Bringing Ancient Knowledges Home
All costumes, props, and sets for Atanarjuat were handmade by local artists and elders based on meticulously researched traditional knowledge, drawing both on Inuit oral history and the journals of Captain William Edward Parry, leader of the British expedition to Igloolik in 1822-23.
From sketches and notes in the journal and from the remembrances of elders, the filmmakers were able to re-construct the look and feel of nomadic Inuit life pre-dating contact with European or Southern culture. In those days, women bore elaborate facial tatoos and beautifully braided hair. They used ulu's (curved women's knives) with blades of bone. Men constructed qamutiks (sleds) from caribou antlers and sinew.
In many ways, the artistic research and production for the film was a re-appropriation of ancient knowledges from Southern museums and books - a means of bringing traditional skills and technologies back to the Inuit of Igloolik.
The crew of the film (prop-makers, seamstresses, set designers) put into practice or re-learned traditional skills to make old-fashioned hunting implements, exquisite costumes made from animal skins, sleds, qajaqs, tents, and igloos. In this way, the film, like other Isuma productions, played a significant role in maintaining these traditions as living knowledge for future generations of Inuit.