In the middle of a snowstorm, a polar bear attacks an Inuit camp and eviscerates many dogs. Convinced that the animal is sick and that it will attack their camp again, hunters set off in pursuit, risking their lives. Among them, the young Kamik, who dreams of wielding the harpoon with the same ease as his father, will quickly discover the dangers of life in the arctic. First released in 1969, Uumajursiutik unaatuinnamut (Harpoon Hunter) is considered the first Inuktitut novel ever published. This hectic adventure, marked from start to finish by violence and death, plunges us into the reality of a community still isolated from the intrusion of modernity. Above all, through the symbolic hunt for a bear and the hard apprenticeship of a young boy, it portrays the age-old struggle that these men and women must wage in order to survive. Uncommonly powerful and harsh, this seminal novel greatly contributed to the development of Aboriginal literature in Canada. It is here translated for the first time from the original text in Inuktitut.