Urban Amauti Trailer

Amauti = a parka worn by Inuit women of the eastern Canadian Arctic. The amauti contains a built-in baby pouch just below the hood.   When a small group of women, mostly Inuit, living or working in a women’s centre in Montreal, assemble to make amautis, the atmosphere is intense. Making an amauti, as everyone discovers, is not that easy and the skills of the amauti teacher, Joanna, are very much valued by everyone in the group. In the video we see up close scenes of concentration and sometimes frustration, along with scenes of sharing a meal and laughter, when one woman’s sleeve gets sewn into another woman’s amauti by accident.   When an additional layer of activity is added to the amauti-making workshop – talking about feeling safe and not so safe in urban environments – things become even more intense. The women talk about how unsafe they feel in Montreal and how they fear the police. “It’s not easy being Inuk” concludes one of the participants in the workshop.    Many of the submissions to the Public Inquiry Commission on Relations Between Indigenous Peoples and Certain Public Services in Québec: Listening, Reconciliation and Progress (Viens Commission) and the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls highlight the very same points.     But during the workshop some of the participants talk about the importance of being in touch with culture. Even making amautis in this group –  so far away from the Eastern Arctic – is a moment of coming together.