Perspectives on Traditional Health
Part of the Interviewing Inuit Elders series
The final volume in this series examines traditional Inuit health practices and beliefs as remembered by both North and South Baffin elders: from treatments for fractures to methods of diagnosis and attitudes towards the injured or ill. Though many practices are described in detail in this book, most of the elders' testimonies are of a more general nature, the main concern being life and consciousness in all their dimensions.
The Interviewing Inuit Elders series grew out of the Oral Traditions course, held at the Iqaluit campus of Nunavut Arctic College in 1996. The college invited Inuit elders to be interviewed, in Inuktitut, by the eight students taking the course that year. The interviews began across a table, but just weeks into what is now an ongoing project, the stories and songs you will find captured here were being told over a cup of tea to students and course facilitators sitting on the floor, as they might have been centuries ago.
