Nunatsiavut Artist Jason Sikoak and Mina Campbell Talk on the Traditional Seal Hunt

JS: Like you, I guess, we was always taught growing up that nothing goes to waste.

MC: Now I love cleaning sealskins. I clean them for whoever wants sealskins cleaned, because I love it. I can’t explain why; it’s just very relaxing. And it feels good that we killed this seal for some of my family or friends, because they’re going to use it. It’s a sin that so many sealskins get left out on the Bay.

JS: You mention you dart all your seals with unâk and naulak. When did you get your first naulak?

MC: I guess Uncle Holman probably gave me my first one, but I remember a special one that I had that Inuit Elder Jonas Palliser made for me. My now-ex-husband, Pat, was out working on the oil rigs, and he had this big, old, brass-looking dart. I brought it down to Jonas and he made me a little naulak out of it and the unâk to go with it. He told me every time I killed a seal to put a notch with the knife in the unâk. And, of course, every time I got a seal with it, he was the first one I’d give a meal of liver or meat to.

You asked me earlier about how to hunt: Uncle Holman taught me how to hunt, but he also taught me how to clean the seal and how to act while we was hunting. We’d be at the breathing holes and he’d say to stay by the hole very quietly, or else the seal would hear you— if you go moving your feet, it’s going to hear you. I mean, you can move your feet if you want, but there’s less of a chance of getting the seal, and that’s what we pass on, too, so it’s a good lesson in patience.

JS: It is. Now we’re in a consumer society and always distracted by other things. I think it’s just good to be out there and away from everything else, just you and the battle of wits against the seal, I guess. What do you think of the anti-sealing protesters?

MC: I think they don’t understand. That’s what I think. I think those people should come here and try to understand us. Why would they be protesting us getting food for ourselves? I think for anyone protesting sealing, I hope they’re not eating any meat at all! You mentioned something earlier about using every part of the animal, and I think another thing that’s part of the whole hunt is having respect for the animal. Hunters learn to respect the seal, and all the other animals as well. Do it the most humane way possible. Like when we dart one, it may not be killed instantly, but it will be killed very quickly. And then even after that, when we dress it, it’s treated with care and respect.

JS: I think that’s very important to teach the younger hunters. I find that in other places, a lot of hunters don’t have a lot of respect anymore for the way things were done. Have you ever gone snow blind?

MC: No, I haven’t. I know people who have and they say it’s one of the worst pains next to a seal finger.

JS: Ever have it, seal finger?

MC: No, but Uncle Holman had it one time and it hurt so bad it almost made him cry. Just a tiny cut is all it needs—if you have a little tiny paper cut, or maybe a hangnail. Some people say it’s the seal hair—if the hair gets in there—but I think it doesn’t have to be the hair, it just has to be the grease, and it’s like a kind of blood poisoning. It’s very painful. Whatever finger you get the seal finger on gets deformed, like crooked, and you can’t move it back, can’t straighten it out anymore. That’s what might stop me from doing sealskins, but I doubt it will.

JS: I was going to say, I don’t think you’d let that stop you, Mina.

MC: It’s awful good fun. Especially if it’s a young person and it’s their first seal, well, you’re shaking their hand and congratulating them.

And even if you don’t get a seal, it’s an exciting time for everybody out there. It’s a tradition that’s been going on in our families for generations and generations. It’s a big part of our culture and our heritage, and it’s something to look forward to. And, like I said earlier, there are a lot of life skills to be learned around seal hunting.

There are a lot of different things that make seals and seal hunting important to us.

JS: I agree with you, 100 per cent, and thank you.

This article originally appeared in print with the headline “Out on the Bay.”