Maujak - Deep soft snow

Indigenous Knowledge

Maujak ᒪᐅᔭᒃ
'AKittuk aputik. Tapvainak kivisok, atugiaKavutit tallunik.
Soft snow. Easy to sink, you’ll need snowshoes.'
(Nain, Nunatsiavummiutitut, Sikusiutet Committee, Dicker, Holwell and Wilson 2023)

Maujak ᒪᐅᔭᒃ
'When the snow is melting in the springtime, you can fall through all the way up to your waist. That is what we call maujak in the springtime. Then when the sun is nice and hot and the snow is melting really fast, people avoid walking on deep snow because they know it is deep soft snow. And depending how high the snow drift is in that area, you may sink to your knees or all the way to your waist. In the springtime if you are wearing low shoes or boots below your knees, when you try to pull out, you are going to loose your shoes. We don't have it in the fall or the winter.' (Lisi Kavik-Mickiyuk, Sanikiluaq, Sanikiluarmiutitut, March 2025)

Mauyaq
'terrain that causes sinking (e.g., soft soil or deep, soft snow)' (North Alaskan Iñupiaq, Iñupiaq Online, https://inupiaqonline.com/mauya,mauyaq)

Profile photo credit: "Maujak, Nain" by Rex Holwell, (n.d.). Used with permission.