The Inuksuk of Nunavut

There is perhaps no house founder nor house itself that has had such unfortunate luck as Nunavut House. As one of the original six houses at Westford Hogwarts, one would expect that honours and history of people, events, and adventures would be deep and rich with such an amazing start as the founder of this now-retired house.

The tale begins with a boy named Nuniq,  meaning "polar bear" in English. His second name (for the Inuit do not have actual surnames) was Inuksuk, which, roughly translates to "on the right path." Nuniq Inuksuk was an adventurous young man whose curiosity brought him farther and farther from his native area of the north, far above the place where trees, grass or even gorse-bush grew.  The land of Inuksuk was a seemingly endless expanse of snow-covered land. Inuksuk, for all his curiosity to explore, knew that to venture too far away with a way to return would surely end with his loss in the wilderness. He knew he had to come up with a way to guide himself out and back as he explored. But how could he do this? There were no trees to cut and mark, nor would making snow-sculptures do the trick owing to the quick work that the ever-blowing Arctic winds would make of his efforts. Minutes later, no sign of the sculptured snow would remain. 

But then it came to him. Thinking about how the wind exposed the land sometimes, Nuniq recalled that stones and boulders of different sizes and shapes would also be exposed.  If he could build "sign-posts" out of stone, he could use these as a means to travel out and back from his home area without becoming lost.

Now success with the stones was not immediate. Over time, Nuniq realised not only could the height of the cairn tell something about the distance travelled, but also its cross-tied stone could be used to help point directions for travel.  Close up, the cairns looked like little stone people.  

Nuniq found that he could prepare for a journey, be away for several weeks and still be able to retrace his movements by the towers of stone he'd created along the way.  It was a great personal success.  Over time, he began to share his knowledge with others of his clan, until a "common" language of stone-talk existed between the clan's members.  In honour of his discovery, the clan named these shapes Inuksuk, meaning "the correct way" as well as being an honour to its founder.

Then one day, Nuniq did not return to the village. In fact, he was never heard from by his clan again. What had happened was that one day, being many days out from his village, Nuniq saw two things no member of his tribe had ever seen. One was little birds with strange, broad beaks. These little birds seemed to be fish-eaters. They loved to sit on rocks on the edge of the great ocean. But exactly why the birds felt the need to "paint" their beaks with bright colours, Inuksuk could not imagine.  

The second thing he saw on that same day were two men not like Nuniq, paddling in what appeared to be some kind of boat. The boat was long and tapered at each end. In the middle, the width of the boat was about the same as the length of a common seal's body.  So captivated was Nuniq by the appearance of these men, he forgot all about the painted beaks on the bird's head.  One of the men was a brown colour - much darker brown than anyone Inuksuk had ever seen before. The other was light-skinned...so light that his skin seemed to lack nearly any colour at all.

The men were obviously fascinated with Nuniq.  The three met and, using hand signals and gestures, began to ask all sorts of questions about one another as could fit in a day.  At that time of year, the sun stayed up very mostly all the day's cycle. As the sun finally began to set, the three set up camp for the evening around a fire-ringed by the same sort of stone Inuksuk used to his tower cairns.

And then it happened. Nuniq, sleeping next to the fire felt a knock on his head. For a second, he thought something had fallen on him, but then everything went black.

The next thing he could recall, he was in the belly of some sort of machine.  It had a sort of groaning or moaning roar coming from outside of it.  Nuniq himself was tied into one spot by ropes. He had some sort of rag stuffed into his mouth and then another rag wrapped around it tied to the back of his head to keep the first rag in place.  How long the roar of the beast continued, and how long Nuniq struggled against the rags in his mouth and around his head, he could not determine, though eventually, he succumbed to a sleep of fatigue and worry.

When he came to, he was on a cot in the largest igluvigak (room) Nuniq had ever been in. He seemed to be surrounded by ancient men and women - people who wore long robes and had hair of many colours. These people seemed extremely relieved and mentioned how "freeing" Nuniq had been no small task.  They were on his side, they said, and would help him to return to his people.  Nuniq had no idea what they were talking about, nor why he needed help to return to his village. After all, he had his stone cairns to guide him, didn't he? (Alas...he did not.) At this point, he did not know where he was or just how far from home he really was. What the people around him said was that he had been found in deep forests (What's a forest Nuniq asked himself?) in the north of their land by a giant man named Hagrut or Hagrutsuk. He had been found tucked into some sort of sealskin rucksack and had been found on the top of a large boulder. There were large timbers surrounding the boulder and at the top of these were enormous blackbirds called "crowsks" or "crokuks" screaming a warning. The boy inside the sealskin was alive but was whimpering quietly.  whatever the case, the kindly giant-man who had found him had brought him back to this place where he was apparently among those who wished to help him in some way.

The lad decided that the best thing he could do would be to understand his surroundings and the people in this place better.  To do so would help him to return safely to his village.  He would take his time, learn well from these people, then make his escape back to the Coldlands when he could.

Little did Nuniq know that he would spend the next twenty years at this place. He proved himself to be an apt student, and later as a fine professor to other students. Nuniq the ways of the people he lived among. Though kindly and an apparently happy personality, Nuniq was a solitary person. He always preferred to be alone researching his passions for stone carving, climate-research, and orienteering. He learned thirty different words to describe snow types and would spend his holidays in the northern wilderness of this land researching everything he could about prevailing wind direction, what moistures made for proper sledge mushing, which dog varieties could mush through these and what kibble would each dog type need to keep its strength up for travel. He was encouraged to start a new house at Hogwarts School, which he did with great reluctance.  Students assigned to Nunevuk would frequently complain in whispers that they did not deserve to be assigned to the "frozen house" or the "house of frost."  It's house members tended to be loners and, although self-reliant, would secretly wish to be part of a larger group of happy, gregarious students. On two occasions, students actually asked to be switched to another house (both were denied) whereupon they withdrew from Nunavut House.  Although he did not show it publicly, Nuniq, of course, took these criticisms in a very personal way. Already a private person, he withdrew from the public eye more and more.  Other houses took to calling this housemaster the "Hermit of the North."  

And then one day the housemaster disappeared. Into thin air...Just like that, he was gone. No trace of him was ever found. Though Dumbledore sent out hippogriffs, centaurs, giantesses and cooperative spiders in every direction for hundreds of kilometres in search of the missing headmaster, no sign of Inuksuk was seen, tracked, smelt or felt by any beast.

The members of Nunavut House suddenly felt a flush of allegiance to their lost leader.  For another year after its founding, they continued with their house, trying as best they could to make the housework the most independent and self-reliant of all the houses.  Alas - as great as the allegiance to Nunavut was by sorting hat members of the house, it failed to attract incoming first-years. It was as if the sorting hat had forgotten all about the house. With great sadness, a final, solemn ceremony in the great hall removed the house from being an active body at Hogwarts School only two years after its founding.

But what had become of Nuniq? No one knows for certain though ideas abound to this day. What is known is that Baffin Island in Canada has over 100 stone sculpture Inuksuk located all over its geography...tall, short, broad and narrow. All of these are made from stone though some wood is available for use had their creator chosen to use it. Most suggest these are probably the work of Nuniq still making his way back north to his village and home. We can only wonder if this is true and that the "lost housemaster" will or has finally found the happiness of the north he so desperately sought.

Students who were sorted into this house during its brief span were known to be self-reliant, creative, careful observers, and serious.