Yaranga

Ivalu is the Yupik word for sinew, which is the thread that native Arctic people use to sew their traditional skin and fur clothing.

Ivalu

The ivalu does more than work as a type of thread that holds pieces of animal skin and fur together to make a garment. Since skin and fur clothing is so important for Arctic survival, ivalu also has great symbolic meaning to the Inuit. To them, it represents strands of culture that go very far back into time, great strength, a bond that holds families and communities together, the strong connection of life shared between humans, wildlife, and the land, and links between generations.
Ivalu comes from the fibrous tendons found along the spinal column and back legs of the caribou. It can also be made from the esophagus of seal or waterfowl, intestines, and other internal parts of sea mammals and bear, even the covering of whale tongue!
image of

For Inuit women to make the warm clothes such as a parka and mukluks, they begin with an ulu, which is an Inuit knife that can be used as a skin scraper. Once cleaned, the animal skins can be sewn into clothes. The tools used for sewing include ivalu, needles, and a thimble. Traditional sewing needles were made from bone or ivory but Inuit women today use steel needles. Thimbles too, have changed. Made to protect fingers from painful needle stabs, thimbles were once made of seal skin or carved from caribou antler or bone. Today, they are usually made of metal. But the ivalu thread they use has not changed for centuries!

The protection Inuit clothing provides its people is the best, protecting them from one of the harshest climates in the world. It has helped these people and their ancestors survive for thousands of years. Fortunately, the technology and skill used by both the hunters and seamstresses to make these fur and skin clothes has continued to be passed on from generation to generation, making these clothes born in the past a gift that continues living on in our modern world!

Source courtesy of: asdk12.org/schools/williamtyson/pages/Pages/Museum%20Pages/YupikGalley/Skinsewing.html , nativeaccess.com/ancestral/sealskin-3.html

Images courtesy of: jas-townsend.com/productinfo.php?cPath=29&productsid=663, volcanoarts.biz/cart/bookbinding/index.htm