Caribou Skin Preparation

…And Why it is Important

By Carla Paungrat, Caitlind Paungrat and Charles Martee

Preparing Caribou Skins

• Preparing caribou skin is hard work• Long ago, girls learned to prepare caribou skin when they were ready to learn this skill

Importance of Preparation

• Preparing caribou skins was important for survival of Inuit.

• Sometimes boys and men would help to scrape or stretch skins if necessary

How were skins used?

• Skins were used for clothing such as kamiks, parkas, pants, and mitts

• They were also used for tents, containers, sled runners, drums and many other useful items

Caribou Clothing• Caribou clothing is warm because each caribou

hair has honeycomb-like cells. The hairs trap air and act as insulators

Tools Used For Skin Preparation

• Some of the tools needed to prepare skins are Tasiuktirut, Tusiuktirut, Ipiksaut, Iktuksit, Hakuut, and Ulu

• Traditionally these were made of bone, stone, and occasionally metal if it was found

Skin Preparation: First Steps* Be prepared for sore muscles!

• 1. Dry the skin• 2. Work overly dried areas• 3. Curing the Epidermal Layer• 4. Fracturing or cracking the Epidermal layer• 5. Wetting the Mami (we used a spray bottle)• 6. Folding the skin• 7. Seeping• 8. First Stretching

Stretching

Last Steps in Caribou Skin Preparation

• 9. Chewing• 10. Scraping to remove the Hypodermis• 11. Slight dampening• 12. Final stretching• 13. Aligning the sides• 14. Marking the middle• 15. The completed middle line • 16. Folded skins

The Caribou Skin Turns White as it is Prepared

Do People Still Prepare Caribou Skins?

• Caribou skins are still prepared today• They are used to make warm clothing, blankets, and sleeping bags for the land

Thank You