Saturday, February 21, 2009

Inuksuk in Vancouver


Hi folks, I hope you are enjoying the weekend.
Sadly, my parents had to have their lovely yellow Lab, Lucy put to rest yesterday due to a serious health condition. Please stop by and leave them your thoughts by clicking on this highlighted text.
Today we went down to Vancouver. It was a glorious sunshine filled day. There was still enough of a chill on the air to remind us it is still winter, especially by the water. But the suns warmth felt really nice on my face.
We parked at English Bay and walked the 10KM right around the Stanley Park Seawall (http://vancouver.ca/parks/parks/stanley/), then walked a couple more KM right along Denman street to get back where we started. It felt wonderful to finally get out together and enjoy our local beauty. We were out the whole day.
These pictures all have the inuksuck in them. From tiny ones made of large pebbles to the huge statue. This symbol is becoming synonymous with Vancouver as it is on all the 2010 winter Olympic promotional material. Learn more about it from this write up that I borrowed from wikipidia.
The following text was copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inukshuk
An inuksuk (plural inuksuit) [1] (from the Inuktitut: ᐃᓄᒃᓱᒃ, plural ᐃᓄᒃᓱᐃᑦ; alternatively inukshuk in English[2] or inukhuk in Inuinnaqtun[3]) is a man-made stone landmark or cairn, used by the Inuit, Inupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America, from Alaska to Greenland. This region, above the Arctic Circle, is dominated by the tundra biome, containing areas with few natural landmarks.
The inuksuk may have been used for navigation, as a point of reference, a marker for hunting grounds, or as a food cache.
[4] The Inupiat in northern Alaska used inuksuit to assist in the herding of caribou into contained areas for slaughter.[5] Inuksuit vary in shape and size, with deep roots in the Inuit culture.
Historically the most common type of inuksuit are a single stone positioned in an upright manner.
[6] An inuksuk is often confused with an inunnguaq, a cairn representing a human figure. There is some debate as to whether the appearance of human or cross shaped cairns developed in the Inuit culture before the arrival of European missionaries and explorers.[6
The word inuksuk means "something which acts for or performs the function of a person." The word comes from the morphemes inuk ("person") and -suk ("ersatz" or "substitute"). It is pronounced inutsuk in Nunavik and the southern part of Baffin Island (see Inuit language phonology and phonetics for the linguistic reasons). In many of the central Nunavut dialects, it has the etymologically related name inuksugaq (plural: inuksugait).
Despite the predominant English spelling as inukshuk, both the Government of Nunavut
[7] and the Government of Canada through Indian and Northern Affairs Canada [8] are promoting the Inuit preferred spelling inuksuk.

4 comments:

Bobbie said...

The weather really has been nice, and perfect for a walk along the Seawall. Great photos!

Penny said...

What a lovely place to live. Since I am surrounded by ice and snow, it makes me wonder why I am still living here.

Outhouse Capital of Canada said...

At first, I thought you spelt it wrong until I read further, sounds like you had a nice day.
Thanks for your comment regarding Lucy.

Anonymous said...

Fascinating Susan!I like your "winter". We are in the midst of another snow storm this morning. The plows are pulled off the road due to drifting and reduced visablity. So I'm not heading out to the country this morning! But this afternoon I'll be walking over to the store to work, when Mr.&Mrs. Boss are able to get there.
Have a great day!
Hugs, Faye