The lamp from soapstone was with the Inuit in the far north furnace and the only light source in the long Polarnacht. She was heated with the fat of animals, and their maintenance oil depended directly on the hunting success in the woodless Arctic. Without them, life at the polar circle was not possible. She was the physical and spiritual center, as with our ancestors the campfire.
The Qulliq connects with the circuits of Mother Earth. Changing the fat of the animals into light and warmth is a picture of eternal life and passing away - the stone from which she is carved has turned into millions of years of hard lava in soft talk.
An igloo without burning Qulliq is cold and dark - for the fat, animals have to be killed - no fat means the extinction of the Qulliq and the end of life.
The lighting of a Qulliq is a prayer to Mother Earth, but also a prayer to our ancestors.
 
    For me the Qulliq  means ceremony:
 
... grinding and carving the stone ...
... igniting the Qulliq at the beginning of each circle ...
... the extinction of the flame at the end ...
... the guarding of their holy fire ...

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