Qulliq and ukkusik
A qulliq oil lamp and a separate ukkusik cooking pot form an Inuit heat-processing pair. Sources document soapstone forms, animal-oil lighting and cooking uses, and museum objects from the Eastern Arctic.
Equipment · Skins and bladders
Seal-skin kiviaq pouch
kiviaq seal-skin bag · kiviak pouch
At Siorapaluk in northwestern Greenland, a seal hide is documented as a flexible, sewn vessel for kiviaq. Local accounts show the pouch made from a whole skin and buried beneath stones; its dimensions and capacity are not recorded.
A whole hide made into a vessel
The kiviaq pouch documented at Siorapaluk is a flexible seal-hide enclosure, not a seal stomach or intestinal casing. In the local account, a whole skin is emptied of its head, tail, limbs and internal organs, leaving a hide that can be filled and sewn. This makes a broad, soft bag whose size follows the harvested skin rather than a standard manufactured shape.
The hide is the vessel wall. Thick thread joins openings at the former limb positions, while seal blubber is described around the sewn openings. The accounts give no pattern, seam measurements, exact closure design, dimensions or measured capacity. A single described pouch therefore cannot establish a universal Inuit or Greenlandic template.
The Siorapaluk record
The most specific documentation here comes from Siorapaluk in northwestern Greenland. A Visit Greenland account follows a named local maker preparing kiviaq and records one pouch made for that occasion. Its size determined how many little auks it held, and once filled it was heavy enough for two adults to carry. That observation conveys the scale and flexibility of the hide vessel without turning one maker's batch into a standard capacity.
Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann also describes a Siorapaluk kiviaq and discusses the hide as a vessel for seabirds. The accounts support the same basic form while preserving local specificity; they do not establish one design for every community or occasion. Hauptmann's sewing example uses guillemot (appa); she distinguishes appa kiviaq from little-auk appaliearsuk kiviaq, so the pouch is not specific to one seabird.
A portable pouch in a shallow burial
After filling and sewing, the pouch is documented beneath stones. Hauptmann describes it placed in a very shallow pit in the ground, with the sewn areas covered in seal blubber and rocks above. The Visit Greenland account likewise records a filled bag buried under stones. The hide pouch remains a portable object; the ground feature is a separate, site-made part of the arrangement.
The accounts give no standard depth, stone layout, soil profile or measured size. They support the relationship between the hide vessel, ground and stones, not a fixed excavation plan. One photograph also shows the stuffed hide resting on a modern crate; that support is not part of the described traditional pouch.
Scale and practical limits
The documented pouch is sized by its hide, and the reported number of birds varies with that skin's size. No capacity in litres, dimensions, maker's specification, current buying route or care instructions are given. The accounts describe a specific North Greenlandic use and do not establish that all Inuit communities make kiviaq in the same way.
The cited Siorapaluk accounts describe this hide pouch as the vessel used to prepare kiviaq. This page describes the pouch as equipment and does not turn a local account into a general preparation guide.
History
Contemporary local accounts document this vessel in Siorapaluk but do not establish when the practice began.
Equipment details
CapacityThe accounts give no measured volume; the number of birds depends on the size of the seal skin.
SizeThe accounts give no measured dimensions for the pouch.
PowerNo power This portable hide vessel is unpowered.
How you get oneGathered or grown A local account documents a seal hide transformed into the pouch; it does not describe a market or commercial source.
CareThe accounts do not document cleaning, maintenance or storage of an empty hide pouch.
Made of
- Seal hide — pouch wall
The local account describes a whole hide shaped into a bag; it is not an intestinal or stomach casing. - Thick thread — sewing
Named for joining the pouch openings in the Siorapaluk account. - Seal blubber — covering at sewn openings
Blubber is described around the sewn openings; no general lining is documented.
Places
Siorapaluk
Documented use · Locality evidenceBoth sources describe kiviaq practice in Siorapaluk; locality is documented use, not universal origin.
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Sources
Visit GreenlandHistory · Form · Use · Geography
Discover Siorapaluk: Greenland’s northernmost settlement and the traditional delicacy KiviaqA named Siorapaluk account describes seal skin transformed into a bag after the head, tail, limbs and internal organs are removed.
The hide bag's size determines the number of little auks it can hold; a particular bag in the account was heavy enough for two adults to carry.
The account describes thick thread sewing, seal blubber around the sewn openings, and a filled pouch buried under stones.
Cited in: A whole hide made into a vessel; The Siorapaluk record; A portable pouch in a shallow burial; Scale and practical limits
FermentologyHistory · Form · Use · Imagery
Inuit Fermentation: Animal-Based & ArchaicHauptmann discusses a kiviaq made in Siorapaluk using a seal skin filled with seabirds and sewn closed.
Her account describes a shallow pit in the ground, stitched parts covered in seal blubber, and rocks placed above.
The page credits kiviaq images to Daniel Hauptmann, © Aviaja Hauptmann, and states a CC BY 4.0 license.
The sewing example is guillemot (appa) kiviaq; the account distinguishes it from little-auk appaliearsuk kiviaq.
Cited in: A whole hide made into a vessel; The Siorapaluk record; A portable pouch in a shallow burial; Scale and practical limits