Sealskin

My mother stands by a sealskin on display at a school.

Many homes here have sealskins drying out in the yard on nice days.  The Inuit have traditionally made their living hunting seals, selling the skins and eating the meat, so obviously the seal hunt is a keystone of Inuit culture. There is no farming up here (permafrost makes it impossible).  No trees for lumber. Historically, Inuit also relied on skins for their homes and their clothing.  Bones were used for utensils, tools, and jewelry. Meat was (and still is in many cases) the primary diet. Many Inuit feel that eating seal meat and drinking seal blood will cure illnesses, and keep you healthy.

A house down the road from ours.

Very familiar sight.

Sealskin is therefore EVERYWHERE up here.  Walking through town you'll see women wearing sealskin hair clips, sporting sealskin flower pins or sealskin purses. The men and boys wear sealskin ties or vests for special occasions (or just to dress "spiffy").  Sealskin boots and mittens are very popular in winter.

Beautiful sealskin coats by Rannva.

Parka by Victoria's Arctic Fashion
(source)

This sealskin purse has an "ulu" design on the front.
Ulu's are used to scrape and clean skins. 

The new aquatic complex has sealskin upholstery on the seats, and the Anglican church has collection plates lined with sealskin that they use during mass.

Sealskin upholstery in the "Elder's Room" at the new
Aquatic Facility in town.

Selling sealskins used to provide the Inuit people with a comfortable living. It doesn't anymore. I did some research to try to figure out why, using Wikipedia and Government of Nunavut websites. I'm not an expert, but it seems many years ago some well-meaning animal activists protested the sale of sealskins with powerful ad campaigns.  These campaigns spanned years; selling us images of the cruel, evil hunter bashing baby seals' brains in with clubs.  To the best of my knowledge, this doesn't actually happen.  For one thing, most Inuit these days hunt with rifles, not clubs. When they do use hakapiks (clubs), they are designed according to regulated specifications (and have been proven to kill quickly and humanely).  And they don't hunt seal pups (the fur is worthless, and hunting them is, in fact, illegal). Seals are not endangered. The population is actually thriving.

There are still, however, a lot of websites out there with misleading information.  To be fair and completely honest, I can't speak to the commercial sealing industry in Newfoundland and northern Quebec. I do know these industries are highly monitored  as to the age of seals hunted and methods used to hunt them. I also know the commercial sealing industry takes in far fewer seals every year than the Department of Fisheries and Ocean's quotas allow. (source)

Beautiful sealskin kamiks for sale on Facebook.

Seal skin earrings, pins. Two seal skin poppies.
All for sale on Facebook.

George Wenzel (a McGill University geographer and anthropologist) worked with Inuit on Baffin Island for two decades.  His study, called The impact of the animal rights movement upon the culture and economy of the Canadian Inuit, "was among the first to reveal how animal rights groups, "well-meaning people in the dominant society through misunderstanding and ignorance can inflict destruction" on a vulnerable minority." (source)

According to a 2002 peer-reviewed study done by five Canadian veterinarians and funded by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA), "the large majority of seals taken during this hunt (at best, 98% in work reported here) are killed in an acceptably humane manner."

Even the World Wildlife Fund has changed its position.

In 2005, The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) commissioned the Independent Veterinarians Working Group Report.  With reference to video evidence, the report states" "Perception of the seal hunt seems to be based largely on emotion, and on visual images that are often difficult even for experienced observers to interpret with certainty.  While a hakapik strike on the skull of a seal appears brutal, it is humane if it achieves rapid, irreversible loss of consciousness leading to death." (source)

Sealskin seals and ravens (left), mittens made with dyed sealskin and fox fur (right).

The damage, however, has already been done. The Inuit people are struggling economically, and sealskins don't sell for nearly as much as they used to.  Many countries have even banned importing sealskins at all (although this is changing--see the report linked below). Recently, after extensive review, the European Union has decided to lift their moratorium on sealskins hunted in Nunavut.
http://www.gov.nu.ca/eia/news/european-union-approves-exemption-nunavut-seal-hunt

This is the principal of Aqsarniit school addressing the crowd during a school
function.  He is wearing a sealskin tie and vest.

Sealskin flower hair clip.

Here is my soapbox speech: I know there are a lot of people out there who feel that wearing "fur" of any kind is a crime.  Some think seals shouldn't be hunted simply because they are "cute". Some feel hunting and killing of any animal is wrong. These same people will often happily carry leather briefcases or wear leather boots, which seems odd to me. They may also have no problem consuming chicken (many of which are raised in atrocious conditions) or veal. If your argument is that you won't wear fur because of "cruelty to animals", there are many other lifestyle changes you will need to make as well. 

All that aside, to each their own. I respect the opinion that wearing fur is wrong. I will happily share a meal with any friendly vegan who chooses to wear canvas shoes and carries a purse made of recycled plastic (which are also cool!). If you feel its OK to wear a leather belt but sealskin is wrong because....well....whatever your reasons are, so be it.  We can still be friends.

I, on the other hand, will happily contribute to the economy of Nunavut by wearing my amazing sealskin boots and these mittens!  Woot!

Most gorgeous mittens ever from Rannva.
(These technically aren't "mine" yet, I bought them for JJ
to give them to me as a Christmas present.)

Author's note: I was going to save this post until later, but the topic seems timely right now.  Seal meat is making the news (find the Toronto Star article here) because of a restaurant in Toronto run by Joseph Shawana of Wikwemikong First Nation. Chef Joseph Shawana has had the audacity, in his Indiginous inspired restaurant Kukum Kitchen, to serve harp seal-- a traditional Indiginous food. In response, Jennifer Matos has authored a petition calling for the sale of seal meat to be banned in Toronto. I'm not sure what's really driving this petition, but it is full of a lot of misinformation I've already talked about above (like how baby seals are killed inhumanely).  Matos has further stated "the slaughter of any being is wrong", so I'm not sure why she has targeted seals and not all meat.   

I have signed the counter-petition (found here) started by Aylan Couchie from Nipissing First Nation. Thankfully, the counter-petition has nearly as may signatures as the original petition.  I think this shows people are investigating the facts of the seal hunt for themselves. Of his counter-petition Couchie says "the anti-fur and anti-sealing movements have jeopardized First Nations ways of life. It's stuff that Indigenous people encounter on a regular basis. There are often misinformed and misguided perceptions.  I was frustrated that this was another thing we must address."