of Vancouver, and
feature various methods of hunting employed by the Inuit as depicted in
the prints and sculptures. One pair of stamps features two stonecut prints:
one, a view of a disguised Caribou hunter in a blind, by Lypa Pitsiulak
and Solomon Karpik, and the other a walrus hunt, by Parr. The second pair
of stamps depicts seal-hunting, in an anonymous Inuit soapstone sculpture,
and fishing with spears, in a stonecut print by Pitaloosee. The sculpture
is from the collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. These vigorous graphic
and sculptural portrayals of historic hunting methods have in their imagery
the strength and conviction that comes from personal experience and knowledge
of the importance of hunting in the daily life of the Inuit.
REFERENCE
Canadian Postal Archives-STAMP BULLETINS ISSUED BY CANADA POST CORPORATION,
VOL. 2,1970-1988, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 1990
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