Storyteller born in 1909 on Mansel Island (Nunavut) – died in 1975 in Ivujivik (Nunavik).
Mangiuq was born in 1909 on Mansel Island (Inuktitut: Pujjunaq). This island is located in Hudson Bay, in what is today Nunavut, and is now uninhabited. “Mangiuq” is the name he gave himself, while “Tuumasi” seems to be another name that designated him as well. Mangiuq was born to Qumaq and his second wife, Qaajui.
In 1967, Mangiuq recorded stories about his life in a notebook. This notebook was obtained by anthropologist and ethnologist Bernard Saladin d’Anglure, who kept it as part of his archives. In 1990, Tumivut, the magazine of the Nunavik Inuit published by the Avataq Cultural Institute, printed a section of this notebook, “The story of Kivviagaq and Qumaq, ancestors of Tuumasi Mangiuq.” In this text, Mangiuq briefly chronicles the life of his grandfather, Kivviagaq, before recounting the story of his father, Qumaq, and his family, who were forced to leave Pujjunaq Island when Mangiuq was still a child. During the journey, the ice broke and swept away several members of his family, including his mother, Qaajui. The rest of the family did their best to survive, making their way to the coast, but spring accelerated the thaw, and they were deprived of food. After eventually finding shelter and sustenance on Saarqajaaq Island—one of the Digges Islands, at the junction of Hudson Bay and the Hudson Strait—the family boarded a makeshift boat built by Qumaq and made their way to the settlement of Kangirsualuk (at Cape Wolstenholme; Inuktitut: Anaulirvik), where the Hudson’s Bay Company operated a trading post. Finally well supplied with food and goods, all were able to return to Pujjunaq Island. It was on this island that Mangiuq grew up and learned to hunt.
According to Zebedee Nungak, Robert Flaherty, director of the film Nanook of the North (1922), based his 1968 book Comock on Qumaq’s story; the title of the book is said to be a transcription of “Qumaq”. Comock was edited by Edmund Carpenter, who reported that an Inuit elder from Ivujivik named Mangiuq claimed that his father, Qumaq, traveled by sled to Mansel Island, where he lived for several years with his family. According to Edmund Carpenter, some details of the story differ between Qumaq’s account and the story of Comock, but the main elements are the same, leading him to conclude that he believes Qumaq and Comock are one and the same. The story also matches the plot of “The Story of Kivviagaq and Qumaq,” as published in Tumivut magazine.
Little is known about Mangiuq, other than the fact that he eventually settled in Ivujivik, Nunavik, where he built the community’s first wooden house (matchbox house), and where he died in 1975. However, his work as a storyteller has gone down in history; Mangiuq thus played a fundamental role as a guardian and transmitter of traditional knowledge. Well-aware of the importance of transmission, he lucidly observed: “I know a lot of things that today’s children don’t know. Perhaps one day, the things I know will be nothing more than stories, and perhaps one day I too will be nothing more than a story, told to the children of tomorrow.”