Editing in Eskimo .sx by Francis Dickie .sx FIFTY YEARS AGO , the Canadian Eskimo , scattered across half a million square miles of the Arctic , from the Atlantic seaboard to the Bering Sea on the Pacific , was a primitive race .sx Now , Canada's Department of Northern Affairs is publishing the first magazine entirely in the Canadian Eskimo tongue ever produced .sx Remembering that it is only fifty years since a syllabic written version of the Canadian Eskimo language was created by missionaries , the production now of an all-Eskimo magazine , in two separate dialects , is truly an amazing step forward .sx For , it must be remembered , fifty years ago the Canadian Eskimo was still a stone-age people .sx The fact that the different tribes were so widely scattered over such an enormous territory , and were constantly on the move in pursuit of sea and land animals and fish , made the missionary's teaching of the syllabics slower and more difficult .sx THIS FIRST MAGAZINE is , therefore , a triumph :sx until its appearance , the use of syllabics was confined to letters , brief messages , and the Bible .sx In future , across the vast reaches of the Arctic , almost the entire population will for the first time be able to read their language in a modern magazine .sx Canada's first Eskimo magazine editor is Mary Panegoosho , born at Pond Inlet in 1939 .sx The eldest of nine children , she had three brothers and five sisters .sx Mary went to work as a nurse's assistant at Hamilton , Ontario , Mountain Sanatorium at fifteen .sx She has been with the Department of Northern Affairs for a year and three months .sx The magazine she edits is published in three editions :sx 'Inuktitut' in the eastern Arctic dialect and in syllabics , 'Inuktitun' in the western Arctic dialect in Roman characters , and a third edition in English .sx Both , of course , mean 'The Eskimo Way .sx ' The first issue of the magazine was greeted with great enthusiasm by the Eskimos .sx Reluctant as they always are to show even their best work , such as carving , it was most gratifying that some contributions were sent in for the second issue .sx The editorial team is made up of Eskimo members of the Eskimology Section of the Northern Welfare Service .sx The total number of copies printed in Eskimo is three thousand five hundred- one for each Eskimo family .sx About two thousand are printed in the eastern Arctic dialect , fifteen hundred in the western .sx These circulation figures are more or less fixed and may only increase slowly as the Eskimo population itself grows .sx The publication of the magazine is only one part of the many functions of the Eskimology Section .sx The Section's primary concern is assisting the welfare programme and providing consultative services , translating letters from Eskimos , etc. In so far as the demands of the main functions will allow , therefore , the magazine will be published every four months or so .sx THE CANADIAN ESKIMO scarcely knew of any written language until the Rev. Edmund J. Peck , D.D. , an Anglican missionary , adapted a system of syllabics to the Eskimo tongue .sx The syllabic system , in which sounds are represented by little hooks and crooks resembling shorthand , was first devised by the Rev. James Evans a hundred years ago for use with the Cree Indians .sx The typewriter used is a Remington Rand , which looks like any other typewriter except that it is fitted with syllabic Eskimo letters .sx It was designed about ten years ago by the late Leo Manning , an Eskimo linguist with this Department .sx Besides the usual keys for shift and lock , back spacing , margin release , etc. , it has forty-six keys .sx The first number of the magazine includes an Eskimo's account of the previous year's goodwill mission to Greenland , some Eskimo folk-tales sent in by people from Igloolik , a story of a hunting adventure by a man who was a sanatorium patient not long ago , and numerous other articles .sx There is also a children's page .sx There are excellent illustrations drawn by Eskimos , including the magazine's editor , Miss Mary Panegoosho , who also designed the cover .sx THERE IS ONE SLIGHT DEFECT in the syllabic system so long in use in Canada :sx that is that the Eskimos here are the only ones who use it .sx This prevents them at present from sharing in reading the literature of the same race from Greenland and Labrador because in those lands this syllabic system is not used .sx A development in the present Eskimo written tongue is now being considered , by means of which all Eskimo , including those in Greenland and Labrador , who use a different system of writing , could read the same literature .sx However , for the present , this first Canadian Eskimo magazine is a wonderful accomplishment .sx To the continuing of it , the Department of Northern Affairs is sparing no effort or expense .sx And , by airplane , boat and dog-team , across a half million square miles , this Quarterly reaches 3,500 non-paying subscribers , in a land of seven months winter- the most widely scattered people in the world ever to receive a modern magazine in their own tongue !sx Eskimo Arts and Crafts .sx by Dawn MacLeod .sx HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED how Eskimos pass the time during their long Arctic winter night ?sx As children we were told that the women sewed skins together for clothing , the men made or repaired dog-traces and fishing tackle , and the children ate , slept , and played what games they could in the confined space inside their ice-hut or igloo .sx But since I came to Canada I have discovered that the Eskimo does not spend all his time in utilitarian pursuits .sx Among the Canadian Eskimos there are sculptors and artists with a high degree of good taste and skill , who take delight in creating things of beauty .sx Their small stone carvings , carefully wrapped in soft skin for safe storage , are brought out and handed round when friends visit them ; their pictures adorn the walls of the home .sx The recently formed Department of Northern Affairs , which takes a fatherly interest in the welfare of nine or ten thousand Eskimos living on Canadian territory , has been organising exhibitions of their work in most of the larger cities , and a scheme has been set up under which supplies for sale to the public are being made available to selected shops .sx A little carving in stone of a mother and child was accepted by H.M. the Queen during her visit to the Dominion , and the man who carved it , Munamee of Baffin Island , takes immense pride in the knowledge that his work has gone to Buckingham Palace .sx The Eskimo never duplicates his figures , but other examples of this artist's skill are being snapped up by tourists and collectors .sx THE TRADITIONAL CRAFTS of Eskimos are stone carving by the men and leather applique@2 work by the women , with the addition of basketry in parts of the eastern Arctic where coarse grasses grow .sx This is similar in technique to the coiled basket-work made popular by the Navaho Indians .sx The carving of small figures and animals by the Eskimo men probably developed from their formerly essential skill in whittling down stone to make adzes , reamers and crude saws- the only tools they had until white traders brought steel and other metals to the Arctic regions .sx Leather applique@2 by the women originally had a purely functional application , for the narrow bands of sealskin in contrasting tones were used to strengthen garments at points of greatest wear .sx Gradually these applique@2 clothes developed into things of beauty , and the Eskimo wife could earn respect for herself and her family by outstanding skill at the craft .sx Eskimo women , as well as men , have now found time to fashion things solely for pleasure , and their art takes the form of applique@2 skin pictures .sx Some of these are rich in invention and full of action .sx The designs- mostly human figures , dog teams , and wild creatures of the Arctic- are visualised and then cut out direct from the skin without any preliminary drawing , and are usually in dark-toned leather sewn to backgrounds of bleached caribou hide or sealskin .sx Sometimes the shapes of tools in daily use about the home are employed as motifs , and it is believed that such designs have some magical significance ; but the artists , who have every right to keep their secrets inviolate if they choose , do not seem disposed to explain the meaning of these conceptions .sx Possibly some of us would be equally reluctant to tell an audience of Eskimos just why we throw a pinch of spilled salt over our shoulder , or take care to avoid walking under a ladder .sx THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS in the arts of the Eskimo have come , oddly enough , by way of Japan .sx A Canadian artist who is attached to the Department of Northern Affairs was sent to the Far East to study the Japanese technique of colour-printing from wood blocks , and he thought that this craft might well be adapted to the Eskimo's natural material- that is , the fairly soft talcs , grey-green waxy steatite or 'soap-stone,' and what is locally known as 'pipe-stone' :sx the latter not to be confused with the russet-coloured Missouri clay , catlinite , which was used by the Red Indian for his sacred pipe of peace .sx When the artist returned to his base , at Cape Dorset on the south coast of Baffin Island , he demonstrated the methods of the Japanese wood-block printers , and immediately these were seized upon by delighted Eskimo craftsmen and adapted to their own material and ideas .sx Bold designs of birds and beasts were cut on stone blocks and printed in two or three colours on the special rice-paper brought from Japan .sx The traditional leather work of the women was also brought into use for a method of printing :sx the skins were cut to form stencils , and paint or ink was forced through the apertures on to a sheet of paper .sx The usual Eskimo pigments , two colours only , consist of a rich black made from the glutinous residue found at the bottom of seal-oil lamps , and a brownish-red obtained from local deposits of iron rust .sx Both pigments are reduced with seal oil to a suitable brushing consistency .sx To give the print-makers a fuller palette , other paints have now been imported , and the Eskimo artists are enjoying the use of blue for the first time in their history .sx One famous craftsman and hunter , Niviaksiak , made a dramatic stencilled design of a polar bear and her cub emerging from a steely-blue hole in the ice .sx Unfortunately this gifted artist was killed while on a seal-hunt soon afterwards .sx THE ESKIMOS , like the crofter folk in the Hebridean islands , are no longer content to live entirely upon the produce of their land and sea .sx Hudson Bay posts carry stocks of manufactured goods which the Eskimo families find highly desirable- such as woollen duffle cloth for light summer clothing in place of the heavier skin garments .sx But hitherto the only produce they have been able to trade for goods has been the white fox pelt , and the catch fluctuates to such an extent- from 4,000 skins in a good season to 200 in a bad one- that the income from this source has always been precarious .sx The Government scheme to export and sell Eskimo carvings and prints is therefore of some importance in the economy of the people .sx At present it affects a comparatively small group in the Cape Dorset area , but it will probably spread to other communities .sx As the Eskimo artists are self-critical , and their work is being fostered with knowledge and sympathy , it is not in any danger of becoming vulgarised by commercial exploitation .sx Their traditional dislike of repetition has been linked to the newly introduced printing techniques , for only ten or twelve impressions are taken from each set of blocks or stencils before these are destroyed .sx As a result of this wise limitation , the supply of Eskimo pictures will not flood the market .sx Already demands are coming in from private collectors and galleries all over the world , and it is known that UNICEF plans to issue an Arctic design as a Christmas card next year .sx CARIBOU , MUSK-OX , polar bear , snow-goose , walrus and seal- all the familiar life around them is studied and reproduced by the Eskimo hunters with keenness of observation and economy of line .sx