Out With My Mudgjigging Board

My Mudgjigging board and a bucket with blubber

Its spring time in Kallunasilik (Newfoundland). The ice has moved out of the bay and its very mild. This time of year marks the beginning of the seal hunting season to many people.That has been the way here for thousands of years.

Many people will take to the ice in their boats to hunt seals for their meat and skin. I am one of those hunters carrying on a very ancient tradition and to help satisfy a longing for traditional food. I do admit that seals are cute creatures but like all creatures they serve a purpose. I have noticed in the past few years seals are getting quite plentiful which is a good sign. But I also have noticed that seals do not have very much fat stored under their skin. To me thats a sign that the seals are not getting the same amount of food. Its concerns me because in recent years the seal hunt has declined and it means that the seal population has increased. The increased seal population has put more stress on other fish species. The stress on those fish species may result in a smaller diet of fish for the seals and thus resulting in the reduced blubber in under their skin. Basically with all things on this great earth require a balance and when that balance is disrupted the results can be rather unfortunate.

But when I do harvest seals there are lots of elders who love to have some of the meat and I enjoy it myself especially the old Newfoundland favorite flipper pie. But its not only the meat that i use on these animals. I also use the skin and other parts of the seal.

I obtained a large Kaigulik or Harp seal pelt. The skin of a mature harp is very distinct with a harp shape pattern on its back. So now it was time to get out my Mudgjigging board. Mudgjigging board is a name used by the Southern Inuit of NunatuKavut. The mudgjigging board is just a flat piece of board in my case plywood which I use to place my seal skin on as i scrape the fat off of it. Inuit women would use a flat board like this to lay their seal skin on and they would use their ulu to scrape and slice fat off of the seal skin.


I used both stone and metal ulus to clean the pelt. The stone worked good slicing through the fat but i had some time constraints and was a little bit rushed so i finished most of it with my metal ulu and skinning knife.I now have most of the blubber and tissue off of the seal pelt. I wish i had more pictures but it was just me around cleaning the seal skin and i was not about to put my blubber covered hand on my camera.  But i so have a picture of the seal skin hung on my shed. I will scrape it again to get harder to remove tissue. I will wash it a few times and let it dry and bleach white in the sun.

Harp seal pelt alongside a beaver pelt

Then I have endless possibilities....Maybe make a pair of Kamiks.

Hopefully in the near future i will use a stone ulu to skin and clean a seal pelt and compare it to the metal ulu.

Now its off to dig some roots for some birch bark work. But I also have some ideas such as a Beothuk style dip net.