'We were never cold at night.' Anna Samisack shows how igloos were set up for living and sleeping
The Inuk woman from Inukjuak, Que., was born in an igloo.
"I was born on the territory, and since it was December, I was born in an igloo," says Anna Samisack.
The video above, which shows Samisack sitting in an igloo, is from the documentary series Telling Our Story. It offers an Indigenous perspective on the past, present and future from the 11 First Peoples in Quebec.
She shows the part of the igloo that was reserved for the bed, and explains how her family slept on caribou skins. "We were never cold at night," she says.
How to build an igloo
An igloo starts with a row of blocks, called umaluq, which is slanted inward so the wall eventually forms a dome.
The blocks are carefully shaped by hand so they'll fit together and won't fall.
In Telling Our Story, two Inuk men demonstrate how to build an igloo. "If you don't take your time to build an igloo, you'll have mediocre results," one of them says.
