Inuit Women Artists
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.
The artists have not been spoiled by their fame. They have had many changes to act spoiled. Yes, they are proud of what they have done. Some of them have travelled abroad for art shows and some have traveled all over Canada. Some of them have placed murals in big cities. But they do not pretend to be anything but themselves. They value their traditional culture. At the same time, they have a great deal of respect for the new culture that has been emerging in their community over the last fifty years.
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.
