THE LYUBOV ORLOVA—The word for walrus is aaivik. There is a delicacy called iguunaq that the Inuit make by killing, gutting and boning a walrus, then sewing up the flesh and skin, and finally burying it from early summer until winter, when it is dug up and eaten (still frozen). It smells like blue cheese and it is delicious, according to Jayson Kunuk, a young Inuk from Iglulik. He is the nephew of Zacharias Kunuk, and he records oral testimonies and builds interactive web sites. Jayson is also a hunter and when he reveals this during a formal introduction to all the passengers he says, “I am also a hunter, I am sorry.” I ask him why he is sorry—we are in his part of the world where to be a hunter is to be able to survive and provide in the traditional way. “Yes,” he says, speaking carefully, “but I am aware of the feelings of other people, like animal rights activists and vegetarians. I do not wish to offend them.”

The Inuit are hospitable to their guests. This grace is not always reciprocal. Last year, the former mayor of Pond Inlet went out to a cruise ship that was passing through Eclipse Sound, and asked to board so that he might explain the importance of hunting, especially seal hunting. He was not allowed to board. Pond Inlet is a community of about 1500 people, 500 of whom are school-aged children. The current mayor is twenty-eight years old and the economic development officer in his early thirties. At the conclusion of a lively cultural programme (I had not seen women throat-singing with their babies on their backs before), the mayor explains in a gentle voice the importance of sealing and the devastating impact of the European Community’s ban on the practice.

This past season, twelve cruise ships have sailed past Pond Inlet without stopping, in protest of the seal hunt.

That little carved seal with the human face in the bar is an example of transformational sculpture, a significant motif in Inuit art. The idea that humans and animals not only inhabit the same world as equals, but that their souls are interlinked, is at the heart of the Inuit worldview. The seal or natsiq is central to the survival of the Inuit as it is the source of food, clothing, and oil for lamps. In his lovely book, Sacred Hunt, David Pelly writes, “The seal hunt, for Inuit, was never just a matter of harvesting food. With whom a man hunted, how food was shared, and how decisions were made were all important elements in the process. The seal hunt was woven into an entire matrix of social values…”

Depriving the Inuit of the seal hunt is a crime against humanity.

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