#maktak

[coworkers-office]

> Oh hey. Do you like that one plushie you got?

[ WITHOUT WAITING FOR AN ANSWER, ANOTHER BOX APPEARED. THIS TIME WITH A PLUSHIE OF YOU and the INTERVIEWER! ]

[ THE NOTE INSIDE IS DIFFERENT! ]

[ “ Do you have any favorite foods? “ ]

[ NO SIGN-OFF ]

< Your coworker opens the box to see the two plushies with the note on top. This time, the note obscures the dolls' features, so he reads the paper first. >

"Favourite foods? I like caviar and other things like that, and I occasionally treat myself to a gold steak. I remember going to a buisness potluck once where one of the people brought something called 'muktuk.' Apparently it's a native Alaskan delicacy. Tasted horrible; way to rubbery and not enough flavour."

< He shudders, remembering the experience. Never again. He slips the note into a pocket before turning back to check out the other items. >

"Hey, another doll of the boss! Seriously, where are you guys getting these?"

< Coworker places the doll next to the other one of normal guy/interviewer and the protagonist doll. Turning back to the box once more, he reaches for the plush of himself. >

"Haha! It seems the people just can't get enough of me!!"

< Coworker holds the plush, excited and admiring it. >

OOC/Mod: BASED OFF THIS OFFICIAL ART OF COWORKER REACTING TO HIS PLUSH

art credits to @racheldrawsthis ^w^

[tragedykery]

[ID: my tags, reading, “#another thing l’ve noticed is that earth kingdom and fire nation food tends to be shown with way greater detail & accuracy #but since the show was animated in south korea that's most likely just because of the animators’ greater familiarity with food from #countries/cultures they were physically close to #elli rambles #atla #r #a #and iirc food from none of the other nations is treated as ‘gross’ in the show so that just makes it. stand out #(but don't quote me on that lol l'm not a hundred percent sure)” /end ID]

ok I’m gonna say it. the obsession in atla works (both canon and fanworks) with portraying water tribe food as ~strange~ and/or gross is weird and racist. cut this shit out

[mostly-mundane-atla]

I hope it's okay to ask about non-atla things

I'm doing research for a story that's basically an alternate history where Antarctica is populated similarly to the northern circumpolar regions. I'm having a bit of trouble with some of the logistics though, and I'm hoping you might have insights or suggestions?

In an environment without wood, and from what I can see no flint, how would one start a fire? And what fuel might be used to sustain it? (I know there's coal an oil, but I can't find anything that specifies if Antarctica has flint)

What sort of foods have the best protein/energy content for this kind of lifestyle? (physical and harsh) Am I right in assuming that animal fat/blubber would be a good source of this?

How would they craft tools? Like, how are knives and such traditionally crafted from bones and how would stones be incorporated? Also, in an environment without wood, how would they get the first hunting weapons? Would it be realistic for them to use something like slings?

How is meat traditionally prepared? Like, the drying and freezing and such. I've been trying to find more information on this, but can't really find anything that covers food preparation methods specifically.

If there's anything else you think is important to share please do! I'm trying to make this feel as realistic as possible, and since the Arctic and Antarctic are similar in environment I'm hoping to gain some insight of the general environment and certain cultural factors that are tied to a harsh/difficult environment

I hope I worded this all well

Another wonderfully formatted ask!

1. An environment without trees and bushes is not an environment without driftwood, and driftwood can be made into a bow drill. The spark could be sustained on rendered animal fats.

2. Fats are a great way to maintain energy required to survive in such a harsh environment, as are eggs from birds and fish Skin can also provide vitamin c to make up for the lack of fruit. This is why maktak is such a valued food in the far north.

3. Knapping and grinding an edge on to stones can make blades for knives, spears, and similar tools that can carve into ivory, bone, antler, driftwood, and other materials Bow drills can drill holes to allow tying and joins. Cordage and rope can be made of sinews or grasses, though i believe sinew is the more durable of the two materials. Slings make sense and so do bolas and harpoons. Also, for more domestic tools, needles can be made wing bones and shovels are can be made of large animals' shoulderblades.

4. Meat can be cut into thin strips and then dried on a rack, kept frozen, fermented in a pouch underground, or boiled in a pot carved from wood or skin pouch by heating rocks and placing them in the water.

I hope this covered everything. If you have anymore questions, please feel free to ask!

[spellcore]

I follow some Native folks on tiktok and one of them is Inuvialuk & has been making maktak for the past week or so and G-D does it look delicious

[saltwatereyes]

oops... we're at the hotel... whoops... you fell and i guided you quite forcibly into the bathroom... what a nightmare...

I feel like Im going To pass out. Ow.

[arcticmuseum]

"It's tedious," she says. "But it's for the love of maktak, for the love of whaling, for the love of serving your community and for the love of our culture and families, for the love of our amiqtit family." -- Flora Atqaqsaaq Patkotak on the process of hand-making sealskin boats for whaling season

[ev7745-blog]

Foodland Security, Barry Pottle, 2012

Barry Pottle is the second artist with whom I was able to collaborate. His Foodland Security photograph series speaks directly to issues urban-bound Inuit people face. 

“Country food is intertwined with the Inuit culture. This food comes from animals and plants that people hunt, fish, or gather. These traditional foods include caribou, seal, whale, fish, birds, and berries. Food preparation includes the skinning and butchering of animals, cleaning of plants, and further preparation for eating such as boiling, drying, and other techniques. Once in urban centres, Inuit experience a great shift in diet from traditional or country food to store-bought, processed foods. My plan in setting out to do this project was—first and foremost—an art project as I strive to bring awareness and justice to what I call Contemporary Urban Inuit Photography. “

Barry Pottle on his photograph series

[anneharperalaska]

Seen around town on our last day after clinic-

Piles of whale baleen, waiting to be carved into art

Noted in the heritage center - manmade ice cellars to keep whale meat and maktak year round for village feasts

Bringing polar bear pups to show and tell!

[kedufresne-blog]

“Nesoluk and others stressed that for the Inupiat, food is directly tied to culture. And like all cultures, it’s constantly evolving and being influenced by outside sources. Hazel Kunakanna says that people certainly don’t just eat raw maktak, they incorporate food traditions from outside of Alaska.

“You know, like my grandma, she used to like it fried with onions and stuff. And then some people like fry it and fry their maktak like a stir-fry with rice.” 

“And you put soy sauce on it?” 

“Yeah, you could put soy sauce on it,” Kunakanna said.

[kateashlen]

Nectar of the gods! #inupiaq #whale #pickledmaktak #maktak #native #madebyme

[differentrealms]

family reunion

[mostly-mundane-atla]

if it’s not uncomfortable for you or too much work, would you mind outlining the major ways the kyoshi novels are racist? it’s been like a year since I’ve read them and I didn’t pick up on the racism but I want to know. again feel free to ignore this if you don’t feel like going into it

So let's start with the Water Tribe or of Water Tribe heritage characters who are mentioned by the point i reached in the first book:

Kuruk, treated as the fuck-up Avatar more interested in earthly pleasures than his responsibilities to the people of the world. Posthumous.

Ummi, not even mentioned by name because Kuruk's actual true love had to be a Fire Nation woman for some reason. Posthumous

Tagaka, a pirate queen with a pechant for slavery. Gets to call the others on being not too moral themselves and reveals herself to have betrayed the agreement. Taken to Lake Laogai

Master Amok, an assassin for a Ba Sing Se royal and in charge of Yun's torturous poison training. Killed in the same chapter he was introduced.

Kirima, a member of the Flying Opera Company

Southern Water Tribe chieftains who allegedly negotiated with Jianzhu. Only ever mentioned in passing and aren't even named

So, besides deciding the fantasy culture inspired by irl circumpolar ones is only good for irrelevant characters or ones ranging from good-for-nothing to outright criminals, we also see the classic stereotypes that circumpolar peoples/eskimos [see pinned post before expecting me to read your comments]:

Have cruel, morally wrong hunting practices

Eat disgusting food

Need outside help to modernize

The moral opposition to subsitance hunting has been used to restrict our right to hunt animal populations we've maintained pre-contact on land that various governments had no right to take from us. Foods that have to be shipped in are many, and the actual process of shipping them, even with modern tech, is incredibly difficult, driving prices up to absurd degrees. Sharing this midset that hunting cute animals for fur is something to be disdainful of, completely uncritically, is harmful as well as disrespectful to cultures you don't belong to.

For the food, okay, so, we're going to imagine a similar scenario with the cultures used shifted around a little. Ready? Imagine you have this fantasy universe and one of the made up cultures in this fantasy universe is inspired by Japan. Still with me? Okay. So the characters from a different made up culture are going to this political thing with a menacing offshoot of the fantasy Japanese nation. We don't actually get to see the fantasy Japan, just these criminals of the same cultural origin, and they have weird food that they don't even eat with forks. One dish is completely raw fish with sour rice served with a questionably thin brown sauce and a sickly green paste that burns your nose hairs when you smell it. Our lead character, Peggy, is too overwhelmed and disgusted to eat any, but her friend, Jason, who was trained in diplomacy, manages to stomach it.

Now, having read this about this part of a hypothetical book, how would you feel about this hypothetical author's opinion of Japanese people? Does this feel like an unnecessarily rude description of sushi, even for characters who have never eaten it? Is it weird that it's not even referred to as sushi? Did it feel more like an invitation to gawk at the food of this culture than a description?

If you were Inupiaq and you read how the book described Yun eating maktak, you probably didn't need to imagine this new scenario to feel that way about it. The biggest difference is sushi is way more likely to be treated as a delicacy in most reader's circles while maktak is considered gross and weird in those same circles.

The whole "they need help to modernize and develop, lest they be outpaced by the rest of the world" would be a lot more easy to believe as an altruistic gesture if it wasn't used to a) excuse hitting schoolchildren for speaking their languages instead of English, and b) mask the US government's intentions for dropping a nuke on Point Hope. The fact that, again, the negotiations that took place between Jianzhu and the leaders of the Southern Water Tribe(s?) aren't actually described in any detail makes it sound not thought through at all and like we should just take his word. Of course he's intervening and taking on a debt on their behalf entirely for their own good. They are just primitives after all, right? With their atigiit and igluit, a cash economy is exactly what they need! The implications of that have me breaking out in hives

This is just as far as i've gotten in the first book. I was actually really interested and excited when i was told that Kuruk develops a drinking problem to cope with his trauma and it was explored in the books. I thought they were going to deconstruct this stereotype and we'd get an Arnold Joseph type character, flawed but understood, with his pain validated and if not forgiven, then at least not hated. Looking at everything so far, not even finished with the first book, i can see now that any respect or understanding was accidental and unintended.

[mostly-mundane-atla]

Is there anything you think we should know about cooking or food sharing for the Avatar? I was thinking about Aang needing either a second meal prepared or to grab his food before meat is added.

FYI. I just cut out a random anecdote about my sister. So if it’s still there, my device is glitching on tumblr again. Sorry about that.

For traditional circumpolar cooking, Aang would probably need his own meal. While many cultures ate grains (most commonly in the form of bread, cooked rice, and occasionally table beer with very little alcohol content or similar beverages) as the core of their diet, but the Circumpolar peoples had no native grains and lived in an environment where it was more sustainable to eat meat and fats as the core of the diet rather than carb-rich tubers. That's not to say there's nothing a vegetarian could eat, after all eggs, greens, berries, and tubers we also collected and eaten regularly and many tundra plants can be processed into flavorful and healing tisanes, providing a list of beverage options as well, but many foods would require substitution of main ingredients or even vegetarian approximations. To bring that grains vs meat core of the diet discussion up again, being a vegetarian around Circumpolar foods and like having a wheat allergy and being hosted in a place where most foods are made of or with wheat flour. There are still going to be foods you can eat, but probably not enough to replace all the ones you can't.

Aang in such a situation would probably need approximations that replace any non-egg protein (and fish eggs are typically harvested from fish killed for food rather than gathered like bird eggs, so the kind of eggs he'd be able to eat are limitted) and fats with plant-based or at least non-meat alternatives. Stuff like bean soup instead of duck soup, butter instead of seal oil, dried mushroom slices instead of paniqtaq, tofu instead of fresh fish, rennet-free cheese instead of maktak. He might also need to make up for nutrients like iron and vitamin C that he would miss from not eating x or y meat product regularly. As long as Aang or whoever might cook for him has access to these types of alternatives, there's no reason he'd have to be excluded from eating as a social practice nor should he have any nutritional deficiencies.

[mostly-mundane-atla]

Please tell me the Southern Water Tribe being "undeveloped" for what I assume is the typical "their buildings and food and clothes are different" reason is just Jianzhu being biased and not something the narration wants us to uncritically agree with.

But then, the narration also seems to think the ability to eat maktak is a skill you have to practice and not just a thing normal people do and enjoy so really, who's to say?

[mostly-mundane-atla]

I wish i could uncritically like the Kyoshi novels because there are some total gems there even if the final product is of severely questionable quality. It would be nice if i could read it without the text repeatedly going "it's just that people like you are, well, you know."

Anyway, this is to say that I wish i could draw a lyricstuck for Yun set to Stick it in the Man by Harley Poe (that's not a typo, Joe Whitford just gets really giddy about immature wordplay) without remembering how little the books he's from think of people who eat maktak and light stone oil lamps and wear animal skins

[mostly-mundane-atla]

You guys said sharing original writing with you was cool so i'm doing it again.

I dedicated an entire paragraph to describing the food at a potlatch:

A potlatch celebrating the treaty took place about a week after.  There was smoked salmon and pickled maktak and paniqtaq of all kinds.  Edith's hens were laying well, and so she made a good amount of deviled eggs.  There was akutaq with seal oil, akutaq with tuttu, akutaq with fish eggs, with cloudberries and blueberries and wild raspberries, all made to be served in clear cups lined with wild rose petals.  Pilot bread with fireweed jam, potato salad, crab salad, wild greens, rosehips rolled in sugar, and frybread awaited guests as well. Edgar James' wife Magdalena made her duck soup with onions from her garden and seasoned it with her favorite imported curry powder.  The remains of an old town hall that had been patched up and dubbed a qargi when all the gussaks moved into the city served as the venue, and it smelled like heaven.