Loon-billed dance caps, created with alternating vertical bands of brown (quirnik) and white (pukiq) caribou fur and topped with a yellow-billed loon beak, were taken out during public celebrations and free-style dancing, or apkua-miut. Worn by men or women and passed from dancer to dancer, performers would shake their heads to set the attached ermine or weasel skin spinning. Across the Arctic, loons were known for their strength and tenacity, dance and song. Today, there is renewed interest in loon-billed caps as young people and old are using the drum and song to re-connect to their language and history.

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