Free Our Story: Aboriginal Voices on Canada's Past by Tantoo Cardinal

slave, like me. Seasons went by, and I became sickened with it all. I started to tease Angula. I told him, sometimes, that I would tell the Shining One how Angula was keeping him from being rescued. Angula beat me terribly for this, threatened to kill me.He was scared. Not only was he keeping the Shining One captive, but he had also stripped the bodies of the Shining One’s dead companions. He had told the Shining One that they and their
kannujaq
implements had been lost to the sea. But he had actually kept the
kannujaq
tools, hiding them away safely.
    â€œIn time, the Shining One grew into the Tunit community. He even began to treat me kindly. But I was always tempted to tell him the truth about Angula.
    â€œThen a night came when the Shining One and I were quarrelling. All of my hate came out somehow, made my mouth move on its own. I told him the truth. I told him everything. Everything.”
    Siaq went silent for some time.
    â€œHe never spoke after that,” she said. “He never looked at me. Not at Angula. Not at the Tunit. Angula became scared. But he was relieved when the Shining One slipped away one day. No one saw him go. Maybe he sighted one of the ships of his people.
    â€œIt wasn’t long before Angula started showing his
kannujaq
treasures around, claiming that spirits had given them to him, that he had special powers. He had learned that wealth can buy people. He began to lend his treasures out, in return for loyalty. In this way did he enslave everyone.
    â€œBut Angula had made a mistake, for the Shining One was no normal man. He was a leader among his own kind. Angula had only a few years to enjoy his power before the Shining One returned. And he brought the Siaraili. He sent out his giants to punish the Tunit shore encampments, laughing, killing, always searching for Angula and his stolen artifacts. Others died, but Angula escaped every time. Angula became mad, paranoid, trying to hold onto his waning power. He claimed that the sea raiders were punishing the community for disobeying him.
    â€œIn time, every Tunik in that camp was killed or scattered. Angula survived, fleeing to a new Tunit community—this one. I and Siku, who was smaller then, came with him. Here, over the next few years, it was easy for Angula to buy himself authority with his stolen artifacts. And the whole thing started again.”
    Siaq was weeping openly by the time she finished her tale; what from, exactly, Kannujaq could not tell. But there was lots to weep about. He suddenly understood how little her son truly knew of his mother. She had told Siku bits and pieces of truth, but he had interpreted everything through the eye of an
angakoq
(as well as that of a boy). To Siku, as to the other Tunit here, this was a battle against sea monsters. The Siaraili were
tuurngait
—evil spirits. In Siku’s world, there were signs and portents all around him, but his mother’s burden was truth. Only she and Angula had known what the Siaraili really were.
    Kannujaq returned truth with truth.
    â€œIf all of us do not leave this place,” he said, “we die.”
    Siaq sniffed and agreed.
    â€œI can’t leave the Tunit, though,” she said. “I’ve been with them too long. They are friends, family. Life has more meaning among them, now, than it does among your … I mean, our kind.”
    She has become a Tunik
, Kannujaq thought.
    â€œAnd the Tunit are not like our people,” she said, “always travelling, always sledding. The Tunit like their homes. Their homes are part of them.”
    Kannujaq could not understand why anyone would be attached to a home, but he said, “No time for this, Siaq. No time. The Siaraili left last time only because they were worried about the storm. But once they feel safe again, they’ll finish this camp. If the Tunit do not move, because of love of their homes, then there is only one other thing they can do. They must fight.”
    He