This man was named after an 'outstanding' Inuvialuit leader
CBC North is doing a series on the history and significance of Inuit names
CBC North is doing a series on the history and significance of Inuit names. Traditional names hold great respect and honour. There are long-held Inuit beliefs that people take on the characteristics of their namesake, and that spirits live on through them. Many Inuit have close connections with the person who named them, as well as people who have the same name.
Albert Mangilaaluk Elias was born July 1, 1942 in Aklavik, N.W.T.
His father owned a schooner, and the family travelled the territory's Beaufort Delta region. He now lives in Inuvik, but lists Sachs Harbour, Ulukhaktok and Cambridge Bay as places he feels at home.
He believes that his grandparents gave him his Inuvialuit name, Mangilaaluk.
"Mangilaaluk was a very popular leader many years ago in Tuktoyaktuk. He was sort of the founder of Tuktoyaktuk, traditionally," Elias says.
"He was a great leader. Many of us boys are named after him."
LISTEN | Albert Elias pronounces his name, Mangilaaluk:
Elias's grandparents used to tell him stories about how they knew Mangilaaluk and how generous he was.
"He cared for the poor people and people who cannot go out hunting," Elias says. "He was always that kind of a guy, just an outstanding hunter and provider, leader."
Elias's grandmother was orphaned as a child, and told him that Mangilaaluk always took care of her, making sure she was fed.
She also said that the leader held a "healing power" to help people who were sick.
"My grandmother told me that he passed down his healing ability, my grandmother had that. And I've seen that happen to me, from her."
Elias says in the 1960s he suffered from terrible arthritis in his hands. Doctors and medicine did nothing. He was in so much pain he couldn't sleep at night.
Then he went to visit his grandmother in Tuktoyaktuk.
"She actually talked to me before she did her ritual to fix my hands," he remembers. "She was really telling me that I have to believe and have no doubts."
I try my best — I always try to remember my name.- Albert Elias
She proceeded to massage his hands for some time, almost as if in a "trance."
"Up to today, I've never had arthritis in my hands. I believe that there are people who had the special power," he says.
One of the beliefs around Inuit naming is that people can share personality and physical traits with their namesakes. When asked if he has similarities to the leader Mangilaaluk, Elias laughs.
"I wish I could be, but it's hard to tell," he says.
But his wife, Shirley, interjects, saying that he cares for people.
"I try my best — I always try to remember my name," he says. "During my namesake's time, life was not the same as our life now. We try to think of that name and what that person stood for. That's how I see it."
Today, Elias says only elders tend to call him by his Inuvialuit name — the younger generation don't know it. But now he's the one passing down the tradition. Young people call him and his wife asking questions about names and who those people were.
"We are still practising that," he says. "We give them it to the best of our ability and they name people."