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- Title
"Siqqitiq" (Crossing Over): Paradoxes of Conversion in "The Journals of Knud Rasmussen."
- Authors
MacRae, Ian J.
- Abstract
Igloolik Isuma's second feature film, "The Journals of Knud Rasmussen," received its world premiere in Igloolik on 12 March 2006. In the words of director Zacharias Kunuk, Journals "tries to answer two questions that haunted me my whole life: Who were we? And what happened to us?" The film tells of a vital period in Iglulingmiut cultural history, when powerful external forces converged in Northern Foxe Basin, and when the Iglulingmiut, who knew how to believe, changed the contents of their songs and stories, what they believe. They also changed their ceremonies of belief, particularly the songs and stories associated with the ritual of conversion to Christianity known as siqqitiq, with which the film ends at Igloolik. This essay draws from the disciplines of ethnography, film criticism, comparative religious studies, oral history, and the writing of J. Edward Chamberlin to analyze and discuss the tensions, contradictions, and apocalyptic uncoverings that inform this historical film, and in particular the life story of the camp leader Avva, an actual historical figure who banishes his helping spirits and rejoins his community at film's end.
- Subjects
JOURNALS of Knud Rasmussen, The (Film); KUNUK, Zacharias; IGLULINGMUIT; CONVERSION (Religion); CHAMBERLIN, J. Edward; CULTURAL fusion
- Publication
Journal of Canadian Studies, 2012, Vol 46, Issue 2, p263
- ISSN
0021-9495
- Publication type
Essay