shucks …

Or “Inukshuks” to be precise. I refer to a potent symbol for both physical and spiritual guidance, that Jebs and I encountered in a wide variety of forms during our pilgrimage through the Rockies … and which has left me pondering what might perhaps be a Christian equivalent?

“Inukshuk” (plural Inuksuit) is an Inuit term meaning “in the role of a man.”

It describes a guiding cairn of flat stones, traditionally used by peoples all across the Arctic region of North America. For generations these signs have played a vital role in the tundra of northern Canada, which otherwise has few natural distinguishing features or landmarks for travellers to steer by

But they aren’t only found in the frozen north. This recent structure faces the ocean from Vancouver beach, having been specially erected to serve as the symbol for the 2010 Winter Olympics

Like this example, some inuksuit are taller than two men together, while others are no higher than the mere thickness of a slab of stone. The most common are around four feet high, simply because that’s how high the rock can easily be lifted

No-one knows when they were first placed on the landscape. But the oral history of the Inuit honours their ancient inuksuit as being “built by those who prepared the land for our ancestors” - the first Arctic inhabitants having arrived some 4500 years ago …

It is common for these figures to have one longer arm, indicating the direction to travel; or they may occasionally have a hole to look through, to guide to the next cairn in a series, or towards a navigation star. Others might simply stand where there is a safe place to enter a bay, or ford a river :

Before a journey the traveller was traditionally helped by one of the elders, to commit to memory the particular inuksuit they would need to recognise on their way, perhaps in the form of a song to learn by heart

This would then help them find food caches for example; or where to look for seals or migrating salmon & caribou to hunt; or they might show the site of a spring hidden from view; or danger from likely depth of snow or fog; or the entrance to a narrow pass, or the site of an emergency shelter

We came across this small inukshuk in the Rockies, clearly of only recent construction - but appropriately marking a major point of continental divide (the watershed that empties to Pacific on one side & Atlantic on the other)

Recently the inukshuk symbol has struck a resounding popular chord in Canadian culture, adorning baseball caps, coffee mugs, fridge magnets & T shirts, and meaning gift shops eagerly stack models next to the maple syrup

Meanwhile the rangers in various wilderness parks routinely dismantle inuksuit constructed by hikers and campers, for fear that they could misdirect visitors from the markers that indicate genuine trails

This was a big problem in Old Testament times too : Deuteronomy 27 v.17 is one of several dire biblical warnings announcing “Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbour’s landmark. And all the people shall say Amen"

As a result I guess I should probably offer a public apology for my own perky little effort here (I promise you Mr. Ranger sir, we didn’t mean to redirect any caribou hunt - just to point the way safely back to the car park)

The sad irony in all this is that fascination with inuksuit comes at time when the wisdom & tradition of their original creators is fast dying out. And without an elder to guide interpretation, all inuksuit become just a meaningless pile of rocks - rather like this travesty outside a Vancouver downtown hotel

Such a parody compares sadly with the real thing, as one western traveller who has himself been taught by Inuit vividly describes it : “When moving on the land under all sorts of conditions, I regarded a looming inuksuk as I would a protective parent or a beloved teacher”

And worse, there is a spiritual dimension to true inuksuit that is now entirely missing. At a basic level they are valuable symbols of inter-dependence & friendship between fellow travellers; however in addition the Inuit have always used inuksuit to mark their most important spiritual places too

The author I read had conducted many interviews about the spiritual significance of inuksuit, only to find elders reluctant to divulge any religious meaning to outsiders. Often it was simply denied, but at other times he received the intriguing and side-stepping response “Ah - choo?” … which (rather than being a polite Inuit sneeze) simply means “Who knows?”

He concludes that many are in fact traditional objects of veneration, sited at holy places where great respect is called for. Here is one haunting example, recounted back in the 1920s by an Inuit hunter called Manelaq :

In Spring, when there is water between the winter ice and the shore, big shoals of salmon follow along the land just at Nuveteroq, and they are speared with the leister and caught in large numbers. But one must be careful about fishing like this from the ice if one has no kayak; for once water appears along the shore and the ice in Qukitlroq begins to drift backwards and forwards before the changing winds, it might easily go out to sea.

Once all the men at Kamigluk went hunting for caribou and only the women were left. The men urged them not to fish for salmon from the edge of the ice, but the women did so just the same, with the result that they drifted out to sea with the ice. Suddenly the ice went adrift and they dared not jump ashore; there was only one who took the risk, and she was saved. All the others went out to sea and were lost. So pitiable were their cries and screams out on the drifting ice that from a distance it sounded like the howls of terrified foxes.

But when the men came home they sorrowed so deeply over the loss of their women that they built inuksuit up on the shore, just as many cairns as there were women lost. They did this because they wanted these inuksuit to be seen by people, and because they wanted the souls of the drowned women to be on dry land and not out on the wet sea. All the inuksuit at Kamigluk are from this event"

How deeply moving, he says speaking as one whose wife also recently floated off to another continent … and seriously, how important that those inuksuit are still treated with genuine respect

To conclude for now, you may recall that this post began by wondering whether there is any Christian equivalent of inukshuk : a sign “in the role of a man” that can be our guide?

I’ll close by sending much love to all, and leaving you that question to ponder yourself for a while - aided & inspired perhaps by this passionate ‘Celtic’ prayer, addressed to “Thou alone which art” …