Arnak Ammalu Auvvik (The Woman and The Caterpillar)

Description

‘Arnak Ammalu Auvvik‘ by Ningeokuluk Teevee – Cape Dorset 2006 print collection presented by DaVic Gallery of Native Canadian Arts

Condition:          No condition to be noted.

Description by Artist:     No description by artist found.

Notes from DaVic Gallery:

Story of “Adopting a Caterpillar”:  Once there was a family of three. There was the mother, her son and daughter in law along with two dogs.  It was while the couples were alone that the boy wondered why his mother was so skinny even when she had plenty to eat. Even so, she was still getting skinnier and skinnier every day.  Thinking that something was causing it, he told his wife to search around near her bedding. She searched and under some scraps of caribou skins she found something. It was a huge caterpillar. It was wrapped in an old lady’s caribou sock and had grown so big it was tucked in tightly.

They found out that the old lady had picked it up during the summer and adopted it. She let it suck blood from her leg to feed it.  The girl told her husband what she had discovered. The boy quickly got up from the bed. He took the caterpillar and was in the process of throwing it out their door, but the caterpillar, in struggling to get away, fell to the steps. He left it laying there hoping it would freeze to death.

The dogs which were outside scented the caterpillar and came running in, barking at it.  As the dogs attacked the caterpillar, it fought back. It even sent the dogs yelping when it bit them. It said, “Tee, tee, tee.”  It had grown so big that it could make noise.

The blood was squirting out because the dogs punctured his skin. By chance the lady came in just when the incident happened. She felt sorry for the caterpillar. There was so much blood that it was flowing inside the igloo.  The lady was crying for the caterpillar as she was coming in saying, “So someone finally did you harm.”  The dying caterpillar managed to say, “Tee, tee, tee.”