“Inuit have used the oil lamp, qulliq (qul-liq), for thousands of years. I see our path as a qulliq. The base itself is made of hard thick stone that gets hot from the flames. The wick is a mixture of moss and cotton. The oil is from seal, whale or caribou fat.
The base is us starting with this tuberculosis project. The oil is us Inuit who want the knowledge but have no way of getting the answers around tuberculosis or other concerns. The flame is the knowledge. It starts out very small and spreads slowly to others. The more people want to learn, the more fuel we have and the bigger and hotter the flame becomes.
That’s how I see this project. Just like the qulliq my mother made for me, I will also carry this with me always and pass it on to the next generation.”
—Sheila Enook, TB Project Coordinator