North of North: Is Walrus Dick Baseball a Real Game?

‘North of North’ is a Netflix sitcom that follows the story of a young woman named Siaja who lives in a tight-knight Inuit community in the Canadian Arctic’s Nunavut territory. After a life-changing incident forces her to reevaluate her life, she realizes that she must end things with her self-centric husband, Ting, and find a new chapter of her life. Nonetheless, this new beginning ends up being difficult to undertake when she’s surrounded on all sides by a loving but meddlesome community. Still, she tries to put her best foot forward and undertakes the task of building a new life for herself and her daughter, Bun.

Siaja’s first order of business in this task arrives as job security at the local community center as the executive assistant under Southerner manager Helen. As her career progresses, she somehow finds herself partaking in a friendly fundraising match of baseball against Ice Cove’s neighboring town, Tuktukalik, which also happens to be their main competition on the shortlist for lucrative funding. As such, the stakes in the friendly match remain high, aptly represented by Ice Cove’s decision to bring out the Walrus Dick for the big baseball math. Inevitably, this storyline fosters certain intrigue about Walrus Dick Baseball and its basis in reality.

Walrus Dick Baseball: Substituting Bats For Walrus Penile Bone is a Real Thing

In ‘North of North,’ episode 5, titled ‘Walrus Dick Baseball,’ Siaja and her town enter a competitive game of baseball with Tuktukalik. However, they aren’t playing the regular American version of the sports. Instead, they decide to randomly choose an Inuit version of the game from the Alaskan Inuit culture. Additionally, instead of a baseball bat, they play the game with the bone of a Walrus Dick, which christens the event as “Walrus Dick Baseball.” As it turns out, the otherwise unconventional use of the Penile Bone from a Walrus as a baseball bat is an actual thing.

Traditionally known as Oosik, the bacula—or penis bone of a walrus—tends to be incredibly long, up to 24 inches in length. Historically, these bones were used as clubs by the Inuit people for hunting purposes. Most famously, Don Young, the Alaskan politician, once waved an 18-inch walrus Oosik at another present party in the middle for a congressional hearing in 1994. On the other hand, Inuit baseball—better known as Anauligaaq—originated as a sport in hunting camps. During its early inception days, the sport would often be played with balls stuffed with animal skin, usually seals or reindeer.

Similarly, for bats, people often used bone or driftwood. Thus, it is no surprise that walrus penile bones, a common stan-in for clubs—ended up being incorporated into the sport as well. Even so, while the equipment of the bone in the sport is probable, it isn’t a requirement. Although Anauligaaq is known as Inuit Baseball, the rules of the game and its regional variations tend to diverge from one’s traditional perception of the sport. In Anauligaaq, the rules are fluid, and the main goal is always to have fun. As such, the depiction of the sport—and its unique possible paraphernalia—in ‘North of North’ remains true to reality.