The text “What it means to be an Inuk” was written in August 1960 by Abraham Okpik who was the first Inuk appointed to the Northwest Territories Council in 1965. Reading this text, I was really impressed by the accuracy of Abraham Okpik’s reflection on the fact that Inuit live the Qallunaat’s way to the detriment of the Inuit way. This is still relevant today and the situation unfortunately goes worst and worst. The Inuit elders and people from the Nunavut Government are given causes for concern by this assessment and work to preserve the Inuit language and traditional knowledge. Just read this and think about it…

We the Inuit, where do we come from and how did we get there ? This is a big question to us all even in the Qallunaat’s way of thinking or learning. We are still a mystery to them, but our ancestors are the ones who we give praise to for all that they have achieved – to live, to feel, to survive for centuries before the white people came. Some of the Qallunaat came with good intentions to teach us a better way of life, some came to destroy our livelihood and culture. But there is one thing we must not forget, and that is how our ancestors brought us this far, in spite of severe cold, and constantly searching for food. Or are we forgetting ?

Let us think back fifty years ago and compare our people’s living conditions then with our present living environment. We are gained very little to add to what our forefathers have left us.

So let us realize today we are living in the present times without observing what we are loosing, and that is our own Inuit culture, which our grandfathers have passed on to us from generation to generation. Are we keeping our old traditions, or are we going to forget them for good ? I am sorry to say we are forgetting them fort now, and if we do not do something to preserve our culture it will just disappear. All will never, never be heard or seen again. […] All will be lost, so let us wake up and restore our old methods and old culture while there is still time, because if we lose it, it will be a tragedy , after all our ancestors have shown us. […]

Today if we can think like our ancestors and put to use what they have achieved for us and adopt the Qallunaat’s way of learning at the same time, and keep our own, we will be further ahead. We should learn as much as we can from this new culture, but we must not forget our own culture which is important to us.

So let us wake up to a new day, with new thoughts, new gifts, and new learning from the new culture. But we must remember our ancestors who had endure the cold, with the help of their knowledge and ingenuity. We could put our learning with this new modern way of living, and only then will we have a bright future, with the white people’s learning and our own culture. […] At the moment we Inuit seem to be off with two different minds. First, the older people know the old way of living, know the language because their forefathers taught them well; and second , the young people are not interested in keeping their own language. They are not being taught to keep their own language. It is important to have own language. At least it will be something we have inherited from our fathers if we keep it.

We should be happy to be who we are, living and working together, keeping our culture strong. After all, we are most comfortable with our own language.

When you learn to work and live the Qallunaat’s way you lose the Inuit way. This can’t be helped. We want progress and comfort and education and security. We can have these things and still keep our language. We need our language to keep us happy together. An Inuk who has lost his language is completely lost. He doesn’t belong anywhere. Keep our language alive and keep the Inuit alive. […] The Inuit language is powerful. It could be used to give many great thoughts to the world. If the Inuit themselves don’t use their language more, and very soon the Inuit too will be a forgotten people. […] It’s no good looking like an Inuk if you can’t speak like one.

There are only very few Inuit, but millions of Qallunaat, just like mosquitoes. It is something very special and wonderful to be an Inuk – they are like the snow geese. If an Inuk forgets his language and his Inuit way, he will be just another mosquito.

Thanks for having read this text untill the end. What says Abraham Okpik is so true that I was not able to bring myself to cut his text…

Source

Okpik, A. (1989). Qanuq inuuluni tukiqamangaat/What it means to be an Inuk/Ce que signifie être un Inuk. Inuktitut.Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, 70: 10-14.

The myths are a part of the traditional Inuit culture and were orally passed on by generation in generations. Today, the elders tell these stories to the youngest, inherit from their parents and their grand-parents. Some stories are very popular in the Arctic thus, inspiring the contemporary artists in sculpture as in graphic arts.

The story of Lumaaq, the blind-boy cared by loons is well known. These is different versions of this story, depending the families and areas ; all talk about a young blind-boy living with his sister and his mother (or grand-mother) who mistreated them. We see here how the boy magilcally gets his sight back, in this excerpt of the myth of Lumaaq.

This story was described by Abraham Nastapoka (Aipajaqaa Nastapuuka) in Inukjuaq in Nunavik (Northern Quebec), in 1967.

In the month of June, when people were living in tents, all kinds of birds migrated north. Some loons, heading to the lakes from the sea, flew by the family’s tent, calling. The blind-boy heard the loon’s calls, and thought they could probably cure his blindness. So the blind-boy asked his sister if there was a lake nearby.

The man spent all day long all alone in the tent. He started thinking that his sister could take him to the lake where the loons went. One day, their mean, adoptive mother was away, he told his sister, “Sister, guide me to the nearest lake. After you take me there, head back home, but make some rock piles close to one another so I can use them as markers to lead me home.” And so they headed for the nearest lake.

They reached the lake. His sister went home, and the blind boy stayed at the lake, waiting for the loons that he had heard calling. The same loons flew to the lake and landed on the water, calling loudly. The boy shouted, “hey, loons, make me able to see ! Make me able to see !” The loons came close to the shore and responded, “Okay, if you want to get rid of your blindness, come to the shore and strip off your clothing.”

The boy did as he was instructed, and stripped off his clothes. He went into the water while the loons held his hands. He stood in the water up to his neck, and the loons licked his eyes. Afterwards, they made him dive under the water, telling him, ” Give us a signal when you need to come up for air. Then we’ll pull you up.” When he was under water, the boy felt nervous, so he signalled the loons even though he knew he could stay under a bit longer. To his astonishment, the loons pull him to the surface as soon as he gave the signal. When he surfaced, they asked him, “Can you see now ? ” He replied, “Yes, I can see you two.”

Again, they licked his eyes, and he has to do the same thing as before, giving a signal when he needed to breathe. On the second dive, he was less nervous, so he staid underwater a bit longer, then signalled for air. When he surfaced, the loons asked him, “Can you see the distant beach-rye grass way out by the foothills ?” He answered, “No”.

So, for the third time, they licked his eyes and made him dive underwater. He was brave enough to stay under much longer than he had before. After he signalled for air, the loons pulled him up again. When he surfaced, they asked him again, “Now, can you see the distant beach-rye grass by the foothills ?” He answered, “Now, I can see the beautiful beach-rye grass.”

The loons said, ” We have cured your blindness.” The boy, able to see, went back to the shore and put on his clothes. After that, the loons flew away.

[transcribed by Jacob Oweetaluktuk and translated by Johnny Nowra]

Source :

Abraham Nastapoka, 1995, «How the tuulliik cured the blind man » in Tumivut, atuagait inuit nunavimmiut iluqqusinginnuangajut/ Tumivut, the cultural magazine of the Nunavik Inuit/ Tumivut, la revue culturelle des Inuit du Nunavik, n◦6, p 21-22.

The following text is extracted from the Inuit Encyclopedia by Mitiarjuk, written between 1965 and 1967 by Mitiarjuk Napaaluk, Inuk from Kangirsujuaq in Nunavik.

It is said that, in the past, the northern lights were a thing much feared. When they were large and frequent and could not be left behind by those who travelled at night in dogsleds, the travellers would cut their dog’s ear, for a bleeding ear was protection against future attacks.

If they didn’t do that, the Inuit who travelled at night in dogsleds would be decapitated by the northern lights.  It is said that the northern lights used human heads as a football; it is because they play football that they move at night as we see them do very well.

Because they use human heads, it is said that northern lights have an odour. This is why people who did not want to be subject to such treatment used to cut a piece of their dogs’ears. 

[text transcripted and translated by B. Saladin d’Anglure with the help of R.P. Lucien Schneider] 

The Inuit Encyclopedia by Mitiarjuk, was written in inuktitut for the anthropologist Bernard Saladin d’Anglure but was never published. An extract was presented in the cultural magazine of the Nunavik Inuit Tumivut and recount old beliefs about stars and other celestial phenomena, and about weather prediction.  

Reference : 

Mitiarjuk Napaaluk, 1993, «The Inuit Encyclopedia by Mitiarjuk» in Tumivut, atuagait inuit nunavimmiut iluqqusinginnuangajut/ Tumivut, the cultural magazine of the Nunavik Inuit/ Tumivut, la revue culturelle des Inuit du Nunavik, 4-ukiuq/n◦ 4, winter//n◦ 4, hiver, pp. 17. 

I refer again to Minnie Aodla Freeman from whom I have already quoted last week an extract of text, to talk about Inuktitut (Inuit language) and art. 

We Inuit have adapted and adopted many different words  to accommodate our understanding of our changing world. Very often, we make up a word that may not exist in our language in order to express something from another culture. The word “art”, for example, did not exist in Inuktitut. That is not to say that Inuit art did not exist, but it was a serious matter in the old days. Traditionally, Inuit made amulets, decorations for the body or hunting equipment, and replicas of everyday objects to attach to their clothing. A lot of traditional art was made for burial purposes. Those objects were taken seriously. 

To Qallunaat [non Inuit], some Inuit use to of charms may not some sound very serious. A lot of traditional art was used to “shoo away” bad spirits, to bring good luck when an event took place, to encourage a young person to bravery, and also to escort the dead to the good spirits rather than have their spirits floating around nowhere.  Very often a charm would be made to a newborn child. Some charms were made to bond closer a very special relationship. Some of these uses are still common today, especially for the bonding of special relationships. It was only when Qallunaat saw this traditional art that it became “art”. 

Today, the word titirtugait is very fascinating to Inuit like me. It is the word being used fro “printmaking”. Inuit from Cape Dorset feel that it could be either a traditional or a modern word. They feel it was made up during the 1950s when printmaking was introduced and somebody tried to translate the word “stencil”. They also believe that it was a word that did and that revived. They say it was once used to describe the picture-message writing on skins and tusks.  However, the significant thing is that all Inuit know what it means today.

To me, it is a word that will be debatable for years to come. It is like the word Qallunaat. Qallunaat does not mean “white people” ; it could mean either “people with beautiful eyebrows” or “people with beautiful manufactured material”.  

Reference :

Minnie Aodla Freeman, “Introduction” in Odette Leroux (ed.), 1995, Inuit Women Artists, Voices from Cape Dorset, Hull : Canadian Museum of Civilizations, pp. 15-16.

This week, I let you share the extract of a text written by Minnie Aodla Freeman, an Inuit woman, accomplished writer and translator:

Although I am neither an artist nor famous, I was involved with these artists [in Kinngait] as an Inuit writer. […] The woman artists were all born here or in the outlying camps. All these artists were brought up with traditional values, but their adaptation to modern society makes them remarkable. Why do I say makes them remarkable ? Because over the years that I have lived in southern Canada, I have not met any other culture that I have adapted so suddenly to another, surviving all its shortcomings, its bad influences, and the misplaced good intentions off well-meaning people. Despite the sudden introduction of news ways, the Inuit women have remained the kind of people their traditional culture trained them to be : patient, polite, giving and always pleasant to see, with smile on their faces. The smile is one of the important gestures in Inuit culture; it can tell you everything about a person.It is not very easy to adapt from one culture to another unless one has a very deep interest in one’s new environment. Over the years, I have seen Inuit trying to keep their culture while people from other cultures disregard their culture, their own foundations. Some do this to accepted by their pairs.

Minnie Aodla Freeman has held a number of positions in the public media and government including serving as Assistant Editor of Inuit Today Magazine, as native Cultural Advisor and Narrator for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Toronto, and as Executive Secretary of the land claims secretary of the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada. She also founded and served as manager-producer of the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation, Ottawa, and has also held lectureships at the University of Alberta, the University of Western Ontario, Memorial University, and Arctic College in Iqaluit.

Reference:
Minnie Aodla Freeman, “Introduction” in Odette Leroux (ed.), 1995, Inuit Women Artists, Voices from Cape Dorset, Hull : Canadian Museum of Civilizations, pp. 14-17.

Kananginak Pootoogook : “We like to keep our culture through carvings and prints. Those art pieces are very valuable : they tell of the past.” (1)

Pitaloosie Saila : “You don’t just do drawings […] you express yourself. It is also a way of life, a part of life. Life is sometimes heavy […] you have to be able to express yourself. Some of it comes out through art […] I am just doing what I know how to do best.” (2)

Qaumak Mikkigaq : “It feels very good when you are comfortable in feeling good about your carvings especially when other people like your carvings. There and then you know you can do a good carving each and every time you begin one.” (3)

Kenojuak Ashevak : “I have a style of drawing that doesn’t belong to anybody but me. It is my own and I own it but people can try to copy it but they can’t. They try but they can’t. It would be hard to express how little I desire to imitate anybody else’s work. I have no desire on earth to do that. At the same time I don’t really want my style, what I feel belongs to me, to be imitated by anyone else. I feel that that’s fair. I’m not going to copy anyone else.” (4)

Kananginak Pootoogook : “I can never start drawing unless I have something in my head. Only when I really clearly see the pictures in my head do I start drawing. I don’t really like the drawings that are too colourful. The thing I really like is when the colours are matching or when they’re almost the same – when the colours are like reality.” (5)

Taqialuk Nuna : “I really enjoy carving when I am not hunting. I have been carving fro about ten years. I did my first carving when I was a young boy, around eight years old. I used to watch my father carve, but I didn’t do a lot because of school and work. […] I have learned to approach my work from the shapes that I see in the stone […] without thinking too much about how I though it should look. When I carve, I go along with the shape that is formed as I chip away at the stone.” (6)

Références :
(1) Jean Blodgett, 1991, In Cape Dorset we do it this way : three decades of Inuit printmaking, Kleinburg, McMichael Canadian art collection, p. 115.
(2) Odette Leroux (ed.), Inuit Women Artists, Voices from Cape Dorset, Hull : Canadian Museum of Civilizations, 1995, p. 27.
(3) Ibid., p. 25.
(4) Jean Blodgett, 1985, Kenojuak, Toronto : Firefly Books, p. 74-75
(5) Dorset Fine Arts (ed.), 2007, Cape Dorset Print : A retrospective. Fifty Years of Printmaking at the Kinngait Studios, Toronto : éd. Pomegranate, p. 184-185.
(6) Department of Indian Affaires and Northern Development (Canada)/Ministère des Affaires Indiennes du Nord Canadien, 1997, Transitions. Contemporary Canadian Indian and Inuit Art / L’art contemporain des Indiens et des Inuit du Canada, p.48.

The Kinngait community is located on the south west coast of Baffin Island on the Foxe Peninsula of Baffin in Nunavut territory (Canadian Arctic). 1236 persons live there (Statistic Canada 2006) including about 95% of Inuit and 5% of Qallunaat (non Inuit).

Qallunaat people generally use the English name “Cape Dorset” to talk about the community instead of its inuit name : Kinngait which means in inuktitut “mountains”. Kinngait Hamlet is well known on the international sphere as the most famous centre of artistic creation in the Canadian Arctic. Kinngait was the first Canadian arctic community to produce drawings and prints; the graphic arts programme has been launched in 1956.

The West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative was founded in 1959 by Inuit own-selves to control the artworks distribution outside the Inuit territory and redistribute locally the profit of sales. Over the next five years, twenty co-ops were established across the Canadian Artic, ranging from Cape Dorset in the east to Holman Island in the west. Today, there are thirty-five which a small group leads even today artistic programs.

The artistic production - like drawing, print or carving - has been successfully developed in Kinngait, thanks to the Inuit artists’ will and enthusiasm as well as to James and Alma Houston’s presence from 1951 to 1962 and Terry Ryan, first as an arts advisor in 1960 and then as manager of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-Operative from 1962 – 2001. The Dorset Fine Arts was established in Toronto in 1978 as the sale marketing division of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative.

Over three generations of artists have produced sculpture, drawings and prints from Kinngait. As of 2005 over a dozen artists from Cape Dorset have been made members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts: Abraham Etungat, Pitseolak Ashoona, Pauta Saila, Kenojuak Ashevak, Osuitok Ipeelee, Kananginak Pootoogook, Mayureak Ashoona, Kiawak Ashoona, Paulaussie Pootoogook, Toonoo Sharky, Pitaloosie Saila, Aqjangajuk Shaa and Oviloo Tunnillie.

Today, the artistic creation and the sale of the works represent for people who live in Kinngait a major source of incomes; but more still, artworks act as supports of the elders’ memory and narratives for the future generations.

More detail on this website : www.dorsetfinearts.com

The representation of a mother and her child in sculpture is not a frequent subject in the Inuit art contrary to the qallunaat art (not Inuit) where this topic appears in the religious as profane representations. This theme remains relatively recent in the history of Inuit art although it is more present in contemporary graphics art than in sculpture.

Formerly, the miniature representation of human characters (inunnguaq it inuktitut) only consisted of the making of shaman amulets and toys for the children, in the form of small ivory or bone carvings and skins dolls. It is only from 1950s with the launch of the artistic programs in the Arctic that raises the stone sculpture of humans.

Carved characters in stone are mostly hunter with or without game in small size. This topic is particularly spread, especially since the artists are above all hunters, formerly as today ; their artistic creations are drawn from their own experiences.

Inuit women also involve in the artistic production: if formerly they dedicated themselves more in drawing, in tapestry or in the clothing making, women of the Arctic communities want to diversify their activities while increasing their incomes and some of them started carving…. Thus, new iconographic topics appear with more feminine subjects such as the maternity and the mother to the child or feminine activities in camps.

Sat or up, the mother is represented almost always with her child in the hood of her amauti (feminine jacket): only the head of the baby is then visible. It is about an identical very strong symbol because the amauti remains the feminine traditional garment par excellence, in a society where the maternity is very valued. This mode of representation is the most the common, even if sometimes, the mother carries her child in the arms or holds him/her the hand if this one is bigger.

The mother and child topic is one of Mary Usutsiaq’s favourite subjects, from Kinngait. Nevertheless, the artists who sculpture the theme of the maternity are not exclusively women: Booby Aupaluqtuq, a young sculptor from Inujjuaq, represents this theme among the others.

http://www.inuitartzone.com/fr/artistes/210/bobby-aupaluktuk/oeuvres/

Three 2008 print collections recently left the art studios from Nunavut and are available for purchase in the Inuit art galleries: the Kinngait 2008 Spring Print Release, the Panniqtuuq 2008 Annual Print Collection and the 2008 Qamanittuaq Print Portfolio.

Kinngait 2008 Spring Print Release

Since its first print collection released in 1956 at the Kinngait Studio, the graphic artists -drawers and printmakers- carry out there each year an annual print collections and a spring print release. The Kinngait 2008 spring release was presented to the public last week. This collection gathers together nine works made by seven talented artists : Qavavau Mannumi, Itii Putuguq, Arnaqu Ashevak, Suvinai Asuna, Jutai Tunu, Tiivi Ningiukuluk, Kinialli Siasi.

Some of the artists contribute to the Kinngait’s print collection for the first time. Each brings their own style with a contemporary iconography thus, sharing their own vision of the world. Represented topics bound to the Inuit contemporary way of life such as Christian religion, currents clothes or music.

Panniqtuuq 2008 Annual Print Collection

Thirteen prints make up this 2008 collection realized by nine artists : Abigail Uutuuva, Julli Atagujuq, Lypa Pitisulak, Gabriel Bourassa, Ilisapi Usulutaq, Jusia Maniapik, Giitalu Akulukjuk, David Amstrong and Andrew Qappik. For this print collection, the artists draw from the traditional knowledge with sensitivity linked to shamanism, myths, game and their individual experiences. Three practices has been used for this collection released : etching, stencil and relief print.

Drawers and printmakers in Panniqtuuq have been involved in printmaking since 1974, when the art studio opened. But a new era in arts and crafts management and development in Pangnirtung began in 1991 with the opening of the Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts & Crafts.

2008 Qamanittuaq Print Portfolio

The 2008 Qamanittuaq Print Release presents ten new graphics by established and emerging artists. Combining the traditional style of past collections since 1970 with an innovative and refreshing approach, this collection brings work by Daren Itkilik, Thomas Iksiraq, Tony Angualluq, William Noah, William Manirnaluk, Philippa Iksiraq, Matthew Nanauq, Myra Kukiiujaut, Jimmy Kamimmalik, Irene Avaalaaqiaq.

Despite of a fire which destroyed the print shop in 1977 and the entire print collection for the next year and the closure of the workshop in 1990 due to financial difficulties, efforts to revive printmaking in Qamanittuaq in 1996, sponsored by the Nunavut Arctic College, allowed for the release of new print collections.

To see the new print collections, visit these websites :

Kinngait : http://www.dorsetfinearts.com/specialreleases.html

Panniqtuuq : http://www.uqqurmiut.com/pangprints2008mainpage.html

Qamanittuaq : http://www.ccca.ca/inuit/english/qamanittuaq.html

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection d’Art Canadien in Kleinburg (Ontario, Canada) is devoted to collection and exhibiting only Canadian art, including First Nations and Inuit art. The McMichael’s Inuit Art Collection is a major public resource that attracts researchers on Inuit art and culture, committed collectors and art galleries.

The Inuit art collection of the McMichael includes paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures created in the Canadian Arctic, using many different materials and individual styles. The gallery’s permanent collection is supplemented by the long loan of 100 000 drawings, prints and sculptures from the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative Ltd, based in Kinngait (Baffin Island, Nunavut).

A current exhibition is devoted to Inuit art entitled « Kenojuak : From drawing to print », until November 30, 2008. This event examines Kenojuak’s involvement with the Kinngait printing program by comparing a selection of the artist’s drawings to their subsequent prints. Focusing on the collaborative relationship between artist and printmaker, this exhibition contains 11 drawings and 11 prints realized by Kenojuak.

« Kenojuak, like most Inuit graphic artists, relies on the considerable skills of print shop staff to transfer her drawings into prints. At times, changes made to the original drawing compositions are minimal, but during the early 1970s, extensive changes were made, particularly in the use of color and markings. » notes Shana White, Mc Michael’s Assistant Curator who curated the exhibition.

The McMichael proposed recently an exhibition focussed on the early experiment in printmaking launched in the winter of 1957 and on the resultant small series of prints by a dozen artists in 1958. This exhibition was entitled « Saumik : James Houston’s legacy».

The McMichael officially opened in July of 1966, in Kleinburg (Ontario, Canada). Formerly, private collectors built their art collection dedicated to Canadian artists when they started purchasing in 1955 the artworks of Lawren Harris, Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven and their contemporary. Other the years, the collection has continued to grow including First Nations and Inuit art; expending now through purchases and donations from private and corporate art collectors.

www.mcmichael.com