Spirituality & Religious StudiesIjiraq
In the Inuit religion, an ijiraq is a shapeshifting creature said to kidnap kids, hide them away, & abandon them. The inuksuk (or inukshuk) of stone allows these kids to find their way if they can convince the ijiraq to let them go.
In North Baffin dialects, ijiraq means shapeshifter. While Tariaksuq appears like a half-man-half-caribou monster, an ijiraq can appear in any form it chooses, making it particularly deceptive. Their eyes will always stay red, no matter what they shape shift into.
Their real form is just like a human, but their eyes & mouth are sideways. The book of Dutch writer Floorje Zwigtman says only the shaman knows the real form the ijiraq.
When you’re hunting somewhere that ijirait (plural), you’ll see them in the corner of your eye for a fleeting moment (like tariaksuq, “shadow people”). If you try to observe them directly however, they’re completely elusive. They’re sometimes helpful, sometimes fatally deceptive.
One of the most noted places in the Arctic for sightings of these shape shifters (& tariaksuq) is the Freeman’s Cove area of Tuktusirvik (place to hunt caribou), Bathurst Island. This rich oasis is surrounded in a horseshoe pattern by dormant volcanic mountains.
Ijirant is said to inhabit a place between 2 worlds. It’s not quite out of it. Inuit further held on to a belief that some Inuit went too far north in the chase for game. They became trapped between the world of the dead & the world of the living. Thus become the ijirait.
According to the small handful of surviving elders in the South Baffin Region that knew these beliefs, the Inuit that are settled in Resolute & Grise Fiord are these shapeshifters, or shadow people, because they went too far north.
Some elders will avoid being in the presence of extreme-northern Inuit, fearing they’re evil Ijirait or Tariaksuq. The home of the Ijirait is said to be cursed, & 1 will lose their way, no matter how skilled or familiar with the land.
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#Arctic #BathurstIsland #Caribou #Dutch #FloortjeZwigtman #FreemanSCove #Ijirait #Ijiraq #Inuit #Inukshuk #Inuksuk #NorthBaffin #ResoluteGriseFiord #ShadowPeople #Shaman #Shapeshifters #SouthBaffinRegion #Tariaksuq #Tuktusirvik
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