The Hoax of the Recent Vandalism of the Ancient Arctic Petroglyphs on Qajartalik Island

This is the community of Kangirsujuaq, in Nunavik, or northern Quebec. There are a growing number of Christians in this Inuit community who value their culture, their history, and their traditional way of life, wanting to break only with the dark side of their past, but to embrace everything that is precious and valuable in their history.

In August of 2006, the believers of this community were accused of causing "recent" vandalism at the ancient arctic petroglyphs at Qajartalik on Qikertaaluk Island about 30 miles away by boat.

One can see on this map where Kangirsujuaq is along the Hudson Strait between northern Quebec and Baffin Island. This will give one some idea of where Qajartalik is located.

Since 1996, the Avataq Cultural Institute and its chief archaeologist, Dr. Daniel Gendron, have been actively working on the petroglyph site at Qajartalik on Qikertaaluk Island as well as creating a plan to protect the site.

According to the Avataq Cultural Institute, the Qajartalik petroglyphs are a unique demonstration of the graphic expression of the Dorset culture. This is the only known site where the Dorsets worked on such a grand scale, and in steatite, to create such figurative sculptures, which are found more commonly on fragments of bone, ivory and antler.

According to Avataq's web-site, "the meaning of these drawings remain an enigma."

However, in his book, Ancient People of the Arctic, Robert McGhee gives us a pretty good idea what they represent. McGhee has conducted some thirty years of research of Arctic peoples, and is a curator of archaeology at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

In his book, Robert McGhee quotes art historian George Swinton to conclude that the Dorset carvings were the tangible remnants of a religious tradition. The production of carvings was an integral part of the religious practice of Dorset "shaman-artists," and the carvings themselves an essential component of religious ritual and experience. In the words of Swinton, "It is by no means unreasonable to conceive of a Dorset artist-shaman (or a shaman-artist) as the main producer of such art."

In the Dorset culture, some individuals acquired much greater abilities at attracting and holding powerful spirit helpers. These men and women were the recognized shamans of the community. The carvings of the Dorset culture speak eloquently of a shamanic world, a world that could control people with the fear and dread of curses from capricious deities.

Robert McGhee is obviously referring to Qajartalik when he states, "Some of the same faces portrayed on masks and wands are found in the petroglyphs carved into rock cliffs along the coasts of the Hudson Strait. The rock carvings, the multi-faced antler wands, the wooden masks, the small wounded figures, and the human-animal images all suggest that Dorset artists used human imagery primarily in the service of magical or spiritual power."

He then goes on to say, "Taken together, the assemblage of human representations leaves the observer with a distinctly uneasy impression. The calm serenity apparent in the tiny maskettes carved during the early centuries of the Dorset period soon disappears, to be replaced by a variety of images ranging from unsettling to bizarre."

According to archaeologist Robert McGhee, some "figures scattered throughout the area of Dorset settlement are distinguished by a slot in the upper chest, sometimes containing a sliver of wood. It is very tempting to view these small and rather chilling objects as the elements of magical acts designed to harm other humans." He adds in another section of his book regarding this same carving, that "the figure may have been ritually killed."

In describing the very distinctive harpoon points (less then 5 centimeters long) of the Dorset people, Robert McGhee states that "perhaps the majority of the tiny harpoon heads found in Dorset villages were such magic weapons, used by a shaman to demonstrate the cause of an illness that had been cured. Of course, there is also the more sinister possibility that some of these miniature weapons may have been used in rituals designed to send illness or death to an enemy, rather than a cure."

In noting Dorset art and the shamanic world, McGhee mentions that the Dorsets, like us, found the world to be sometimes a dangerous place where accidents, misfortunes, and illnesses come upon people. However, he notes that in the Dorset world, "the means of coping were not what we would consider effective."

As with these carvings at Qajartalik, archaeologist Robert McGhee notes that "most of the carvings of Dorset villages can be associated with magical or religious means of dealing with a shamanic universe."

He writes that "The Late Dorseet people inherited an ancient religious system and worldview that saw personal spirit helpers as the medium through which humans could control, or at least manipulate, the small-scale events of their environment." The Dorset people were facing an environment that was not predictable, so the religion was an effort for humans to stay in control. However, the Dorset religion did not save them in the end, for the Dorset people became extinct.

As McGhee notes, the blossoming of "Dorset art" in a time of uncertainty was "not made simply for decoration or amusement, but for protection, or as an aid in coping with an environment in which the rules were suddenly changing. The interpretation of Dorset art as a phenomenon intimately associated with religion, magic, and a shamanistic view of the universe and its powers is consistent with a response to environmental uncertainty and economic insecurity."

The archaeological puzzle of the end of Dorset culture is far from being solved. Whatever happened to them seems to have occurred suddenly, and to have left almost no trace in the archaeological record. The archaeological evidence shows only that the Dorset culture was replaced across Arctic Canada and Greenland by the culture of the ancestral Inuit who moved east from Alaska about 1,000 years ago.

Understandably, the Avataq Cultural Institute has been working to have the Qajartalik site (where the above carvings are from) proclaimed as a national heritage site in order to preserve this important archaeological evidence of Arctic history. The Christians of the present nearby community of Kangirsujuaq are not adverse to preserving the history, as long as this ancient religion based on superstition and magic that did not deliver and protect the Dorset people of long ago is not imposed on present-day Inuit as part of their present identity.

A leading Christian Inuit from Kangirsujuaq is even the chairman of the board of the Avataq Cultural Institute in Nunavik, and Christians from other Nunavik (northern Quebec) communities are also on the board. In spite of this, when rumours began to surface during the summer of 2006 that new vandalism had taken place at the Qajartalik site, it was the Christians of Kangirsujuaq who began to have the finger pointed at them without cause and without reason.

Randy Boswell, a journalist with the Canwest News Services called Dr. Daniel Gendron, chief archaeologist of the Avataq Cultural Institute, about the alleged new vandalism, and asked him if the instigators could have been Christians. Of course, Dr. Gendron had not yet had a chance to revisit the site to personally inspect the alleged new vandalism, so he made it clear to Randy Boswell that he did not know who did it, but had to agree it could have been Christians, although he did not know. It could have been anybody.

So Dr. Daniel Gendron's speculations on the possibility of the vandalism being performed by local Christians was purely guesswork, speculation, and a possibility that had no evidence. He, for the life of him, did not think that any respected journalist would actually publish an article based on an interview that was clearly based on rumour and unadulterated speculation only.

To his horror, he found out when the article came out in the Canwest News Services network that not only was his testimony used as the main "authority" to suggest that Christians did destroy these ancient arctic Petroglyphs, but the headline blatantly declared, as a statement of fact: "Christian Zealots Destroy Ancient Arctic Petroglyphs"

The article first came out, and was published on August 26, 2006, and soon spread like wildfire not only throughout the network of the Canwest News Services, but to a myriad of other newspapers as well, including the Nunatsiaq News in the Arctic. It was subsequently repeated on web-sites and blogs galore without anybody checking the facts, or looking for corroborating or confirming evidence.

Here is the substance of the original article written by Randy Boswell of Canwest News Services, and published in late August of 2006.

"Canada's only major Arctic petroglyph site -- a 1,500-year-old gallery of mysterious faces carved into a soapstone ridge on a tiny island off of Quebec's northern coast -- has been ransacked by vandals in what the region's top archeologist suspects was a religiously motivated attack by devout Christians from a nearby Inuit community.

"For years, heritage advocates have sought special protection for the ancient etchings at Qajartalik Island, located about one hour by boat from the 500-resident village of Kangiqsujuaq. Experts believe they were created by the extinct Dorset culture, an artistically advanced civilization that occupied much of the eastern Arctic before they were killed or driven away by the Thule ancestors of modern Inuit.

"More than 170 mask-like images, animal shapes and other symbols have been recorded on the island since the 1960s. Studies suggest Qajartalik was a sacred place, used for Dorset spiritual ceremonies and coming-of-age rituals."

The article goes on to say, "But the site has been dubbed 'the Island of the Stone Devils' because some of the faces -- possibly depicting a Dorset shaman in religious costume -- appear to be adorned with horns. In the past, crosses have been scratched on the 'pagan' petroglyphs and some area residents have told researchers they believe the site is infested with evil spirits.

"Long-running negotiations between Nunavut, Quebec and the federal government over the ownership of the Hudson Strait islands has delayed for a decade plans to protect the cultural treasure, which Arctic scholars have touted as a natural candidate to become a UNESCO World Heritage site...

"Now, dreams of global renown for Qajartalik may be dashed after a visit to the island last month by Quebec cultural officials revealed extensive damage to the prehistoric drawings, including deep gouges across many of the faces...

"Daniel Gendron, chief archeologist with the Inukjuak-based Avataq Cultural Institute, the key promoter of indigenous history and identity in Nunavik, said the latest vandalism at Qajartalik follows the pattern of previous attacks by members of what he called 'a very strong movement' of conservative Christians in Kangiqsujuaq and several other Inuit communities in northern Quebec."

When this article came out, Dr. Gendron was horrified that his name would be used to give credence to Randy Boswell's intentions of targeting an identifiable group of people with his article which spread like wildfire, and soon began to develop a life of its own.

His personal response was given in a letter to the Nunatsiaq News in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and was published on September 30, 2006. This letter by Dr. Daniel Gendron can be read at this site:

Subsequent phone calls and e-mails between Canada Awakening Ministries and the news editors with Canwest News Services to whom Randy Boswell is accountable were only successful as far as getting three newspapers in this Canwest News Services chain to print a tiny disclaimer that the vast majority of readers would hardly even notice. The small disclaimer in fine print simply said that we do not know who caused the vandalism, which the headline had declared as a statement of fact that "Christian zealots" had done it.

While the editors did remove the story from the original web-site that carried the article from the Regina Leader Post, the blogs and web-sites that had republished the story based on Randy Boswell's original article were now firmly established in perpetrating the myth, not to mention the other newspaper networks that helped to spread the false accusation, and most seem to have no intention of making any corrections.

It is as if they steadfast want to believe Randy Boswell's slant, rather than to believe that the whole article was based on a rumour without shred of corroborating evidence.

Dr. Daniel Gendron immediately apologized to the Christian Inuit of Nunavik and especially Kangirsujuaq when he saw how his name was used, but neither the journalist who actually gave the story the spin he wanted, nor the Canwest News Services has issued an apology to date.

In the meantime, in September of 2007, Dr. Daniel Gendron was finally able to revisit Qajartalik to assess the degree of new vandalism for himself. He was accompanied by his assistant Louis gagnon, and by Andre Fradette, the Minister of Culture and Communications in Quebec (pictured above).

To their surprise, they found that not only were these charges and accusations made right across Canada and other parts of the world without evidence, but that in fact the whole claim of new damage was a hoax. There was no new vandalism caused by humans, but only some minor deterioration caused by the weather.

Dr. Gendron's report on his latest visit to Qajartalik can be read at the Avataq Cultural Institute web-site. See: HERE

This past May 28, 2008, I personally received an e-mail from Dr. Daniel Gendron, the chief archaeologist of the Avataq Cultural Institute. Referring to the refusal of Canwest News Services to apologize on behalf of their journalist Randy Boswell, he wrote:

"Boswell is not the only one with this attitude. Jane George (of Nunatsiaq News) has refused to acknowledge her mistake and apologize to the Kangirsujuammiut.

"I even caught a book from another archaeologist before it came out. He was using this case as an example of 'vandalism'...I was so shocked when I read the text. It was basically repeating what the Boswell article had said.

"I knew the author and I called him. When he heard the true story, he immediately removed the accusing text from the book, and had to write something new. He was very ashamed and I think he will double-check in the future when he'll read such news in the papers. Imagine, this was a last minute discovery! The book was due to be sent to the printer 2 days after I got hold of that paragraph!!!

"I know we will not be able to eradicate all these false news services, but I will certainly continue to fight to get them off the web. It was nice to hear from you again.

"Take care.

"Daniel Gendron"

The Christians of Kangirsujuaq, Quebec, are a forgiving, peaceful people, and are rising above the injustice that has been perpetrated about them. The more that they forgive, and go for the glory of God, instead of trying to defend themselves in the flesh, the more God works among them in power.

The changed lives in that community will never cease to be thankful for what the Lord has done for them in healing and in setting them free from so many of the hurts and pains of the past. Building upon the foundation of everything that is good in their past, but breaking only with the bondages, their focus now is looking forward, to a destiny that is much greater than their past.