h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Inukshuk - A939530
Author: anhaga - U215480

Just a factual little entry.

Short, sweet and quite moving. Perhaps a little more about the new Canadian Territory and the Inktitut language would help.

I've added a little more in the way of footnotes and links, but I think the subjects of Inuktitut and Nunavut merit there own entries.

anhaga

Very good. I like it.

Fascinating

I'm a little confused, the description says piled, but then the impression I'm getting from the rest of the article is of a two dimensional figure laid on the ground. Is that just me ?

I must have missed that particular "friendly-fire" incident, given the Iraqi situation, and England being so adjacent, I'd better paint a red cross on the roof.

I've got to get a picture into this. The stones are piled. The stones in the arctic tend to be flat stones like slate. The Inuksuks consist of either a single stack or a pair of stacks side by side with a large stone acting as a cross piece topped by another stack of stones so that the whole thing looks like a person standing with arms outstretched. The one the soldiers built in Kandahar was held together with mortar to make it permanent, but in the arctic its all just dry stone.
As to the "friendly-fire" (stupid term) incident, the two pilots are right now going through a preliminary hearing for a possible court-martial on charges of dereliction of duty, manslaughter, asault, etc. If you'd like to follow it go to http://www.cbc.ca/news. It's updated several times a day.

anhaga

Now I get it - I couldn't see how the figure was pointing if it was just stacked rocks.

I agree a ridiculous oxymoron - thanks for the link.

McKay:

I just added a link to a rather unsatisfactory picture of the inukshuk in Kandahar.

anhaga

Thanks again - the figures are not as basic as I was imagining them - then again I am of VERY limited artistic ability. It does make it a lot clearer.

There's a better picture of an inukshuk at http://www.sentex.net/~jimb/images/inukshuk.jpg

I don't think there should be a link to the CBC article in the entry, though.

If I recall correctly, there is/was an ad on tv (in Canada) about them. They were built to let people know that someone else had been there, too.

Not too far from where I live (Ottawa, Canada), people build inuksuit in the river at the shore.

Gordon:

Thanks for the picture. I had a bugger of a time finding one and finally just put the kandahar link in as I had it. I've put the picture you suggested in instead.

There's an Inuksuk on a streetcorner just a few blocks from my house. It's about ten feet tall, right there on the sidewalk. Been there for years. The Inuksuk's ten feet tall, not my house. My house has been here for years too.

anhaga

Where do you live that there's an inuksuk on a streetcorner?

I guess the obvious response would be Kandahar, Afghanistan, but it's actually A363098

anhaga

Cool!

typical of people who live near "cool" things, I don't know why it's there or when it appeared. It's always been "Oh, there's the inukshuk. Where should we eat?" It's right there on Whyte Avenue, probably the busiest shopping, eating, partying, pedestrian street in town. It's also where we had a rather unfortunate riot one night. But the Inukshuk made it through.

Gordon:

Just to show it's really there, here's a picture:
http://community.webshots.com/image2/2/41/74/43324174jEzuDO_ph.jpg

anhaga

That's a nice little read - I like it a lot.

1) Are there any 'famous' examples of inuksuit ... like they've been in films or music-videos or anything?

2) In-uck-suck or In-ook-sook?

DMT

Dr. Trout:

1)not that I know of, although Susan Aglukark may have one in one of her videos
2) in-ook-shook is most often sighted, although in my experience the vowels are pronounced farther back in the mouth, toward in-uk-shuk. Somewhere in between.

Okay, now I've thought of how to put it: inukshuk rhymes with "Finn took look" not with "Tin buck suck". Does that make sense?

And Susan Aglukark has at least one inukshuk on her web page: http://www.susanaglukark.com/

anhaga