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.

Beaver Catching

Tomorrow will mark the end of the trapping season here for this year in the island portion of the province. Trapping has always been very important in my family. Some of my European Ancestors came to Labrador to work as traders and trappers for the Hudson Bay Company. My Great Great Great Grandmother Lydia was Inuk and she married Daniel Campbell who came over from the Orkney Islands to work with the Hudson Bay Company.

Lydia Campbell also wrote a personal account of life on Labrador

Going down through the generations my family was fisherman and trappers. But trapping in my grandfathers day is much different then now. His generation was the last of the long line trappers. My grandfather would travel far into the country leaving in the fall returning for Christmas and then leaving again sometime after to return in the spring. Now I can cover a full trapline in one day on ski-doo or pick-up. The traps and snares we use today is much different then the traps in the past. All my snares and my traps are quick killing. When I take an animal I do it with respect. I would not like for any animal to suffer.

This year I did not get to trap as I usually do. But I had to make sure that I utilized by Beaver trapline to its full potential. Beaver are clever creatures and often you can see their lodges in ponds, steadies and marshes as you travel across Newfoundland. They often create problems by damming off culverts and causing flooding to roads and chewing down trees in peoples back yards. Also they can pollute water with the Beaver Fever. So to help with these problems its important to manage the Beaver population by trapping.

A Beaver swimming across the pond during the summer.

Its pretty easy to spot Beaver sign they often time chew down large birch and aspen trees, make large dams to flood ponds and marshes to protect their lodges. The beaver build their dam and lodges out of sticks and mud. Many people wonder, how do they carry mud around? These creatures take the mud in their mouth and carry it from place to place. Outside of the Beaver lodge you will often see trees and sticks strewn about in a pile. This is what we call a "browse" pile here in the local dialect. This pile of sticks is the beavers food. They love the bark and tender young shoots of birch and aspen. In the winter they will come out of their house to feed on this.

A active Beaver house. Notice the dark thin ice around the house and the twigs sticking up through the ice which is their food.

So when your trapping you want to find the beavers run. Which is often marked by bubbles and thin ice. You can set a killer trap in this lead or a snare. Some people will use fresh aspen or birch to lure the Beaver into the trap. Its tough work, cutting through the ice looking for leads and setting the trap.
Then after you catch the Beaver it comes time to skin the animal. I have a couple of knives for this purpose but last week i decided to try some stone age technology. I recently made some new slate ulus. Ulu are also known as Uluk in the Inuttut Language is the womans knife. Its half moon shape makes it perfect for case skinning creatures like beaver or seals. So i sharpened my stone knife and went to work.

Skinning beaver with slate ulu

I skinned the animal with the ulu cutting through the fat to free the skin. Beaver are somewhat like seals they often have a large quantity of fat but the beaver i tried it on did not have much fat. The ulu worked perfect slicing through the fat and membrane to free the skin. That was only part of the work. Now comes the fleshing. I just used a piece of board free of any bumps or knots which i stretch the skin across and I scrape and slice the flesh. Again the ulu worked really well. It easily sliced through the fat and membrane taking it off. The knife would bring up on the actual skin. This made it easy to protect the skin from cuts.

Overall the ulu worked well i have a metal one similar to my grandmothers. But when it came to the fat on the lower section of the skin the fat was tough and it required a greater deal of force. I can't wait for sealing season to open so i can try it on a seal!

My Uncle out on his trapline many moons ago. Notice the beaver lodge behind.

Atelihai! Welcome to my blog

Soapstone Koolik (lamp)

Well, hello everyone! My name is Desmond Canning. For those of you who don't know me I am Southern Inuit and a member of NunatuKavut (Inuttut for our ancient land). I grew up in Newfoundland (my father being from Labrador) but was very intune with our culture. It was something that my father taught to me since i was very young. some of my earliest memories is out on the land learning how to build a "bowiffin" a shelter made of evergreen boughs, hunting and fishing. To me our culture is very important and even more important to pass it on. In this day of modern technology i am going to try and unite the old ways with the new.
If you have any questions of feedback please let me know.