someone was here

[piranha]

pseudo-inuksuit at nanaimo harbour. i've noticed that since the 2010 winter olympics incorporated an inunnguaq in their logo these things have proliferated. i like them in that location, because some people go to great length to construct them well, and at least at the harbour they're not actually misleading as a waymark.

language notes:

"inuksuk" means "substituting for a human" in the inuit language; "inuksuit" is the plural. peoples of the arctic use these monuments of unworked stones for communication and survival. traditionally they indicate a food cache, a reference point, or a navigation marker. they can be constructed from a single upturned stone to large cairns with many stones carefully balanced.

an "inunnguaq" is a subcategory of inuksuit, a structure in a stylized human shape, with legs and arms, which has been coming to mean friendship and welcome, and seems to be mogrifying into an international canadian symbol.