Family members identify 2nd unknown voice on CBC North podcast

A second, unidentified voice on a CBC North podcast has been identified by the speaker's family members.

An old and familiar tale among Inuit about a creature named Qallupilluk was retold by an elder and recorded by CBC decades ago. The creature would capture children and pull them into sea, in a tale that's meant to discourage kids from playing on floating ice.

After several years, the record of who told that story was lost.

But recently, after that recording was featured on the eight-episode CBC North podcast series called Inuit Unikkaangit, which features storytellers from across the Nunavut and Nunavik, the woman telling the story was identified by her family members.

Mary Powder, host of the podcast, has been digitizing decades worth of CBC content in Inuktitut. 

Three of the storytellers were unknown when the episodes were first released, and this is the second voice to be named since then. 

Earlier this year, a family in Nunavut discovered their late father's voice on the podcast.

And now, the storyteller of the Qallupilluk tale has also been identified.

Her name was Koonoo Ipirq. Powder was recently able to connect with some of her family members, who said she died in the late 1980s.

Oleepika Anaviapik Soucie, who also goes by Rebecca, is a family friend and a cousin of Ipirq.

She told Powder, in Inuktitut, that Ipirq was "able to tell great stories, she was neutral when telling stories." 

"She sang really well too. I'd like to get more stories about her," she added.

Soucie said her family knew Ipirq well; Ipirq's younger sister Martha Qaunaq, and her brother Moses Uyukuluk are also Soucie's cousins.

"We were a close-knit family and she was always welcoming," Soucie said.

Annie Ipirq is Koonoo Ipirq's daughter, and has been living in Iqaluit for more than two decades. 

"It's a good reminder to never forget these stories," she told Powder in Inuktitut. "Our ancestors do not lie about their knowledge and stories."