Inuktitut translation of a Greenlandic tale about climate change
Indigenous languages are a formidable reservoir of ideas and concepts that can help humanity find sustainable ways to interact with the rest of the living world, and thus find a way to survive. Sila, Sedna and nuna testify through their complexity to the richness and unity of Inuit cultures around the pole. These related concepts, difficult to translate into Western languages, bring humans back into a whole where they no longer occupy the center of the world. Nuna, territoriality; sila, the source of all movement and change; Sedna, the mother of the sea, at the heart of an incredibly wide mythology and cosmogony adapted to new times, as demonstrated by the present "tale of climate change" written by the Greenlandic Lana Hansen.
Tulugaq is just an ordinary boy – except that he can fly (Tulugaq means “raven” in English). He is the world’s only hope in the battle against global warming. By the Spirit of the Inland Ice he is sent on a quest to save the human race from itself. Sila is a modern and unconventional fable, with a clear motive of connecting the Inuit myths and traditions with the present day climate situation.
The translation of this tale by Greenlandic Lana Hansen is one of the first literary translations between two Inuit languages, here from Greenlandic to Inuktitut.
Lana Hansen, ᓯᓚ. ᑲᓛᓪᓖᑦ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᑐᐊᖓ ᓯᓚᕐᔪᐊᒥ ᓯᓚᐅᑉ ᐊᓯᔾᔨᐸᓪᓕᐊᓂᖓᓄᐊᖓᔪᖅ, with a presentation by Lisa Qiluqqi Koperqualuk, an introduction by Daniel Chartier and drawings by Georg Olsen. Translated into Inuktitut by Lisa Qiluqqi Koperqualuk, Montréal, Imaginaire | Nord and Inukjuak, Avataq Cultural Institute, 2020, 64p.
ISBN 978-2-921644-17-4