tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3294909900531294769.post2762689514795079274..comments2023-05-02T05:52:18.751-08:00Comments on Stop and Smell the Lichen: Inupiaq Love.....Nuna Inuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04223337844864431367noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3294909900531294769.post-33338772395853911842014-01-02T06:02:41.010-09:002014-01-02T06:02:41.010-09:00Nakuuluni UkiutqiutiqsiNakuuluni UkiutqiutiqsiIan Smitnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3294909900531294769.post-11169996904438392482013-05-20T17:37:44.087-08:002013-05-20T17:37:44.087-08:00Thank you so much for your comment! And I am so gl...Thank you so much for your comment! And I am so glad that you also love our products as much as we do!Nuna Inuahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04223337844864431367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3294909900531294769.post-87861274363257626502013-05-20T14:15:25.445-08:002013-05-20T14:15:25.445-08:00So grateful to have stumbled upon your tundra wisd...So grateful to have stumbled upon your tundra wisdom! You have developed an urgent, truthful and beautiful voice for all Inuit and am soo grateful that their are other Inuit who have left home to become eloquent and fierce guardians of our land! LOVE YOUR PRODUCTS TOO!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3294909900531294769.post-85551865708690740692012-04-26T12:00:37.685-08:002012-04-26T12:00:37.685-08:00Thank you so much for this comment!Thank you so much for this comment!Nuna Inuahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04223337844864431367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3294909900531294769.post-57252387432826902552012-04-26T11:59:46.006-08:002012-04-26T11:59:46.006-08:00Not rambling at all! Thank you for your comment! ...Not rambling at all! Thank you for your comment! I'm growing vegetables this summer for the first time ever. Each one will be incredibly special I am sure!Nuna Inuahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04223337844864431367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3294909900531294769.post-90601483213982660962012-04-26T11:58:09.363-08:002012-04-26T11:58:09.363-08:00Thank you for your comment!Thank you for your comment!Nuna Inuahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04223337844864431367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3294909900531294769.post-80098128438605905472012-04-26T09:57:40.849-08:002012-04-26T09:57:40.849-08:00This was absolutely beautiful. I grew up in Weste...This was absolutely beautiful. I grew up in Western culture, complete with the mindset that to eat animals means that you don't love them. However, the older I get the more I've come to understand the Inupiaq way of thinking, and to realize that it's the truest way to honor an animal. My husband hunts, and every time I eat moose I give thanks to that animal. Unlike being forced to say a thanksgiving prayer as a child, these silent thoughts are solemn and heartfelt because I understand the animal more than I would if we'd bought the meat from a store. I felt myself nodding as I read your piece. To say that it touched me, and that I understood exactly what you mean, is probably the biggest compliment I know how to give.<br />Thank you so much for posting this. Now I can share it with my family and friends in the Lower 48 who might not understand this as well as I do.SisterX_83https://www.blogger.com/profile/03159006386821530156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3294909900531294769.post-77872535848608760612012-04-26T05:27:13.867-08:002012-04-26T05:27:13.867-08:00As a white westener, I am not going to pretend I u...As a white westener, I am not going to pretend I understand the love you speak of because, while I empathize with it. I don't understand it. <br />I grew up in a culture where I never knew where my food came from so I never learn that kind of knowledge and respect substance culture did. Yet, recently people are just NOW starting to raise awareness to local foods and local farms and people are reconnecting with the cycle again. However it's "Trendy" rather than necessary and it's frustrating to see how people look at local foods to be this "new cool thing". That aside however, I have been reconnecting with my food. I know who grew those tomatoes that I am consuming, I know the farmer who grew those peaches, plums and apples. I met the cows that I will be eating. I am starting to see the whole pattern again and frankly it's a bit surreal. But I am starting to show great respect again. To love the cows, the pigs and lambs that I consume. To love the mushrooms, the plums and the basil that I grow and eat. The food feels real now. It doesn't feel....distanced if I get it from a commercial store. But when I grow my own tomatoes. They feel real.<br /><br /><br />Sorry if this comes off ramble-y and nonsensical.Bardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11695482696257595077noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3294909900531294769.post-4008201157685442012012-04-15T13:16:52.723-08:002012-04-15T13:16:52.723-08:00Thanks a lot for all this ! I live in a rather sma...Thanks a lot for all this ! I live in a rather small village in France surrounded by fields, very close to a forest... but what we call nature here is in fact a kind of big old garden that we hardly see (any way every inch square of land belongs to someone) or we see it as a beautiful picture. OK we grow a few veggies (well some of us do) but I am quite sure hunters here are not quite like you up there : I won't say they are all sadistic brutes, but I'm not sure it's such a beautiful thing as what you discribe so well - here it's a leasure (necessary in fact because we have destroyed the ecological balance, and humans are here the only predators for some of the biggest animals) and not every body does it in a "good" way ; I mean I can't approve when animals are bred in farms and then put out in the forest for one day or two just for the fun of shooting them .... but that concerns only some hunters. I hated hunters when I was 5 o 6 years old, but I grew up and changed my mind. My meat comes in plastic bags but I feel guilty about it and I think I would be much more respectful if I accepted to kill my own meat, I once had hens, only ate the eggs. but I understand it's not respect to eat bird that are just allowed to live exactly 45 days in terrible conditions. I can't be a vegan (I turn boulimic when I try) but I think your way of living far far more acceptable than mine. and by the way you say it in a marvellous way)Clairehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17405549736659804140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3294909900531294769.post-65228862894288456912012-04-11T15:09:24.699-08:002012-04-11T15:09:24.699-08:00Well said!Well said!littlelichenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11890513224954011649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3294909900531294769.post-34075219103033675312012-04-11T12:37:04.551-08:002012-04-11T12:37:04.551-08:00Always a pleasure to hear your elegant voice--if o...Always a pleasure to hear your elegant voice--if only in my head as I read, and to read your writing! I'd love to see this particular post published to a very wide audience. Your analogy to earning a Masters degree in each animal is something I observed in Barrow and something I think any reader not hopelessly biased can understand. <br />Hope you and yours are well, safe, and well-fed. JNovice Naturalisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10219749494674733196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3294909900531294769.post-36501507069886703622012-04-10T20:23:02.590-08:002012-04-10T20:23:02.590-08:00Love this post! Thank you for sharing.Love this post! Thank you for sharing.Nuna Inuahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04223337844864431367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3294909900531294769.post-89906509755658580482012-04-10T20:05:10.186-08:002012-04-10T20:05:10.186-08:00As I was reading the first part of your post, I wa...As I was reading the first part of your post, I was already thinking about my experiences with ranchers. My grandfather was a cattle rancher, and mother's siblings were ranchers. About how the intense familiarity breeds respect, and a kind of love.<br />I remember my mom teaching me that even a little calf is dangerous by arming me with a bottle of powdered milk and telling me to go feed it. Me, a city girl. I was shocked the first time it knocked me over. I was angry the second time. The third time, I was respectful.<br />And then you learn about their little quirks. That one walks through fences, that bull is ornery, that cow drops calves like clockwork, that heifer's mom was a fence jumper. That one is the one that came out with a water head and my mom pumped its chest for what seemed like hours, while 7 months pregnant, to make it breath, and when the cow wouldnt take it, she bottle raised it,<br />You watch them mate, and birth, and grow, and watch the little calves turn into huge animals that wouldn't just knock you over, but stomp you flat.<br />You learn about what they eat, and how they turn that food into muscle, and how to feed them so that muscle turns into a good product.<br />You learn their bloodlines. You learn how to read their thoughts just by looking at their bodies. You dream about what the next generation will look like, how it will carry its meat, whether its feet will be good, whether that temperment will breed true.<br />And then you have them slaughtered, and you eat them. And people raise their eyebrows. HOW COULD YOU EAT BLACKIE?<br />I don't know. It's a different kind of love.<br />I still remember when they were getting ready to sell the ranch and my aunt came with our portion the last bull slaughtered, all neatly wrapped in white wax paper, stacked in perfect towers in the freezer. The end of our connection, the very last one. He kept us in beef for a year.<br />And now there's that niggling doubt when I go through the aisles and look at those neat packages, treated to be bright red, with all their marbling face up. I ask myself, what did you eat? was your water clean? were you crowded and stressed, or did they keep you fat and happy in sweet hay and green fields? How many chemicals did they put in you? Did they make sure to wait all the months so the birth control was out of your system, or are you full of hormones and heartworm medication and antibiotics.<br />I used to have those answers.<br />It's definitely something you should hold on to, when you can.Redhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11581180767227320753noreply@blogger.com