Mark Kalluak wrote " To conserve means to avoid using up something all at once. It means to maintain a reserve for lean days, to avoid falling into a real predicament of shortage. A perfect example would be when matches were scarce. The stick of a match was split in two to extend the supply and to bridge the gap until the supply could be replenished."

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From Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit: What Inuit Have Always Known to be True, edited by Joe Karetak, Frank Tester and Shirley Tagalik, p. 58