I spotted this inukshuk while visiting the Bygdøy museums in Oslo, Norway. The Bygdøy museums include the Kon-Tiki Museum and the Norwegian Maritime Museum.
The inukshuk (original spelling inuksuk, plural inuksuit) is a structure of rough stones stacked vertically, in this case in the form of a human figure. This one was gifted by Canada in 2005, on the occasion of Norway’s centennial celebrations.
Inuksuit can be seen in the Arctic regions of North America – in northern Canada and Alaska – and in Greenland. The Inuit people constructed them as a means of communication in places where there are few natural landmarks .
They were used for navigation in the snow and as signposts to mark sacred places and good hunting and fishing spots, as well as showing the way home.
FOOTNOTE: The website Arctic Kingdom differs from most other sites by claiming that inukshuk is a general term for any vertical mound of stones that serves the purposes described above. It says that those stones specifically stacked to form a human shape are really called inunnguaq. Be that as it may, all of the news reports about the Canadian donation to Norway refer to the figure as an inukshuk (or inuksuk), as does the plaque at the base of the figure. Accordingly, I have complied with the more common usage.
