Sanaaq - Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk Audiobook

Written by Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk
Read by Tiffany Ayalik
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 96 Kbps
Unabridged

Sanaaq is an intimate story of an Inuit family negotiating the changes brought into their community by the coming of the qallunaat, the white people, in the mid-19th century. Composed in 48 episodes, it recounts the daily life of Sanaaq, a strong and outspoken young widow, her daughter Qumaq, and their small semi-nomadic community in northern Quebec. Here they live their lives hunting seal, repairing their kayak, and gathering mussels under blue sea ice before the tide comes in. These are ordinary extraordinary lives: marriages are made and unmade, children are born and named, violence appears in the form of a fearful husband or a hungry polar bear. Here the spirit world is alive and relations with non-humans are never taken lightly. And under it all, the growing intrusion of the qallunaat and the battle for souls between the Catholic and Anglican missionaries threatens to forever change the way of life of Sanaaq and her young family.

Written periodically during the 1950s and 1960s, this is known as the first novel written in Inuktitut, albeit not the first to be published (Harpoon of the Hunter by Markoosie Patsauq, 1970).

Audio Release Date:
April 6 2021

5 hrs and 54 mins