PUAQRISI / PUAQRIJAUTI, snow shovel

Geolocation

Relations

Item Relations

This Item (Often) part of the same series as : Item: TUPIRJUK, tent
Item: TUPIRJUK, tent (Often) part of the same series as This Item

Graphical representation of this item’s relations

Citation

Céline Petit, “PUAQRISI / PUAQRIJAUTI, snow shovel,” String figures, accessed February 24, 2026, https://stringfigures.huma-num.fr/items/show/344.
  • Overall presentation

  • Name : PUAQRISI / PUAQRIJAUTI, snow shovel

  • Creator : Céline Petit

  • Contributor(s) : Herve PANIAQ, Iglulik, Nunavut, Canada
    Susan AVINNGAQ, Iglulik
    Madeleine AUQSAQ, Iglulik
    Margaret Sunak KIPSIGAQ, Iglulik
    Mary Niriungniq QULIKTALIK, Iglulik

  • Date : 2004-2021

  • Information on the string figure

    • General presentation of the string figure

    In the Iglulik area, this string figure depicts a snow shovel, PUAQRISI or PUAQRIJAUTI. It results from the transformation of the figure of the tent, TUPIRJUK.
    The figure of the snow shovel was recorded in many different Inuit groups, either with this meaning (in the Canadian Arctic or central regions of the Inuit continuum), or under a name referring to the launching of a bird spear or to a throwing stick (in Alaska and in Greenland).

    Construction method (ISFA)

    Make the tent, TUPIRJUK.
    (= 1. Position 1.
    2. R2 passes over L palmar string and hooks it up, rotating away from the body and up then towards the body and up, two to four times. Extend to the right.
    3. L2 enters R2 loop from above and picks up the R palmar string, returning then through R2 loop. Extend.
    4. Release R1 and R5 loops, and extend while turning hands so that the palm of the LH faces upward and the palm of the RH faces downward. This is the tent).
    Then:
    5. Release R2 loop. R2 removes L2 loop from L2, by seizing L2n and pulling it to the right. Insert R345, from the far side, into R2 loop while extending. The sliding loop (with a triangular shape) is the snow shovel, PUAQRISI.

    Close references (bibliography)

    "Nuyaγαna aqaväγa - he has launched his duck spear" (Barrow, northern Alaska), "poäλ·äγin - snow shovel" (Coronation gulf, Canada), Jenness 1924: 163, CXLII, fig. 214. Slightly different method. (See Wirt & al. 2009: 238-239).
    "Poakisiղ - snow shovel" (Craig Harbour-Tununirmiut), "niva·taq - the snow shovel" or "nɔrsaq - the throwing board" (Upernavik), "nɔrsaq - the throwing board" (Ubekendt Island, Egedesminde), Paterson 1949: 21-22, fig. 19b.
  • Item references

  • Key words : String figure; String game; Inuit; Iglulik; Eastern Canada; Arctic

  • Publisher : Laboratory SPHERE (UMR 7219, University of Paris & CNRS)

  • Rights : Creative Commons / Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA

  • Language : Inuktitut ; English

  • Location : Iglulik (Igloolik), Nunavut, Canada

  • Description : Iglulingmiut (Amitturmiut) Inuit string figure (Nunavut, Canada): symbolism, method of construction, references to the same figure as documented among different Inuit groups (Alaska, Canada, Greenland)

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