InuitArt. From the Centre: An Examination of the Drawings of Luke Anguhadluq. Features. The Story of a Yup'ik Eskimo Knitting Co-op.

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1 Inuit QUARTERLY

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3 InuitArt QUARTERLY II Features From the Centre: An Examination of the Drawings of Luke Anguhadluq by Cynthia Cook Most careers are drawing to a close at 65. Luke Anguhadluq's career as a graphic artist was just starting at that age. m Oomingmak in Alaska: The Story of a Yup'ik Eskimo Knitting Co-op. by Janet Catherine Berlo Muskox hair has been spun into an economic lifeline for some Yup 'ik women in Alaska. Cover Photo... Hawk Taking Off, c. 1987, Ovilu Tunnillie, Cape Dorset (green stone; 17.4 x 72 x 38 cm; Canadian Museum of Civilization). Photo: Harry Foster, Canadian Museum of Civilization Departments Editorial Artists Speak Vol. 10, No. 1 Spring 1995 Reviews : Exhibitions An Exhibition, a Book and an Exaggerated Reaction: A review essay by Janet Catherine Berlo of Isumavut: The Artistic Expression of Nine Cape Dorset Women On Collectors and Collecting: Selections from the Herb and Cece Schreiber Family Collection 38 In the Time of the Kayak: Hunting in the Eastern Canadian Arctic 40 Update 44 In Memoriam 50 At the Galleries 52 Letters 58 Calendar 60 Advertiser Index Views 60 64

4 QAMINITTUAQ DRAWINGS BY BAKER LAKE ARTISTS Luke Anguhadluq Irene Avaalaaqiaq Marjorie Esa Martha lttuluka' naaq Hannah Kigusiuq Janet Kigusiuq Myra Kukiiyaut Victoria Mamnguqsualuk William Noah Fran<;:oise Oklaga Jessie Oonark Nancy Pukingrnak Harold Oarliksaq Ruth Oaulluaryuk Armand Tagoona Simon Tookoome Ruth Annaqtuusi T ulurialik Marion Tuu'luuq Mark Uqayuittuq April 27 to September l 0, 1995 Opening: Thursday, April 27 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. ;;;:o rn 358 GORDON STREET, GUELPH, ONTARIO, CANADA N l G l Yl FAX (519) PHONE (519) l 0 s: )> n 0 z )> r- 0 (/) ---; rn i ;;;:o ---; )> ;;;:o ---; n rn z ---; Pitseolak Niviaqsi Woman In Braids 15"H x 13''W HOUSTON NORTH GALLERY 110 Monta gue Street, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada B0J 2C0 (902) (fax)

5 QUARTERLY Spring 1995 Vol. lo, No. I Editor Marybelle Mitchell Production editor Sheila Sturk -Green Editorial assistant Matthew Fox Design and typography ACART Circulation Karen MacIntyre, Matthe w Fox Inuit Art Quarterly is published four times each year by the Inuit An Foundation. INUIT ART FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS J. James Ellen on, Mattiusi lyaituk, Send address changes, letters to the editor and advertising enquiries 10: Inuit Art Quarterly 2081 Mcrivale Road Nepean, Ontario K2G I G9 Tel: (613) ; Fax: (613) Subscription rates (one year) Cha ritable registration number: ln11it Art EDITORIAL Canadian Museum of Civilization has done something different with its current exhib ition, lsumavut: The Artistic Expression of Nine Cape Dorset Women. Not I was privileged to be with the artists guard raised the black curtain and we caught sight of her heroic Oopik Going for Water, installed at the entranc e to the ill-consider ed attempt by one reporter to fabricate an "angle" (Janet Berlo deals with this efficient ly in her review essay, beginning on page 26). One of the nicest surprises of the whole event is that the book, though handsomely produced, is not likely to languish unread on a coffee table. Once opened, it will be read cover to cover. It's not that often that a $45 book becomes a best-seller, but as I write this, two months after the October 6 opening, the mu seum, onl y one of the retailers, had sold 500 copies. The museum organized several book signings during the opening days of the exhibition and it was quite a sigh t to see ten wom en and one man (Jimmy Manning of Cape Dorset, who helped facilitate the whol e even t) signing books for custom ers lin ed up, several persons deep, to the doors of the museum shop. This was truly an event to be remarked and rememb ered. It could only have happened at the Canadian Mus ewn of Civili- 7..at ion, a people-friendly institution if ever there was one. MM 3 In Canada: S26.75 GST incl. (GST registration no. R ) United States: US$25 Foreign: Equivalent o! C$30 in your country's own currency; cheque, money order, VISA or MasterCard accepted. gallery. Once inside, the artists quick ly scattered to their own sections - in some cases a room, in some cases a visually separated section of the spacious Indian and Inuit Art Gallery. They were clearly overwhelm ed at seeing their work pu lled together in this fashion. At one point, Minni e Freeman asked me if I had any kle enex, "because the women are all crying." It was a moving exp erience for everyone. The 500 or so people who attended the opening that night were palpably excited about the show, and it hasn't died down. This has been one of the most pub licized and most talked about Inuit exhibitions in a long time, marred only by an The lnuir Art Foundation gratefully acknowledges the fina ncial support of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. All rights reserved. Reproduc1ion without wriuen permission of the publisher is strictly forbidden. Not responsible for unsolicited material. The views expressed in Inuit Art Quanerly arc not necessarily those of the editor or the board of directors. IAQ is a member of the Canadian Magazine Publishers' Association. Publications mail registration number Publication date of this issue: February ISSN only has curator Odette Leroux made a large body of work by som e important women artists accessible to us - through the exhibition and a companion book - she has also estab l.ished a new collaborativ e mod el for Inuit art exhibit ion s. Leroux was patient and humble enough to involve the artists in the project from its beginning in late The seven living women wer e consulted about their work (which sometime s led to ret itlin g) and invited to write their stories for publication. As if that weren't enough, Leroux also sought input from an academi c (Marion Jackson) and invited three other Inuit women aboard as advisors and interprete rs (Minnie Aodla Freeman, Annie Manning and Ann Meekitjuk Hanson). The result is a full y-rounded and unusually satisfying presentation of a body of Inuit art. We learn a lot about art and we learn a lot about these Inuit women artists and wh y they do what they do. when they got their first glimpse of the install ed exhibition. Oopik Pitseolak gasped - as did I - when the security Charlie Kogvik, Oopik Pitseolak, Simata Pitsiulak, John Tcrriak, Theresie Tungilik, Natar Ungalaq, Doris Shadbolt, OC, Virginia Watt, CM Kenojuak Ashevak and Jack Anawak, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, at the opening of lsumavut, October 6, Advertising sales Sheila Stu rk-green, Kare n MacInty re, Matth ew Fox Contributing editors Peter Millard, George Swinton, Cynthi a Cook T he A New Model for Inuit Art Exhibitions InuitArt

6 4 NEW DIRECTIONS: ARTISTIC CAREER, Anguhadluq's career as a graphic artist began in 1960, when he was 65. He may well have been encouraged to draw at this early stage in the development of the Baker Lake arts and crafts industry by the success of his cousin, Jessie Oonark. Two of her drawings had been included in the 1960 Cape Dorset print catalogue. Tom Butters, the area administrator at Baker Lake, must have recognized In spite of increased contact between the two cultures over the next several decades, the Utkuhikhalingmiut continued to Jive on Lhe land and struggled to retain as many of their traditions as possible. In the late 1950s, however, their lives were dram atically altered by a famine, which occurred when the migratory routes of the caribou shifted away from the Back River. The famine meant the loss of many lives and the permanent abandonment of the region by the majority of the survivors, including Anguhadluq and his extended family. Most moved into or nearer established settlements. Anguhadluq had established a reputation as a great camp leader and a successful hunter. When he moved into Baker Lake in 1961, he took up a new profession as an artist, in which he expected similar success. As Jack Butler, the crafts officer at Baker Lake from 1969 to 1972, says, "Anguhadluq was a real patriar ch. He ass umed that if he did drawings they would be sign ifican t. He was amused that we took such an interest but not entire ly amused. He expected to be respecte d." 1 TRADITIONAL LIFE ON THE LAND, Luke Anguhadluq was born in 1895 near ChanLrey Inlet into a group of Inuit known as the Utkuhikhalingmiut. Contact between these Inuit and white explorers, traders and missionaries during the 19th century was minimized by the inaccessibility of the Back River area. Brief visits of no more than a few hours made by the men of three Arctic expeditions had no impact on the traditional lifestyle of these inland Eskimos. In 1923, wh en the Danish explor er from Greenland, Knud Rasmussen, spent six days with the Utkuhikhalingmiut, he noted that most were seeing white men for the first time (l 931: 467). Only those young men who had travelled into trading posts to trade fox pelts for store-bought goods had been exposed lo the white man's culture. An Examination of the Drawings of Luke Anguhadluq by Cynthia Cook

7 Anguhadluq as another promising talent, since he asked R.L. Kennedy, the regional administrator in Churchill, to evaluate the artist's graphite drawings in January 196 l. The drawings passed through several hands, finally ending up in Ottawa on the desk of R.A.J. Phillips, Director of Plans and Policy, Northern Administration Branch, who commented that, although the drawings were "primitive," certain figures, the caribou and birds had "genuine vitality." The drawings were JnuttArt returned to Tom Butters in Baker Lake, with two suggestions: that Anguhadluq be supplied with plenty of drawing materials and that subsequent samples be sent to the Eskimo cooperative at Cape Dorset, where Anguhadluq's designs, if acceptable, could be made into prints. 2 It appears that the second suggestion was not followed, as Terry Ryan, arts adviser at the Cape Dorset cooperative in the 1960s and now general manager, does not recall receiving drawings by Anguhadluq. 3 As part of the government's policy to use arts and crafts as a means of providing income for the Inuit, first Bill fig. 11: Grazing Caribou, c. 1972, Luke Anguhadluq, Baker Lake (coloured pencil and graphite on wove paper; 57 x 78.2 cm; collection of Samuel and Esther Sarick). An Gallery of Ontario

8 . ' r~:..,... - : ~... fig. 1: Fishing Camp, c. 1967, Luke Anguhadluq, Baker Lake (porous pointed pen on wove paper; 23 x 30.5 cm; Winnipeg Art Gallery). Art Gallery of Ontario Lannour ( ) and then crafts officer Gabriel Gely ( ) encouraged the production of drawings in Baker Lake with the idea of eventually establishing a print shop. To date, no drawings by Anguhadluq from this period have surfaced, although Gely recalls not only purchasing graphics from Anguhadluq, but basing at least one of the prints produced in the mid s on his work. 4 These early prints have yet to be fully catalogued and it may be that they contain the work to which Gely referred. The first graphics by Anguhadluq that are known to exist were drawn during Boris Kotelewetz's tenure as crafts officer (March 1966 until early 1969). Two images drawn in felt-tip pen by Anguhadluq, String Game and Fishing Camp (jig. 1), may pre-date April 1968, when crafts officers were advised by the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council to discontinue the use of this unstable medi um. Kotelewetz was succeeded in July 1969 by Jack Butler, who was charged with the task of establishing a viable printmaking workshop in Baker Lake. Four months after his arrival, Butler presented 31 prints, including 5 by Anguhadluq, to the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council. The development of an active printmaking program resulted in an immediate and prodigious increase in the production of drawings by the graphic artists in Baker Lake and an extremely productive period for Anguhadluq, who filled four sketchbooks with drawings during Over the next decade, 81 of Anguhadluq's drawings were translated into prints for the annual Baker Lake print collections. His work was not only admired by southern collectors, but also respected by his peers. The Butlers, who considered printing to be a creative process, allowed the printmaker s to freely interpret the drawings (see Butler 1976: 22). A comparison of Anguhadluq's drawings with their corresponding prints suggests, however, that generally, extreme care was taken to reproduce the colours, forms and figure-ground relationships in his images. This was the result of a careful study und ertaken by the Inuit printmakers, who concluded that the unique spatial relationships in Anguhadluq's drawings must be preserved. 5 The Butlers left Baker Lake in 1972, although Jack continued to serve as a consultan t to the Sanavik Co-operative until December His replacement, John Evans, described the then aging AnguhadJuq as a quiet man who still summoned the energy to walk several miles out onto the land almost every day to hunt or fish. He recalled that Anguhadluq drew only occasionally, but often enough to have several drawings selected for each of the annual print catalogues produced during his tenure. 6 Anguhadluq died in February His choice of burial reflected his life as a man who never lost touch with the land or his roots. His poignant request was summarized by Bill Eakin and Jack Butler: "Anguhadluq, the 87-year-old hunter and artist, had a final request. He did not want to be buried in the Anglican cemetery. He did not want his 'box' pulled to his grave by skidoo. He wanted to be buried on his favourite viewing hill, where for years he had searched the horizon around Baker Lake for caribou. He wanted to be pulled to that place by dog-team. And that's how it was done" (1984: 20). STYLISTIC DEVELOPMENT Anguhadluq's drawings can be divided into two distinct periods: the early period, which extends from 1960 until the end of 1969, and the mature period, beginning in 1970 and ending with his death in The early works were executed largely with graphite and a limited number of coloured pencils or felttip pens on sheets of paper taken from sketchbooks, the later works with a full range of coloured pencils on larger sheets of high-quality, handmade paper. The change in materials within these two 6 1/.., f 1tl "' " I ('...,.;,,.,. IO OC::

9 time periods was accompanied by a parallel shift in the formal devices employed by Anguhadluq to create his images. The figures in Fishing Camp (c. 1967) are characteristic of Anguhadluq's earliest surviving work. His roughly outlined forms are filled with agitated and unevenly distributed hatchings. The silhouetted figures are textured, yet emphatically two-dimensional because of the even pressure with which the hatch marks are applied. Arms on the figures extend as stump-like projections from the chest, or arch sharply away from the should erline to terminate in disproportionately large hands with splayed fingers. Females are differentiat ed from males solely by the bulging parka hood and carrying pouch curving down their back. In a later drawing ( 1969) entitled Family (fig. 2), the frontal figures foreshadow those that appear during the mature period. Anguhadluq ' s dense, energetic strokes of graphite give weight to the arms and legs of the figures. He balances these solid shapes with faces and bodies defined by line and articulated with linear details such as decorative markings on the parkas, carefully rendered eyes and noses, a moustache and beard on the man's face and tattoo marks on that of the woman. The 1970 change in materials contribut ed to a marked shift in the formal qualities of Anguhadluq 's mature work. Seemingly enamoured with the variety and vibrancy of the colours at his disposal, Anguhadluq applied hatch marks with an increased vigour that endowed his forms with a new strength and solidity. As in his early drawings, however, the forms lacked tonal gradation, and a sense of two-dimensionality continued to predominate. It must be stressed that the evolution of Anguhadluq ' s figural imagery was not strictly linear. Stylisti c changes resulted in one method of representing the human form being added to his repertoire rather than replacing those that preceded it. Thus, it is not uncommon to see his early figures reappear in drawings from the mature period, especially if the figures are small in scale. Changes in Anguhadluq's animal imagery w ere less dramatic as he developed, very early, an uncanny ability to represe nt their salient characteristics - the gait of a caribou, the compact body and perky ears of a rabbit, the upstretched neck of a goose. In accordance with their simplicity of form, animals were animated with a minimum of means. Anguhadluq sugge sted, for example, the leisurely movement of grazing caribou through the slight turn of their heads or a minor adjustment in the alignment of their legs. USING COLOUR TO SERVE A RANGE OF FUNCTIONS One of the most appealing formal elements in Anguhadluq's drawings is colour. In spite of the limited range available to him during the l 960s, Anguhadluq used colour to serve a range of functions that he continued to employ throughout his career: to represent local colouring, to create aesthetic appeal, to organize his composition, to focus attention t '( on a pictorial motif or to symbolize concepts. In the 1969 drawing Swimming Caribou (fig. J), for example, colour performs formal, narrative and symbolic roles. Formally, the maroon calf func tions as a counterpoint to the surrounding mature caribou rendered in graphite; the addition of colour strengthens the calf's diminutive form and underscores its central position in the composition. Colour also supports the narrative content of the image by calling attention to the young calf which, within hours of irs birth, is expected to follow the herd on its northward migration. To assist the calf on this difficult journey, the adult caribou have formed a protective circle around it as they swim across the water. Symbolically, the emphasis on the calf through its colour and the compositional structure of the drawing may also refer to the significance of the survival of the young calf in the regeneration of the species, which in tum ensures the sur vival of the Utkuhikhalingmiut. While Anguhadluq occasionally used local colouring in his representations of figures and animals, more frequently his fig. 2: Family, 1969, Luke Anguhadluq, Baker Lake (coloured penci l and graphite on wove paper; 61 x 48.4 cm; Winnipeg Art Gallery) c ~ 0 _.'!; -;; \,!) < lnuitart 7

10 fig. 3: Swimming Caribou, 1969, Luke Anguhadluq, Baker Lake (coloured pencil and graphite on wove paper; 48.5 x 61.1 cm; collection of Jack and Sheila Butler). Art Gallery of Ontario colour selection was extremely subjective. His most imaginative use of colour in the early drawings occurred in his representations of the dog. Drawn in profile, the head, legs and tail of the animal were comp letel y filled in with coloured pencil or graphite, whereas the body was delineated with a thick boundary line only. The enclosed space representing the body cavity was then treated like a canvas on which experiments with purely decorative shapes and colours were made. In Men and Dog (jig. 4), the circular bull's-eye motifs on the sides of the dog recall the decorative circle and dot motifs incised on the ivory impl e ments of Alaskan Eskimo cultures that go back to the first millennium AD. This creative enjoyment of colour reach ed a high point in Anguhadluq's representations of the amautik during the mature period, when he was provided with a full range of coloured pencils (see fig. 5). fig. 4: Men and Dog, 1969, Luke Anguhadluq. Baker Lake (coloured pencil and graphite on wove paper; 60.7 x 47.8 cm; collection of Jack and Sheila Butle r). The challenge for Anguhadluq, as he used more colours within a single image, was to unify the increased colour contrasts without diminishing their intensity of expression. He accomplished this by submitting colours to repeated patterns and by confining forms created with rich colour combinations to rigorous organizational structures that contain ed their vibrancy. Anguhadluq restrains the bright, contrasting colours in Fishermen and Women Cleaning Fish /jig. 6), for example, by creating a rigid rectangular format within which the shapes, as well as the neutralizing effect of the while background, further soften the vibrancy of the colours. In drawings in which similar motifs of the same colo ur were rep eated, Anguhadluq was presented with the problem of preventing the legato of recurring forms from becoming monotonous. This he overcame by introdu cing a staccato note to provide variety. In Hunting Caribou from Kayaks (fig. 7), for example, the predictability of the repeated graphite forms of the swimming caribou is broken by the insertion of three blue caribou in the upper left corner of the image. Asymmetrical pictorial compositions created by the slightly off-centre placement of figures high up on the sheet of paper distinguish Anguhadluq's early drawings from those that followed. The disposition of forms on or above the horizontal axis produces a sense of spatial recession (as in Men and Dog, fig. 4) or suggests the forward movement of the figures (see Family, fig. 2). Usually small in scale, the figures are surrounded by large areas of unarticulated background space. The ratio of the much smaller positive pictorial motif to the more expansive, negative background space represents the actual experience of the Inuit, surrounded by the vast open space of the Arctic. Almost immediately after Anguhadluq received large r sheets of drawing paper in 1970, he adjusted the figure-to-ground relationship in his imag ery. Representations of hum an Art Gallery of Ontario

11 fig. 5: Woman, c. 1971, Luke Anguhadluq, Baker Lake (coloured pencil and graphite on wove paper; 66 x 50.8 cm; collection of Stanley and Jean Zazelenchuk). 0 " c:: 0 '- 0 ~ c -;; CJ <L-... _J ' '~ fig. 6: Fishermen and Women Cleaning Fish, 1974, Luke Anguhadluq, Baker Lake (coloured pencil and graphite on wove paper; 76.5 x 56 cm; collection of Samuel and Esther Sarick). 0 ; 0 "' '- 0 :,. ti ~ CJ figures, animals, or an exchange between the two, were enlarged and centred on the page. The tension of the early drawings, between small pictorial motifs and the large surrounding areas of empty space, was replaced by a much more balanced interaction between the two elements (see jig. 5). In some of Anguhadluq's later drawings, narrative content is subsumed by an increased focus on the formal structure of his work. This can be illustrated by a series of drawings depicting the drum dance. In his 1970 drawing (fig. 8), the scene is abundantly detailed: the figure holding an enlarged yellow drum is encircled by eight men and ten women. The highl y embellished female figures are dressed in fringed amautii, with babies peering from the carrying pouches. Six peripheral figures stand outside the circle formed by the audience. In a 1972 version of the same subject (fig. 9), the drwnmer is surrounded by a smaller audience, whose individual figures are represented only by busts. All peripheral elements have been eliminated. Injig. IO, formal concerns dominate as Anguhadluq increasingly reduces the audience. Highly simplified faces now surround what is perhaps a remnant of the drum that had earlier held this position - a circle which, itself, encloses more faces. As always, Anguhadluq added this mode of representation to his oeuvre without elimina ting his more descriptive representations, so that highly detailed drawings of drum dances appear throughout the 1970s alongside his more abstract ones. Interestingly, while this distillation of pictorial motifs was occurring in some drawings, a parallel increase in descriptive detail s was taking place in others. To organize the increased number of pictorial elements in these drawings, lnuitart 0

12 10 fig. 7: Hunting Caribou from Kayaks, 1972, Luke Anguhadluq, Baker Lake (coloured pencil and graphite on wove paper; 66 x cm; Winnipeg Art Gallery). Anguhadluq developed new compositional structures. The repetition of similar pictorial motifs within horizontal registers, for example, created a tight compositional structure that Anguhadluq used to suggest the successive stages in the movement of an individual animal across the visual field or to represent herds of animal s or large gatherings of Inuit (see jig. 11). One of the most intriguing organizational devices employed by Anguhadluq - the multi-directional placement of forms in his compositions - was first used in his early work. In the 1969 drawing Hunter and Two Caribou (fig. 12), the hunter and the animals are aligned with adjacent edges of the paper, creating a dual perspective. During the mature period, he developed more elaborate compositional structures incorporating multiple perspectives and multiple directionality. By radiating forms out from a central core, for example, Anguhadluq found an effective means of representing a pack of hungry wolves encircling and devouring a dead caribou, a herd of muskoxen's characteristic circular position of defence against predators (fig. 13) and an audience surrounding a drum dancer. With these radial compositions, Anguhadluq created order in complex scenes and was able to represent dearly the actual configuration of the humans or animals participating in these activities. It is Anguhadluq 's use of multiple perspectives and multiple directionality that has most intrigued viewers of his work. As I exa mined Anguhadluq's drawings for the significance of th ese formal devices, a working hypothesis on their relationship to the represen tation of space and time evolved. Tentative conclusions w ere then tested in a series of interviews conducted with Inu it artists and non-artists of a mature age in Baker Lake. Photographic reprodu ctions of Anguhadluq's drawings were consistently given similar interpretations by the informants who viewed them. lt became clear, through my discussions with the Inuit, that Anguhadluq' s method of representing his world was highly communicable to those who had shared similar experi ences while living on the land. The following thesis has been developed from a combination of looking at the visual material and of listening to the Inuit who so kindly took the time to discuss Anguhadluq's drawings with me. SPACE AND TIME IN.ANCiUHADLUQ'S DRAWINGS Space and time are fundamental dimensions of human existenc e. As the physical sciences increasingly conceptualize space and time, reducing them to objective and measurabl e quantities, we have been denied a more emotional contact with space and time as lived experiences. Our space has become enclosed by mathematically defin ed borders consisting of straight lines and rigid planes. Time has been reduced to a monolinear mechanical ticking of the clock. Surviv al in the Arctic, however, requir ed that the Utkuhikhalingmiut face the real world every day. Through their lived experiences, they developed a keen knowledge of their spatial and temporal environment. Jean Briggs noted that the land, which appeared to her as empty and limitless, was to them as "grooved with associations as a familiar face... Every point of land, every rise, every island and backwater was known and named, had its use and its associations" (1974: 34-35). This intimate knowledge of their surroundings helped the Inuit to relocate their meat caches, find their way in inclement weather and navigate long distances along the Back River system to traditional hunting and fishing grounds. Their awareness of the space around them was coupled with an acute sensitivity to time, not measured by the clock but moulded by their expe rience. Hunters were able to determine not only where the migratory routes of fish and game were, but also when the animals passed through them. To catch caribou at their crossing places or fish in the rivers, the Utkuhikhalingmiut had to time their arrival to precede that of the animals. What Anguhadluq expressed in his imagery was this direct and meaningful experience of space and time. Wes tern civilization's theoretical concepts and its conventional methods of representing space and time had littl e influence on Anguhadluq's work. Formal devices such as one-point perspe ctive, foreshortening and overlapping forms are almost absent. Instead, Anguhadluq used multiple perspectives within individual motifs as well as in his compositional structures to indicate spatial and temporal shifts in his drawings. In the drawing Woman with Hunter (fig. 14), large, simplified forms constructed from solid planes of flat colour stand against an unarticulated white background. The temporal sequence of the movements of a single hunter towards a woman on the left appears to be minimized through its presentation as two spatial images that can be apprehended

13 simultaneously. It would be easy to conclude that time for the male and female figures has been stopped and that they stand inertly before a static, homogeneous space. The Inuit informants, however, never viewed this or any image - whether a narrative scene or a single standing figure - as a static, visual whole devoid of sequence. Instead, they saw a web of dynamic spatial and temporal relationships embedded within its structure. In Woman with Hunter, for example, the hunter was spoken of as being in the process of performing an activity. For the informants, his gesture contained within it both the moments that preceded it and those that followed it. They, therefore, referred to the hunter on the far right as "coming from" the hunting ground, and the image of the same hunter in the centre as "going towards" the woman (emphasis added). Humankind's lived space is a product of interaction with the environment. To orient ourselves in the world, to give ourselves an existential foothold, we organize centres (places) that contain within them certain directions or paths that connect us to outlying areas (domain s). The complex overlapping and interpenetration of these systems as they interact create a dynamic field of existential space (see Norberg Schulz 1971: 17-24). In the drawing Musk Ox Hunting (fig. 15), the compositional structure has been determined by the interaction of the three organizational sd1emata of existential space. The conical forms on the periphery of the hunting scene represent tents from two separate campsites. The campsite, the centre of the lived space of the Inuit, was limited in size and, from spring through fall, typically consisted of several individual households. Living as a communal unit within the camps, the Utkuhikhalingmiut worked, cooked, ate and spent leisure time together. From these campsites the hunters departed for their surrounding "domain," the hunting ground. Functioning as a potential place for human activity, the hunting ground tak es on many of th e characteristics of the place in the world of the Inuit. The borders of both the hunter's place and his domain in Musk Ox Hunting are loosely defined: place is indicated by the tents; domain, by a ring of hunt ers and animals that encircle fig. 8: Drum Dance, 1970, Luke Anguhadluq, Baker Lake (coloured pencil and graphite on wove paper; 102 x 66 cm; Winnipeg Art Gallery, gift of George Swinton). Art Gallery of Ontario a central focal point occupied by a hunter withdrawing his spear from a muskox. The interior spaces created by these configurations, however, are not completely enclosed and isolated from each other. As the space of the hunting ground of th e Inuit stretches out towards the campsite, the space of the place and that of the domain flow into each other where their borders overlap. The merging of these two organizational schemata of existential space - the place and domain - is characteristic of a nomadic people whose campsites change location many times throughout the year. In his study of the Inuit in the Baker Lake region, Frank Vallee noted: "The focus of sentimental, and to some extent proprietary, attachment was the whole territory over which the household moved. When an Eskimo in the Baker Lake region is asked to point out on the map where he was 'brought up' and where his family 'comes from,' he traces out with his finger an area which might cover about five hundred square miles" (1967: 59). The sense of spatial continuity between the place and the domain is enhanced by the implied pathways that Anguhadluq has created in his composition. The pathway, as an existential property, articulates directions for man's activity within and between his places and surrounding domains. Inuit informants consistently described the hunt depicted in the drawing Musk Ox Hunting as it related to the central figure. This hunter's situation provided him with a system of possible actions and directions of movement, which radiate from him in the formation of a star. The hunter can move diagonally to the upper left and lower right to return to camp; he can follow a path straight ahead or move diagonally to the upper right and lower left to contact his fellow hunters; and, finally, he can turn to his left and approach the slain muskox. These pathways provide the hunter with a choice of directions. The choice has existential impli cations - the hunter's response will be a human one based on his lived experiences. Anguhadluq ' s drawings reflect his direct experiences of spatial relations rather than cognitive, mathematical concepts abstracted from them. He does not confine his figures to the receding orthogonals of one-point perspective, nor to lnuitart 11

14 fig. 10:Face~c.1975,Luke Anguhadluq, Baker Lake (coloured pencil and graphite on wove paper; 57.3 x 76.8 cm; McMichael Canadian Art Collection, g ift of Samuel Sarick)..g!:!l ;: ~ ~ <' ~ fig. 12: Hunter and Two Caribou, 1969, Luke Anguhadluq, Baker Lake (graphite on wove paper; 61.1 x 48.5 cm; collection of Jack and Sheila Butler). the mathematical grid system of Newton's absolute space. Rather, he orients the world around a central focal point. In this hunting scene, the central figure does not live in space, but is the point from which space radiates - the point around which things arrange themselves. The space does not precede, nor is it indifferent to, the figures that occupy it. It is, instead, a space that is created by the affective and meaningful movements of the Inuit represented. This lived experience of space is responsible for the multidirectional, multi-perspective character of many of Anguhadluq's drawings. The obviou s depiction of an activity from its centre occurs in Anguhadluq's drum danc e images (jig. 8). These radial compositions relate directly to the nature of the place depicted and the activity portrayed. Through the drum dance, held within a large circular snowhouse or qagsge [qaggiq], festive occasions were celebrated communally. To represent this complex gathering, Anguhadluq places the drum dancer, who holds a large yellow drum, in the middle of his composition. Radiating from the centre like the beats of a drum are the members of the audience. The existent ial nature of this configuration, an outer ring and its cen - tre, is analyzed by Rudolph Schwarz: "The ring unit es man to man through the infinite chain of hands. The individual is absorbed by a superior form, and thereby becomes stronger. When men agree, they form a ring... The ring has neither beginning nor end, it begins and ends everywhere. Curved back into itself, it is the most sincere and potent of all figures, the most unanimous... The eyes are brought together in the centre as the common focus. Thereby the fellowship attains a stricter form. Everyone is still open to the inside, but only completely open to the centra l point. In this point men are united" (quoted in Norberg Schulz 1971: 17-24). The circular composition represents not only the actual form of the drum dance, but also its spiritual intent, the reinforcement of a sense of communal unity through shared experien ce. The multidirectional chara cter of the radiating figures encourages the viewer to move around the configuration, take up the position of a member of the audience and participate in the activity. In the drawing Fishermen and Women Cleaning Fish (jig. 6), Anguhadluq has depicted two events that follow one another. Three Inuit fishermen are situated at a lake. When their catch of fish is com plete, they will return to the camp, where the women will clean and pr epare the fish. As explained by Matthew Innakatsik (personal interview, Septemb er 1985), "The men are at the river catching fish. The women have taken the fish from the men back to the camp and are cleaning them." The spatiotemporal shift from one event to the other is articulated by a purely pictorial shift: the fishermen and the women are aligned with opposing edges of the paper. This change in perspective prevents the viewer from passively apprehending the two integrally related events as a static whole, devoid of temporal sequence. Rather, the internal structure actively (Right) fig. 9: Drum Dance, 1972, Luke Anguhadluq, Baker Lake (coloured pencil and graphite on wove paper; 61 x 48.3 cm; collection of Samuel and Esther Sarick). Art Gallery of Ont ario 1-,

15 I \ r~ ~

16 fig. 14: Woman with Hunter, c. 1976, Luke Anguhadluq, Baker Lake (coloured pencil and graphite on wove paper; 57.8 x 77.2 cm; collection of Samuel and Esther Sarick). engages viewers, forcing them to shift their viewpoint so that they may fully experience the events. Anguhadluq uses the same compositionaj devices when representing events that occur at the same time. The events depicted in Hunting Caribou from Kayaks (fig. 7) were consistently described as occurring simultaneous! y. Frarn;:oise Oklaga described the action of both the men and the women as ongoing (personal interview, September 1985): "The men and women are at different places. The women are at the camp, the men are at the lake." Marion Tuu'luuq stated (personal interview, September 1985): ''The men are out on the land and they are chasing the caribou onto the river so they can chase them with the kayaks." Matthew Innakatsi k recounted the women's activity in detail: "The women are looking after the tent and repairing some clothing for their husbands to wear the next day." fig. 13: Musk Oxen, 1972, Luke Anguhadluq, Baker Lake (co loured pencil and graphite on wove paper; 50.9 x 66.2 cm; Winnipeg Art Gallery). Art Gallery of Ontario ~ ".1;1 Three-quarters of the drawing is devoted to the representation of a caribou hunt on water, while the remaining area illustrates the camps ite. Once again, a change in perspective from which the two events are depicted simultaneously indicates a change in spatial location: the lake and the kayakers are viewed from an aerial perspective; the tents, aligned with an adjacent edge of the paper, are viewed from the side. The viewer must accommodate to these multiple focuses. Whether simultaneous or sequential occurrences, their perception, like the action in the events depicted, occurs over a period of time and builds on successive experiences of first one event, then another. For the Inuit, being in the world is directly related to the temporal dimension; by continuously shifting the perspective of his drawings, Anguhadluq engages the viewer in this spatially dynamic process. Changing perspectives occur not only within Anguhadluq's compositions, but also within his individual forms, as in the depiction of the muskox (jig. 15), in which an aerial view of the head is combined with a profile of the body. In this drawing, Anguhadluq has compile d a series of spatial exper iences as they occurred in successive moments in time. The object of the artist 's perception has been discovered by him, and in turn can be discovered by the viewer, as they both experience them from different positions in space in different moments of time. Furthermore, these physical distortions make the viewer aware that the objects depicted are not static, but are continuously moving in space through time. By creating an internal, dynami c dissonance within the form of the muskox, Anguhadluq suggests this movem ent in a manner described by the scu lp tor Rodin:"... the legs, the trunk and the head are each taken at a differem instant, an image which therefore portrays the body in an attitude which it never at any instant really held and which imposes fictive linkages between the parts, as if this mutual confrontation of incompossibles [sic] could... cause transi tion and duration to arise" (in Merleau-Ponty 1964: 185). From these drawings, certain conclusions can also be made concerning the nature of th e temporal dimension of Anguhadluq's world. Time is not a succession of moments that move in a single direction but is, rather, a free and open relationship between the past, the present and the future. As Friedrich Kiimmel pointed out in his analysis of tim e: "No act of man is possible with reference solely lo the past or solely to the future, but is always dependent on their interaction... the future may be considered as the horizon against which plans are made, the past provides the means for their realization, while the present mediates and actualizes both" (1966: 50). This open relationship betw een the past, present and future is evident in the drawing Fishermen and Women Cleaning Fish (fig. 6). For the men, the women and their activity of cleaning the fish present the future horizon against which their.g!3,: 0 c o.; ';a (.'.) 4A

17 to clean. Thus, both the past and future Cynthia Cook is a freelance curator. This essay is the author's edited version of the text written for the cala /09ue From the Cent re: The Drawings of Lu.ke Anguhadluq, published in 1993 by the Art Gallery of Olllari o to accompany an exhibition of tire same name. ln11it Art NOTES I This and all following references to statem enrs by Jack Butler are from an extend ed interview in Banff, Alberta on January 18, Thi s information wa s tak en from four letters, 3 Tel ephone int erview with Terry Ryan, Februar y I Personal interview with Gabriel Gely, Augu st Personal interview with J ohn Evans, February REFERENCES Briggs, Jean 1974 Never in Anger: Portrait of an Eskimo Family. Cambrid ge: Harvard Uni versity Pre ss. Butler, Sheila 1976 "f he First Printmakin g Year at Baker Lake: Personal Recollections," Tire Beaver (Spring 1976): Eakin, William, and Jack Butler 1984 "Photoes say: Baker Lake ," Arcs Manitoba (Fall I 984): fig. 15: Musk Ox Hunting, c. 1973, Luke Anguhadluq, Baker Lake (coloured pencil and graph ite on wove paper; 58.9 x 79.7 cm; collection of Samuel and Esther Sarick). Kiimmel, Friedrich 1966 "Time as Successi on and the Prob lem of Duration " (translation by Francesco Gaona), The Voices of Time, J.T. Fraser, ed. New York: George Braziller, Inc., Norberg-Schul z, Chri stian 1971 Existence, Space and Architecture. Washin gton and New York: Praeger. Rasmu ssen, Knud The Nelsilik Eskimos: Social Life and Spiritual Cu/rure. Report of tire Fifth Thule Expedition. Copenhag en: Gyldend alske Forlag. New York: AMS Press, Vallee, Frank 1967 Kabloona and Eskimo in tire Ceutral Keewatin. Ottaw a: Th e Canad ia n Resea rch Centr e for Anthropo logy, Saint Paul Univ ersity. activities of the fishermen enter into the present for the women and provide it with a foundation. The shifting perspectives underscore the interrelationship of the past, present and future, which have been integrated into an organic whole in the drawing. With this analysis of space and time, a re-examination of th e drawing that opened this di scuss ion has become appropri ate, so that its spa tio-temporal content may be descr ibed more accurately. Woman with Hunt er can no longer be regarded as an image of a man and woman separated from the contingen cies of the ph enomeno logical world. Rather, it is the image of two people living in the centre of a space that is alive and filled with changing objects and in a time that is filled with intentionality. It is not a static image of being, of the individual standing in a timeless ether - it is an image of becoming, in which human movement shapes time and space. 5 Tran scription of tape recording; Ja ck Butler' s summary of the Baker Lake printmakers ' response to concerns exp ressed by Je an-noel Poliquin, a memb er of the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council, regardin g the placement of the image on the print paper, April 7, PAC, RG 85, vol. 2160, Format of Baker Lake Print s, Merleau -Pont y, Mauri ce 1964 "Eye and Mind " (transl ation by Carleton Dallcry), The Primacy of Perception, James M. Edie, ed. Evanston, Illinois: Northwe stern University Press, dating from Janu ary 26 to March 9, 1961, that were exchanged betwee n R.L Kennedy, Regional Ad mini s trator o f th e Ar cti c, C.M. Bolge r, Admini strator of the Arctic, and R.A.J. Phillip s, Di rector of Plans and Policy. PA C, RG 85, vol. 681, file A600- l, pl. l. own action takes place. They must catch fish to provide for their families in the future. For the women, the men who are fishing represent the past that has been assimilated into the process of their lives and provides the basis for their present activity. Says Fran\oise Oklaga: "The women are cleaning the fish that men have already caught." Yet, because InuH informants consistently int erpreted the fishin g activit y as continuous, the fishermen also represent future moments for the women. Fo r in stanc e, Moses Nagyugalik observes (personal interview, April 1991): "These thr ee men are still fishing and the wom en are cutting up the fish that the men have caught"; and Marion Tuu'luuq comments: "These men are still fishin g on the river; after they took their catch hom e the women are cleaning them." The fishermen have returned to the lake and in the future will bring back more fish for the women

18 31 East 7 4th Street New York, N.Y (212) Alaska Shop Gallery of Eskimo Art 'IHE PROOF JUST ROLLED OFF THE PRESS! BeaQ ard::,\:1,1:: P RINTERS OF THE INUIT ART QUARTERLY S om e th i nk o f p ri ntin g os a cra ft. A t IJc.Jure g.:ir d,. w e t h i n k o f i t a s an ar t fo rn,. O ur c an v a s is th e p rinted sh ee t o f paper. O ur m ediu m is ink in a th ousa n d h ues. O ur ch a lle n ge is to 1 ep licnt e an im.age w i th.a ll t h e e leg an ce and c h ara cte r o f th e o ri g ina l, w het h e r it be a s tun ning p h o to g ro p h, co rn p lc x ill u s t,.:itio n. o r s in,p lc ske tch. 'Tl-l e n ex t t ime you n eed y ou.r printin g to l oo k a s g o od a s y ou r a rt, gi v e u s a c all. (613) B EAU R E G AR D PRI NT ER S 37 3 C OVE N TR Y R O. OTT AWA, ONT. K tk 2CS r-1,., l!!jttttttttttttttttttttttt...,. _...,,-----.,,.-;:.-:;....,,w~ ~ i,,all -... ~>ni ~~II~ Celebrati ng 15 years of trading on the shores of the Hud son Bay, selling Indi an and Eskimo Handicrafts and Art I NCLUDING Carvings, Caribou Hair T uftings, Parkas, Furs, Mitt ens, Mukluks, Artifacts, Baskets, :: and much, much, more. :: FREE 1995 Ma il Order Catalogue available :: Phone toll.free: :: or fax or write AR CT IC T RADING COM PANY Box 910 Churchill, Manit oba, Canada ROB 0 0 r-1,., l!!jttttttttttttttttttttttt

19 Int 1it Art Oomingmal< Alasl<a: The Story of a Yup'ik Esldmo!{rutting Co-op by Janet Catherine Berlo rints by Mary Okheena of Holman and Pudlo of Cape Dorset, as well as numerous stone sculptures from across the Arctic, have made the image of the muskox familiar to Inuit art lovers. These odd-looking shaggy beasts, more closely related to goats than to any other living animal, are known across the Arctic as "oomingmak" (the bearded ones). In the Canadian Arctic, muskoxen are found in the Barren Grounds of the Northwest Territories, on Victoria Island, Banks Island and Ellesmere Island. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Canadian herds had been hunted almost to the point of extinction, principally because of a southern craze for muskox robes which drove the price as high as US$350 per robe. More than 15,000 muskox skins were sold through the Hudson's Bay Company before the animals were protected by Canadian legislation in 1916 (Schell 1972: 11). Before this, however, the Inuit had long utilized the muskox for a variety of purposes - the meat for food, the hides for bedding and leggings, the horns and bones for ladles, scrapers, and various hunting and fishing implements. Today, in places like Holman, Inuit hunters take a sma11 number of animals by quota, and earn good money leading hunting expeditions of American and European hunters who want to bag an unusual prize. But in the Alaskan north there is a different story to tell about muskoxen, one involving a unique blend of individual vision, cooperative effort, and strands of artistic creativity from two different cultures. All of these have resulted in a (Above) Untitled (Muskox), 1986, Mary Okheena, Holman Island (felt-tip pen on paper; Holman Eskimo Co-op). Janel Catherine Berlo

20 Co-op member and employee Liz Spud with an array of qiviut garments at the Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers' Co-operative, July year success story at the Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers' Co-operative, based in Anchorage, Alaska. Thjs is a knitting co-op, where Yup'ik Eskimo women, most of whom live in remote, rural areas of western Alaska, make money by knitting qiviut fibre, the fine underhair which the muskox sheds. The scarves, hats, tunics and other items that they knit are sold through the co-op's store in downtown Anchorage (Alaska's biggest city, and a popular tourist destination), as well as through the mail, and through a small store at the muskox farm in Palmer, Alaska, about 50 miles north of Anchorage. While Native co-ops have been a fixture in Canadian Arctic communities for almost four decades, they are unusual in Alaska. What is even more unusual is that Oomingmak is debt-free, nearly selfsupporting, and runs entirely without government interference or subsidy. In order to understand the success of this co-op, it is necessary to back up and tell the story of qiviut itself, as well as the genesis of this remarkable enterprise. QIVIUT: EICHT TIMES WARMER THAN SHEEP'S WOOL Qiviut is an unusual fibre, and a highly desirable one for extremely cold climates. It is eight times wanner than sheep's wool and much lighter in weight. Its long fibres are easily machine-spun, and as little as one ounce knits up into a warm scarf or hat. To my knowledge, there is only one account in the historical literature that suggests any indigenous interest in utilizing the distinctive qiviut. Two centuries ago, Samuel Hearne reported that in the Coppermine River area, Eskimos used muskox hair to make "musketto wigs" (i.e. mosquito netting to cover their heads) (Hearne 1958: 88). But several 18th and 19th century explorers' accounts found the soft, warm underhair of the muskox worthy of comment; indeed in Greenland among Norwegian sealers, it was sometim es spun and knitted into gloves and scarves. 1 The great Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson was an enthusiastic proponent of muskox domestication, both for meat as well as for wool, and he strove to interest American and Canadian governments, as well as textile mills, in supporting such an enterprise. Qiviut fibre was subjected to scientific tests at the University of Leeds, in England, in 1922; it was found to be comparable in structure (as well as softness) to such fine luxury yarns as cashmere and vicuna. In 1930, the U.S. Congress appropriated money for the territory of Alaska to obtain 34 muskoxen from the Greenland herd, in order to restock Alaska (where the animal had been hunted to extinction by the mid-19th century). There were some efforts through the University of Alaska Home Economics extension service to spin and knit muskox fibre into scarves at that time, but the experiments did not lead to any commercial enterprise. In that sam e decade, some animals were shipped to Nunivak Island, in the Bering Sea off the west coast of Alaska. Because there are no wolves there (the muskoxen's main natural predator aside from man), the herd has flourished in the decades since. Indeed, the island is now a National Wildlife Refuge. Today, the largest herd in Alaska, numb ering some 700 animals, exists on Nunivak, with smaller herds in Palmer and at the Large Animal Research Station at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. Qiviut fibre is collected from all three herds, but the bulk of it comes from the farm at Palmer, where each animal is combed during the late spring shedding season, yielding four to seven pounds per animal, depending upon its size and maturity. No BARNS AND LITTLE FODDER The story of the Oomingmak co-op begins with one man's vision: John Teal, an American scientist, captur ed some muskoxen in the Barren Grounds in the 1950s, and became the foremost expert on their domestication and breeding. He 40

21 established small herds, first at his farm in Vermont and, later, at the University of Alaska. His idea, based on Stefansson's before him, was that the establishment of muskox herds across the North would be a source of income and self-determination for indigenous peoples of the Arctic. In lectures and popu lar articles in such periodicals as National Geographic and Atlantic Monthly, he espoused muskox husbandry as an important new idea. "Muskoxen need no barns and little fodder," Teal wrote. "They eat a sixth of what cattle do and can forage for themselves, their favourite food being the leaves and tender shoots of willows. In winter, they use their broad front hooves to break through deep snow to sparse grasses, and, when thirsty, they 'drink' snow" (Teal 1970). Teal was equally enthusiast ic about the muskoxen's unusual fibre: "Already our best mature bulls are shedding six and a half pounds a year. This compares well with the less than a pound of pashm produced annually by the cashmere goat. We estimate that a muskox will produce qiviut for 20 years. After cleaning, one pound can be spun into a strand of yarn ten miles long... A finished garment is so wonderfully warm and so soft and light that the wearer is barely conscious of having it on. The raw wool will not shrink when boiled or scrubbed... and can be knitted into traditional Eskimo designs" (Teal 1970: 878). While the genesis of the muskox project began with one man's vision, since that time it has depended principally upon the skill and ingenuity of women, both Euro -American and Eskimo. In 1968, Teal sent his assistant, Lillian Schell, to the Yup'ik village of Mekoryuk on Nunivak Island, where the muskox herd had been established. It is there that Yup'ik Eskimo women began to knit qiviut as a way of gaining some measure of economic independence. Twenty-five women in Mekoryuk were taught to knit in the winter of by Lillian Schell, who developed decorative knitting patterns based on ancient Alaskan Eskimo patterns incised on ivories. These were used in making scarves and tubular head coverings called nachaq, or "smoke rings." Some women had never knitted before; to these Schell taught the basic knit and purl stitches. Other women were already accomplished knitters, having learned over a number of decades from the Scandinavian and Moravian missionaries who had worked in the Yup'ik communities of western Alaska since the end of the 19th century. Yup'ik Eskimo women began to knit qiviut as a way of gaining some measure of economic independence One innovative part of Schell's teaching strategy was to use internationally-known knitting teacher Dorothy Reade's notational system for knitting patterns developed in the 1960s. By using small diagrams of the Reade notation, women were able to make up samples of the knitting patterns that Schell had devised. The notational system turned out to be an excellent cross-cultural teaching tool, requiring a minimum of either English or Yup'ik once the knitter had learned to follow the visual pattern. Some of the women on Nunivak Island had been collecting drifting qiviut as the animals shed it, year after year. They spun the fibre by hand, in the same manner that Eskimo women had been twisting animal sinew for centuries. But by 1968, the villagers of Mekoryuk had collected hundreds of pounds of qiviut - enough to send it to the cashmere mill in Rhode Island which had been conducting spinning tests for John Teal. It was washed, machine spun, and sent back, a practice that continues today. Although Helen Griffiths Howard, who worked for the co-op in the 1960s, experimented with lichen dyes as well as with commercial dyes, it was eventually decided that the natural smoky taupe colour of the undyed qiviut was handsome and distinctive, and would remain the only colour offered in the garments knitted for sale. (Qiviut spun together with merino wool, and dyed in a variety of colours, is available from commercial sources in both the U.S. and Canada, but it is not handled by the Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers' Co-operative.) Yup'ik knitt er Phyllis Trufant with her starpatt erned smoke rin g (head coverin g) at the Oomingm ak Mu sk Ox Producers ' Co-op erati ve, July lnuitart 10

22 ,n The Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers' Co-operative, Anchorage, Alaska, July Co-op members (left to right) Mesonga Atkinson, Liz Spud and Hannah Morris blocking a scarf at the Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers' Co-operative, July Of the 25 women who attended the first workshops in Mekoryuk in l 968, 23 are still active members more than a quartercentury later. Subsequent workshops were held in Shishmaref, Marshall, Bethel, and other communities in western Alaska. No official workshops have been held since l 977, but the movement has gained momentum through experienced co-op members informally teaching new members. Today, there are almost 200 active co-op members (who pay a yearly membership fee of US$2 and knit as many or as few items as they choose). Nearly 4,000 garments were produced for the co-op to market in l 990. More recently, that number has dropped below 3,000 items per year, mainly due to shortages of fibre. "There are always three variables to juggle," says Sigrun Robertson, the co-op's manager. "The availability of fibre, the availability of producers, and the availability of consumers. In our experience, these are almost never in perfect balance. Four years ago, it was up to a woman how much she produced. Now it depends on if she can get fibre." For the most part, knitters remain in their villages, and seldom get to the big city. They mail their items to the co-op in Anchorage. A few, like Phyllis Trufant, live in Anchorage and bring their wares directly to the shop. In the photo on p. 19 she holds a nachaq, or smoke ring, a popular head covering that she has knitted in the distinctive star pattern of the coastal village of Shishmaref. When the items come in to the co-op, they are checked for quality of craftmanship and then washed. They are pinned onto a cardboard pattern board for blocking and lightly combed with a lint brush. Then they are tagged and sold. For an industrious needlewoman, this cottage industry can provide a considerable part of her family's cash income, especially in the smaller villages where jobs are scarce. Nearly 50 per cent of the villagers in Mekoryuk live below the official U.S. poverty standard, yet store-bought goods typically cost about 75 per cent more than they do elsewhere in the United States, because of the high cost of freight. A woman who knits a few items can make a little "pocket money," while one who works steadily can make as much as US$4,000 per year (a sum which exceeds the average per capita income of a village like Mekoryuk). 2 Compared to the Canadian Arctic, in Alaska there is a much more pronounced exodus from the rural north into cities like Anchorage and Fairbanks. This exodus is mainly due to the hardship of

23 InuitArt... trying to survive in a rural economy where traditional subsistence skills are no longer enough. So any economic initiative, like this one, which allows women to main tain their rural lifestyle and work at home while participating in the larger cash economy, is a welcome one for Native wom en. While the muskox may never be the basis for an indigenous circumpolar economy as Stefansson envisioned, the fibre that it sheds has been spun into an economic lifeline for some Yup'ik women in Alaska. Janet Catherine Berlo is a Professor Art History at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. NOTES I See Schell, chapter 2, for a concise and welldocwnented history of the interes t in this fibre. 2 These figures are derived from an unpublished study by Sigrun Robertson and Marian Bruce, conducted in 1991, on the economics of the co-op. I am grateful to Sigrun Robenson for providing me wi th these figures. REFERENCES Hearne, Samuel I 958 A Journey from Prince of Wales Port in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean in tire Years 1769, 1770, 1771 and 1772, R. Glover, ed. Toronto: MacMillan and Co. Schell, Lillian C The Musk Ox Underwoo l, Qiviul; Historical Uses and Present Utilization in an Eskimo Knitting Industry (MA thesis). Fairbanks: University of Alaska. Teal, John J. Jr "Domesticating the Wild and Wooly Musk Ox," National Geographic, 137, 6, (June): ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I gratefully acknow ledg e the financial support afforded by the Canadian Embassy Faculty Research Grant program and the University of Missouri Research Board which allowed me to conduct research on Alaskan Eskim o art durin g , and the aid of my research assistant Robin Rainey. Conversations with present and former staff members of the Musk Ox project, including Helen Griffiths Howard of the University of Alaska's Department of Native Languages, A muskox at the co-operative's farm in Palmer, Alaska. It is from this farm that the majority of the co-op's qiviut is gathered during the late spring shedding season. A mature muskox will yield four to seven pounds each year. and Sigrun Robert son and Liz Spud of the Ooming mak Co-op in Anchorage, were particularly helpful in illuminating the historical and economic dimensions of this cooperative venture. All interpretations and errors are, of course, my own. To order a free brochure, write or call: Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers' Co-operative, 604 H Street, Anchorage, AK U.S.A.; Tel: (907)

24 .,., ARTISTS SPEAK Silas Qayaqjuaq Wants to Share Ideas With Other Artists Silas Qayaqjuaq, an artist from Hall Beach who now lives and works in Ottawa, was interviewed in Inuktitut by Simeonie Kunnuk on August 3, 1994 and in Simeonie Kunnuk: You are carving in Ottawa, but where are you from? Silas Qayaqjuaq: I am originall y from Hall Beach, but I have been in Ottawa for five years now. Kunnuk: When did you start carving? English by Matthew Fox on December 1, Silas' sister, Rhoda Kayakjuak, (the spelling she uses), translated the Inuktitut Qayaqjuaq: l really cannot remember. I was a kid. I used to watch my fathe r, my relatives and brothers carve. I've known how to carve for a long time. Kunnuk: What was your first carving? interview. What fallows is an amalgamation of the two interviews. Qayaqjuaq: I made a sea l when I was a kid. I started with a seal and learned from it. This is what I rem ember. Kunnuk: Were you proud of it? All photography by Tim Wickens unless otherwise noted. Qayaqjuaq: I thought it was a really beautiful carving. Kunnuk: What did you receive for it? Qayaqjuaq : I only carved for the fun of it. My mother got it and I never saw it again. Kunnuk: What did you receive for the first carving that you sold? Qayaqjuaq: I cannot reca ll, but I always get things whenever I carve. I've never bought expen sive item s like skidoos. I hav e bought a stereo and so forth with my carvings. Kunnuk: Did you have a hard time learning to carve? Qayaqjuaq: I learn while I am carving, and there are times it gets very hard. When that happens, I try to work with files and then I leave it alone for a while. When I ge t into carving it again, it gets easier and I always take my time. I never really had any difficulties with carvings. When it starts off very well, I have no difficulties, but if I hav e a bad start, then it will become confusing. For me, when I think abou t it too much, it gets confusing. Once you develop a shape, then it will become something. Silas Qayaqjuaq at the Snow Goose gallery in Ottawa, January Matthew Fox: How do you start "thinking" about a carving too much? Qayaqjuaq: If I see the soapstone and look at it ten thousand times, I get frustrated. "What am I going to do? What am I going to do? Is the buyer going to like it this way? Am I going to like it this way?

25 InuitArt... Mother and Child, 1994, Silas Qayaqjuaq, Ottawa (slate; 10.2 cm hig h; pr ivate collect ion). Shaman, 1994, Silas Qayaqjuaq, Ottawa (light green stone and ivory; S x 10.2 cm; private collection). Are people going to like it if I go that way?" When I start thinking like that, l just go nowhere. Fox: So how do you avoid that? Qayaqjuaq : I avoid that by concentrating on the soapsto ne and on exactly what I want to do. Fox: When you have a piece of stone sitting there, do you have an idea beforehand of wha t you wan t it to look like? Qayaqjuaq: Yes. Sometimes I even look at the soapstone for three months. I keep it there on my bench. Fox: That's a long tim e. Qayaqjuaq : Sometimes it is, and sometimes it takes two minut es, and sometimes it takes longer than I think. When I try to thin k for others, that's what happe ns. I ask: "Are people going to like this?" When l start doing that, I try to think before I carve, and I go nowhere. I like to carve for myself. It's me, and I'm my own boss. Fox: Well, in fact, that's almost exactly what Bart Hanna has said in another interview that has just been published [see IAQ Winter 1994:12]. Qayaqjuaq : Well, that's a better way to be. If you try to think for othe rs, or if you try to follow people's advice, sometimes it's an unpleasant feeling. Kunnuk: Is carving a very important part of your life? Qayaqjuaq: Right now, yes. In Ottawa, the more people buy my carvings, the more people reque st [them]. The more people want them, the more I like it. Kunnuk: Can you describe a typical day? Qayaqjuaq: Since the time I woke up? First thing this morning, I started carving. I prefer to carve early in the morning. I was cutting my pieces thi s morning. Sometimes it gets too hot to carve in Ottawa. Sitting Man, 1994, Silas Qayaqjuaq, Ottawa (alabaster; 6.4 cm high; private collection). Kunnuk:Youeajoycarving in the mornings, and you've said that you have more buyers now. Are you happy with your lifestyle? Qayaqjuaq : For me, yes. I'm making a career out of carving and I am more well known now for my carvings. I carve miniature sculptures. I never carve big stone. Most buyers want to buy small ones because they will be able to take them home with them and they are light to travel with. My carvings are very popular if they should be going outside of Canada. I've seen buyers who are always looking for miniature carvings becaus e most that are made here are too big or Drum Dancer, 1994, Silas Qayaqjuaq, Ottawa (green stone and ivory; 11.4 cm high; private collection).

26 Throat Singers, 1994, Silas Qayaqjuaq, Ottawa {slate and alabaster; 7.6 cm high; private collection). Drum Dancer, 1994, Silas Qayaqjuaq, Ottawa (slate and ivory; 7.6 cm high; private collection). Tattooed Woman, 1994, Silas Qayaqjuaq, Ottawa, (alabaster and slate; 12.7 x 12.7cm; Snow Goose Handiaafts). too heavy to carry Jong distances. They always end up looking for small ones. Since my carvings are sma ll, tourists want to buy them. Kunnuk: Will you continue this in the furure? Qayaqjuaq: Yes, I will continue. I am learning and I enjoy carving. I see myself still carving for many years to come. Kunnuk: Did you ever think you would make a career out of carving? Qayaqjuaq: I never thou ght I'd be a carver when I was younge r. I only knew that I was capab le of carving and never thou gh t it would be my career. Fox: Was there a point when you realized that you could make a career out of carving? Qayaqjuaq: Yes, a couple of years ago. I think it was after I made a tug-of-war carving. I just really got a kick out of that one, it was fantastic. It was miniature, there were about 12 people in it, all families, women together, kids. It was fantastic. Kunnuk : If you were to comment on anything, what would you like to say? Qayaqjuaq : I have set up shop here. I get lonely. I would really like ano ther carver to come to my shop and carve with me so tha t we can learn from each other. No one ever comes to carve, though. I have been trying to carve and I read about carvings and see what other carvers can do. This way I am learning about art. If someone could come to my shop and carve with me, the other carver and I could help each other out. If there is a group of two or three, they could come and carve. I get very Jone! y here. Sometimes Silas studies the stone for three months before carving it. Kunnuk: While you are carving? Qayaqjuaq: Yes, I get tired of carving alone. If there are othe r carvers, I can seek ad vice and I can help them out, loo. Fox: So you've tried to have other carvers in your studio? Qayaqjuaq: Yes, I have tried. I even give phone numbers, addr esses, stuff like that. No response. I gave Charlie Kogvik my numb er and we spoke, and I'm sure he's going to be Woman and Child, 1994, Silas Qayaqjuaq, Ottawa (alabaster; 10.2 x 10.2 cm; private collection). calling me in the wintertime because he doesn't have a studio. And when it gets too cold, he can come over to my place and we can exchange ideas. Fox: That exchange of ideas, why is that important to you? Qayaqjuaq: Well, I learn from them [other carvers], and they learn from me. Exchanging ideas, like how to use a certain tool... it's many ways and I don't want to take up your time. Fox: No, go ahead, I'd be interested to have you go into it. Qayaqjuaq : Like, for a movement... if I make a man, and I want the movement of his parka. Some people have different ideas of making the movement. I have a different way of doing it, but there's thousands of ways to do it. Sometimes exchanging ideas, it helps me to learn to do that certain thing. The people I'm more comfortable with are the more accomplished carvers. The ones I'm not comfortable with, they just make a little figure, a little bear, or something, it doesn't really have any details to it. Some carvers are like that. They don't even sand them! 7'1

27 Sedna, 1994, Silas Qayaqjuaq, Ottawa (slate; 7.6 cm high; private collection). Fox: What would you think of the idea of raking an inexperienced carver and showing him a few things? Qayaqjuaq: I'd like to do that. I'd really like to. I've done it before. Four years ago, at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, I was teaching kids how to use basic tools, and that was a good experience for me, too. It helped me to cope with lots of people when I'm carving. I used to be more shy, but I'm not a shy person anymore. I used to be more of an isolated carver, but the more I learn about it, the more I think I'd like to socialize with people and work with them. Fox: Are there differences between carving in the North and carving in the South? Qayaqjuaq: There is a big difference because l feel lonely [here]. If I were up north in my home town, I would just ask my relatives, my nieces or my brothers to work with me. When I feel isolated in Ottawa, I have some photographs of my brothers' and sisters' carvings, which I learn from, by looking at them, and read ing about Inuit carvings. Kunnuk: Do you ever have doubts about continuing? Qayaqjuaq: l don't think about quitting at all, and I will continu e, for sure. I am not going to quit carving. You asked me what I carve. My answer is that I carve people in movement and everyday life. My father used to carve animals, and he used to say that all his life, he'd looked at people's faces and, after all those years, he'd never learned to carve the face. I challenged him and started carving people in movement. balanced and [pursuing] their lifestyle. Buyers like my Inuit carvings. I carve people drum dancing and mouth pulling. I depict people in a traditional lifestyle. f have been asked to carve Inuit people dying from starvation. I was also asked to carve a man killing his wife. I also carve people that will make you smile. Buyers request all kinds of carvings from me. I also carved a man waiting at a seal hole. He was walking around, and he stopped and pulled his pants down, and did his busi ness. The carving was called Call of Nature. There ha ve been requests that are very funny. Fox: Did it bother you that you were asked to car ve a man killing his wife? Qayaqjuaq: That was to do with cann ibalism a long time ago. The people would get so hung ry. They' d have nothing to eat, and they would turn on their own kind and eat them. It's true and it's a fact of life. It bothered me, but I look ed at it as art. That carving was bought by a woman who wanted it, so I carved it. But a week later, she had to return it to the Snow Goose [Ottawa gallery] because the kids were getting offended. People were getting too curious about it. But it doesn't bother me now. I've gotten a little older, and I see it as trying to interpret my past. It [cannibalism] is not happening these days, but it's good to put it in the history. And I think it was necessary in the past. It's a real fact of life; it did happe n. Kunnuk: You make all kind s of stuff? Qayaqjuaq: Yes, everything can become possible to mak e. I do not lik e people telling me what I should think in ord er to make a particu lar carving. I like to carve out of my own imagination. The art dealers are always trying to make me think of what l shou ld make. I really don't like it. The carvings tha t buyers particularly like are ones that are coming from my imagination. Some of the art dealers will try to think for me and tell me what 1 shou ld make. Fox: As an artist, are you interested in other forms of art as well? Qayaqjuaq: Yes I am, I rea lly like that. I've been to a few museums to look at other people's carvings. I get a kick out of it. Fox: And does that give you ideas? Qayaqjuaq: Yes, exactly. Especially the carver from Iqaluit, Henry Evaluardjuk. He's an elder, and I worked with him for a few days in learned a great deal from him. I find his human figures similar to mine. I like his work. Fox: Are there any other artists w ho you look up to? Qayaqjuaq: Abraham Anghik. I like his work. He's a fantastic carver. And some carve rs from Cape Dorset. Fox: Are there other forms of art, non-inuit art, that interest you at all? Call of Nature, 1992, Silas Qayaqjuaq, Ottawa (soapstone and antler; 6.4 x 10.2 cm; private collection). Picking Eggs, 1992, Silas Qayaqjuaq, Ottawa (stone and wha le bone; 20.3 x 20.3 cm; private collection). Qayaqjuaq : Oh, yes. Paintings. But I could never do that. I tried it when I was a kid, but I couldn't. I jus t couldn't get the kna ck. I just didn't have the p atience. Carving is more phys ical, I guess. You have to work with your hands. In painting, I don't know how it happens. Kunnuk: I wanted to hear what you like to discuss and what is important to you. I have no more questions. I'd like to thank you. Qayaqjuaq: Thank you very much,too... lnuitart Q U A ll T E II. l Y 25

28 EXHIBITIONS An Exhibition, a Book A review essay by Janet Catherine Berlo All photography by Harry Foster, Canadian Museum of Civilization ISUMAVUT: THE ARTISTIC EXPRESSION OF NINE CAPE DORSET WOMEN AT THE CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION, HULL, QUEBEC, OCTOBER 6, 1994 TO MARCH 3, 1996 INUIT WOMEN ARTISTS: VOICES FROM CAPE DORSET EDITED BY ODETTE LEROUX, MARION E. JACKSON AND MINNIE AODLA FREEMAN. VANCOUVER: DOUGLAS & MCINTYRE; HULL: CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION, AND SEATTLE: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS, PP., COLOUR AND B&w ILLUSTRATIONS. HARDCOVER, $45. Oopik Going for Water, 1990, Oopik Pitseolak, Cape Dorset (green stone, glass beads, wool fabric, wool cord, sealhide, tanned leather and fur; 63.5 x 19 x 25.5 cm; Canadian Museum of Civilization). Birds, 1969, Kenojuak Ashevak, Cape Dorset (dark green and black stone; 32 x 46 x 28 cm; Art Gallery of Ontario, loaned by Samuel and Esther Sarick). tremendously interesting exhibition opened at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC) in October 1994; it was accompanied by an extensive book. Both the exhibition and the book raise many important questions about Inuit art studies in the 1990s. They also raise some critical and curatorial hackles, judging by a controversial review in The Globe and Mail (Toronto). This essay will examine the exhibition, the book and the exagg erated reaction they received in the mainstream press. 26 Vol. JO, No. I Spring 1995

29 and an Exaggerated Reaction ISUMAVUT (.. OUR THOUGHTS") Installed in the CMC's Indian and Inuit Art Gallery, lsumavut, curated by CMC curator Odette Leroux in consu ltation with the artists and four other women, provide s a rich and diverse pictur e of the artistic expression of Inuit women over the last 35 years. The exhibition comprises over 180 works by 9 Cape Dorset artists. Sculpture (including one large-scale installation), jewellery, drawings, acrylic paintings, and prints are on display. As one would expect, given that Cape Dorset has long been the centre for printmaking in the North, the predominant media are various types of print, including engraving, stonecut, stonecut and stencil, and lithography. An unusual, almost grotesquely exaggerated large sculpture by Oopik Pitseolak (Pitsiulak] draws the visitor into the foyer. Tt is a self-portrait in green stone, with beads, fabric, seal hide and fur added. The text panel (in English, French and Inuktitut throughout the exhibition) in the foyer provides a very brief introduction to lsumavut. Directly beyond, in the central room, is an exceptional collection of works by the sculpto r Ovilu Tunnillie. For me, this was the biggest revelation of the exhibition. I had known Tunnillie's work only through Football Player, which was shown in the travelling exhibition Arctic Vision, in This Has Touched My Life, , Ovilu Tunnillie, Cape Dorset (dark green stone; woman : 42.5 x 23.5 x 18 cm; woman and child: 42 x 48.5 x 25.6 cm; man: 47 x 22.5 x 13.5 cm; car: 7.5 x 23.5 x 11.4 cm; Canadian Museum of Civilization). This is an autobiographical account: as a young gir l, Tunnillie was removed from home and taken south to be treated for tuberculosis. She remembe rs being taken for a ride once by a white man accompanied by two veiled women. InuitArt 0 U A R T [ ~ l 'I" 27

30 Gay Bird, 1967, Pitseolak Ashoona, Cape Dorset (stonecut and stencil; 44 x 62.3cm; Canadian Museum of Civilization). 1984, and I was not aware of her recent retrospective at the Marion Scott Gallery in Vancouver [see IAQ Winter 1994:20]. Tunnillie is not only an accomplished sculptor, she is also a deft cultural critic (although, curiously, on both her pieces about alcoholism, Thought Creates Meaning and Woman Passed Out, she says "this is a work of aesthetic inspiration and not intended as a social commentary" [Inuit Women Artists: Voices from Cape Dorset, pp. 229, 235]). One of Tunnillie's strongest pieces is an installation with five sculptures - four human figures and a small car - entitled This Has Touched My Life. Unfortunately, the meaning of the piece is not elucidated in the exhibi tion. Without reading the book, the visitor will not be aware of the autobiographical content of the piece, which reaches back to Tunnillie's childhood, when she was taken from her home for several years of tuberculosis treatment in Manitoba. The stylish, veiled women that she encoun tered there seemed foreboding to her, and she has rendered their veils as impenetrable helmets covering their faces. Smaller rooms and wide halls to the back and sides of the exhibition space feature the works of the other artists. A number of Kenojuak Ashevak's familiar prints from the 1970s and 1980s are on display, as well as several more recent and perhaps less characteristic lithographs from the 1990s, including the enormous hand-coloured lithograph Nunavut (Our Land). It depicts the four seasons of the polar year in a traditional Inuit community. A plaque next to it reads: "In commemoration of the signing of the final agreement between the Inuit of the Nunavut settlement area and Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada " Four large Kenojuak sculptures are also included, each rendered with the same sureness of form that one associates with her drawings and prints. Pitseolak Ashoona, another well-known Cape Dorset artist, is represented by 28 prints, and one carved stone block for a print. A series of engravings from the 1960s is particularly interesting. The work of Ashoona's daughter, Napachie Pootoogook, is installed nearby but, without didactic text panels, no casual viewer would make this connection between mother and daughter artists (a notable feature in a display of art from any society, not just Inuit). Napachie Pootoogook's works include one drawing and twentyfive prints. Pootoogook's entire career as a maker of prints is well represented here, from her earliest stonecuts and engravings of the I 960s, which owe much to the work of her mother, to her more recent narrative scenes. In my opinion, Pootoogook's drawing style is not well served by muddy lithographs such as Mending the Summer Tent and The River Route. On the other hand, a series of three large self-portraits, also in lithography, makes a strong visual statement as one enters the exhibition and looks to the right. Woman Today, My Daughter's First Steps, and My New Accordion are all powerful, confident images. If one enters the exhibition and looks to the left, Pitaloosie Saila's bold graphics Bird Fantasy, , Lucy Qinnuayuak, Cape Dorset (felt pen, crayon and acrylic on wove and ra g paper; 56.5 x 76.3 cm; collection of the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery). 28 Vol. JO, No. I Spring I 995

31 My Daughter's First Steps, 1990, Napachie Pootoogook, Cape Dorset (lit hograph on wove and rag paper ; 56.3 x 86.2 cm; Canadian Museum of Civilization). (Below) Changing Traditions, 1991, Pitaloosie Saila, Cape Dorset (lithograph on wove paper; 57.4 x 66.2 cm; Canadian Museum of Civilization). are equally powerful. Twenty-nine prints are on display. Especially noteworthy are her elegant, massive bird forms, such as Nestled Owls, Bird in Morning Mist and Ookpagaq (Young Owl). Eight of these are grouped together in a beautiful display. Also revealing a deft curatorial hand is the arrangement of three Pitaloosie Saila prints of women, each with a different manner of presenting the human face: Inuit Leader, Arctic Madonna and Woman of Old. These are lovely, subtle groupings, and the connections between them might be missed by the casual observer. That is why the omission of didactic text panels is particularly regrettable; in my opinion, such texts can only aid in the process of seeing. The late Lucy Qinnuayuak is represented by 22 works on paper, featuring her characteristic bird imagery, as well as other subject matt er. To my mind, her work looks weaker because of the inclusion of seven mixed-media works (felt pen, crayon and acrylic wash). I have always found these to be among the least successful of the Cape Dorset graphic experiments of the 1970s, regardless of which artist produced them. Eleven sculptures and three prints by Qaunak Mikkigak, who was one of the first Cape Dorset women to begin carving, are on display. But it is Mikkigak's five unusual pieces of mixed-media jewellery, f\ lnuitart " " ' "... t " ~?Q

32 30 The First Policeman I Saw, 1978, Napachie Pootoogook,Cape Dorset (stonecut and stencil on laid and kozo paper; 62 x 72.5 cm; Canadian Museum of Civilization). made of bone, stone, ivory, claws and sealskin that are remarkable. They were made in the mid- l 970s for the competition "Things That M ake Us Beautiful," and are now in the permanent collection of the Inuit Cultural Institute in Rankin Inlet. Mayoreak Ashoona's work was another of the exhibi tion's surprises for me. Twenty-three graphics, one traditional sculp ture and one mixed-media assemblage fill the long hall at the back of the exhibition area. Several of the prints were quite lovely: Dance of the Walrus Spirit, Owl of the Tundra, Walrus Watch Newborn, and Nocturnal Falcon. In the best Cape Dorset tradition, they play with the issue of abstraction versus naturalism while exploring animal forms. Mayoreak Ashoona's installation/ assemblage Inniutik (D1ying Rack) was perhaps the least successful of her works from an artistic point of view; there was nothing to dis tinguish it from a straightforward ethnographic display of an oldfashioned drying rack. My strongest criticism of a generally fine exhibit concerns the lack of informative text panels that could lead the viewer to a greater understanding of the works. Throughout, labels include only minimal information on the artist, title, media and date. It surprised me not to see text panels giving biographical data on each artist and some information on her work, perhaps in her own words, as has been done so successfully in the book. In a show that is so up-to-date in other respects (as I discuss later in this essay), it is disappointing to see the old-fashioned laconi c style of lab elling endemic to many art museums. The visitor who is not already knowledgeable about Inuit art will miss much becau se of this. Considering the lack of information abou t the focal pieces in the exhibition, it is all the more puzzling to find sma ll ethnographic implements scattered throughout the galleries, each with a separate label explaining its use and meaning, for example, kakivak (fish leister), umiak, ulu and other items of traditional Inuit culture. Each implement relates in some way to a work of art near it. I would have dispensed with these; they seem oddly out of place. Informative labelling for at least some of the works of art themselves would be more appropriate. Given the strength of graphic ans at Cape Dorset, I was surprised that the curator had not mined the rich Cape Dorset drawing archive for at least a few pieces. (While there are half a dozen drawings in the show, they are e.ither from private collections or the CMC's own holdings.) That drawing is the least well served medium in this exhibition is ironic on two accounts: Cape Dorset has over 100,000 well catalogued and accessible drawings at the McMichael Canadian Collection, and one of the advisors to the exhibition, Marion Jackson, is the world's expert on Inuit drawings. Although it would have been a formidable task to plough through the Cape Dorset archive, it would not have been that hard to choose a few representative drawings by Napachie Pootoogook, Pitseolak Ashoona or Pitaloosie Saila, for example. Despite these minor criticisms, I found the show beautifully installed, most of the selections well chosen, and the overall effect eloquent and impressive. (Right) Thought Creates Meaning, c. 1980, Ovilu Tunnillie, Cape Dorset (green stone ; 41 x 35 x 15 cm; Canadian Museum of Civilization). Tunnillie says "I'm attempti ng to depict that his mind is being affected by this head... I disliked alcohol for what it can do to people."

33

34 32 Udluriak asked the question, "Who am I to you?" I would say, "You're my mother. " At that time, I was young eno ugh to beli eve that she was my real mother. Then one time my father's younger brother, Joe Aluktu t, told me - at that young age - "That 's not your rea l mother." And his wo rds stuck in my head. And I got very shy and embarrassed about that because I had gotten to think that Udluriak was my real mother. But my father's sing le brother told me, "Tha t's not your real mother. " And after that I don 't remember. It seems like I fell asleep for three years. acculturated northern er. These statements are the heart and soul of the book, and only in readin g them do we realize that we have heard very little of this before. These writings open a window on Inuit women's experience and they also remind us that many aspects of women's experience transcend cultural boundar ies. For examp le, Oopik Pitseolak's painful recollections of her stepmother 's aggressive insistence about their family bond will strike a chord with some readers (p. 192): I remember my stepmother, Udluriak, speaking to me and asking me a question. She was saying, "Whom [sic] am I?" When I would not answer, Udluriak would say, "I'm your mother. I'm your mother, Udluriak." And then every time INUIT WOMEN ARTISTS: VOICES FROM CAPE DORSET While the exhibiti on is a beautiful one, it is really the accompanying book, Inuit that is the landmark achievement. For it is here that the voices of these women emerge as a stro ng compl ement to their artistic visions. Every piece in the exhibition is illustrated in the book, and usually has a caption by the artist herself. Sometimes these captions are quit e informative, especia lly wi th regard to th e art ist's insights into technical processes or choice of imagery. Odette Leroux, Cura tor of Contemporary Inuit Art at the Canadian Museum of Civilization is the lead writer, with contrib utions from Marion E. Jackson, Professor of Art History at Carleton University and Minni e Aodla Freeman, Inuit writer, editor, film producer, and translator. Leroux's extensive dialogue wit h th e artists and with the other two Inuit women who contributed to the book (Ann Meekitjuk Hanson and Annie Manning) makes this a pathbreaking collaborative effort. In a series of interviews and written statements, each individu al shares her insights as a woman, artist and Women Artists: Voices from Cape Dorset, To Rescue a Drowning Hunter, 1983, Pitseo lak Ashoona, Cape Dorset (lithograph on wove and rag paper; 65.5 x 51 cm; Canadian Museum of Civilization).

35 Knowledge of Pitaloosie Saila's grief at the loss of her mother may make us look with new eyes at some of the mother and child images in her work (pp ): Because I remember crying for something, it seems I remember only sorrow from the beginning of my life. The way I see it now, I think it must have been hard for my father when he came back from hunting and was told that his wife had died. My mother wasn't sick when my father left for the walrus hunt. He was gone for almost a month... One evening after my mother had been dead for about two years, just as it was getting dark, I remember being so happy when my father came back to our camp with my W1cle (my mother's brother) and my cousin (son of my mother's deceased brother). Both my uncle and cousin have since passed away. That evening my father arrived with them by dog team, bringing a woman with them. We ran out to meet them when they arrived. When I saw a woman was with them, I ran back to my grandmother's and shouted that my mother had arrived with them. I was so happy. When I went back out to where they were, I stood by my father and asked him if my mother had come back. He did not reply for a few minutes. Then he said that she wasn't my mother bu t my aunt, a cousin of my mother. When he said that, I started crying because I understood then that the woman who had arrived with them was not my mother. A great deal of literature of the past two decades written by white women in North America describes the inevitable tension that women artists feel in trying to maintain the proper balance offamily work and art work. But in Mayoreak Ashoona's words, we see a vivid picture of a truly arduous daily round of duties. She lives in a remote family camp some miles from Cape Dorset and, to a greater extent than most northern women, continues to live a very traditional lifestyle. After describing the time-consuming daily work of fishing, cleaning, preparing skins, sewing, thawing meat, cooking and hunting, she comments: "But what I have found is that if you have other things to take care of, it takes more time to do drawings, to draw them properly with a clear mind" (p. 204). Many of the artists describe being influenced by the artistic work of a mother, grandmo ther or aunt. Oopik Pitseolak recalls her grandmother, Simatuq : "She was a cleaning lady for the Hudson's Bay Company. She wasn't just a cleaning lady. She did cooking and sewing and she did beadwork. She wasn't just a cleaning lady - she was a real woman. Because I learned beading from my grandmother, I am working at it today, and I like doing it very much" (p. 192). QaW1ak Mikkigak describes her father's artistic influence, and the isolation of being one of the rare women who carved in the early days (p. 117): I also remember my father making carvings out of ivory tusks for the Hudson's Bay Company, using a bow drill that had to be held on with his mouth... My father died when I was quite young. Later, after my father died, I started making soapstone heads for dolls, and later on I carved qulliit [oil lamps], then geese. I used to be so Inuit Leader, 1972, Pitaloosie Saila, Cape Dorset (stonecut on laid and kozo paper; 70.1 x 85.5 cm; Canadian Museum of Civilizat ion, gift of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development). shy of the other women because they were not doing much carving then like the men did at the time. In addition to personal essays by the artists (memories, in the case of artists who have died, like Pitseolak Ashoona and Lucy Qinnuayuak) there are essays by Minnie Aodla Freeman, Annie Manning (former teacher and justice of the peace) and Ann Meekitjuk Hanson (former Deputy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories). Each of these women recalls artists she has known, as well as her own experiences as a northern woman. The volume opens with an essay by Odette Leroux that surveys the art represented in the exhibition and book, and a brief statement by Marion Jackson on the way the essays were solicited and edited. She points out that, during the past 40 years, the making of art has given Inuit women a new economic independence and creative outlet. She also notes (p. 37): 'H

36 In the expanding literature on Inuit art and culture and in discussions of the profound changes reshaping Canada's North, however, rarely are the voices of interpretation those of native Inuit, and even more rarely are they the voices of Inuit women. The writings that foilow, therefore, are extraordinary, unique in the fresh insight they offer into the experience of modern Inuit women. This is a book to get lost in. One starts reading these memories, in the artist's own words, an entire afternoon passes, and 200 pages are digested. It will stand as a landmark achievement in Inuit studies. CURATING, COLLABORATING AND CONTROVERSY Because Isumavut was criticized in what seemed to me an ignorant and inaccurate fashion in a Toronto newspaper, The Globe and Mail (October 22, 1994, p. ES), I find it important to address those criticisms here. As an art historian living in the United States, I am not familiar with whatever animosities or blind spots a reviewer for a prominent Canaclian newspaper may have exhibited over the long term; I am simply taking the review at face value. It did seem curious to me, however, that this review did not express the singular point of view of one reviewer, Ray Conlogue, but also included a lengthy diatribe by an Inuit art curator - Norman Zepp, formerly of the Art Gallery of Ontario. Football Player, 1981, Ovilu Tunnillie, Cape Dorset (green stone; 52 x 29 x 17 cm; Inuit Cultural Institute, gift of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development). To briefly recap their criticisms: Conlogue and Zepp argue that the exhibition moves away from a scholarly model of curating by involving artists themselves in the curating of the exhibition. Conlogue and Zepp cliscuss with disdain "the growing gap between traditional curating and the emerging politically correct notion of what a curator does," in Aboriginal art exhibitions, and they dismiss Isumavut for its uneven quality. It seems to be the issue of the artists' involvement in the development of the exhibition that incenses them the most. Yet, interestingly enough, nowhere in the exhibition itself is the participation of the artists in any selection process made clear. The exhibition is presented in an authoritative, anonymous way, without even the name of the curator and advisors associated with it. To my mind, all shows today should publicl y list and credit their curators and organizers within the installation itself, in order to get rid of the entrenched myth of the anonymous and ponderous voice of museum authority. Only when this happens is the casual museum visitor likely to stop and consider that what is being presented is a point of view, a partial view, a provisional way of looking at something for just one moment in time. At the risk of further unhinging the conservative individuals in our field, I would argue that perhaps the exhibition itself was not daring enough, in that it did not mirror the book in foregrounding the voices of the artists themselves. In the book, Marion Jackson eloquently writes (p. 38): Museums have a long history of interpreting aboriginal art from the "objective" perspective of trained musewn professiona ls and presenting it from a clearly defined curatorial perspective. Only recently have museums begun to engage artists and other aboriginal thinkers in the interpretation of aboriginal arts. The Canadian Museum of Civilization's 1992 exhibition Indigena was one of the first major museum exhibitions to be developed totally from an aboriginal perspective. The voices of these Inuit women, therefore, emerge in the context of these complementary changes within the Inuit culture and within the museum community. Modern Inuit women are no longer cultura II y bound to defer quietly and patiently while their interests are interpreted and represented by others, and no longer do principal museums turn exclusively to non-inuit professionals for interpretation of the lives and art of Inuit artists. An alternative model is emerging which acknowledges that understanding is enriched by an awareness of the values and intentions of th e artists. In this model, the 34 Vol. 10. No. I Svrina 1995

37 (Notably, only the first sentence of this passage is quoted in The Globe and Mail review.) What I find particularly Int 1it Art Putting up the Tent, 1982, Mayoreak Ashoona, Cape Dorset (lithograph on wove and rag paper; 51.5 x 66.7 cm; Canadian Museum of Civilization). over the last two generations. It is important to remember that Inuit art is not a world unto itself; not only is it part of Canadian art history, it is also part of the bigger pictur e of Native North American art history. As a scholar who is concerned with issues that have been emerging in Native North American art history over the last decade, I found this exhibition to be tremendously exciting and gratifying, because it demonst rates to me that Inu it art history is finally coming out of isolation and joining in the important dialogues that have been energizing other aspe cts of Aboriginal an studi es. consulted when a retrospective exhibit is hung. In some cases, this results in a virtual co-curatorship of the exhibit ; in other cases, the advice is minimal. No one ever suggests that the curator of 20th-century art is abrogating curatorial responsibility when such consu ltation takes plac e. On one hand, Zepp and Conlogue advocate that "universal " standards of quality be appli.ed to Inuit art. But wh en "univer sal" standards of curatorial practice are applied - standards that presuppos e bonds of collegiality and some common ground between curators and artists - they are outrag ed. The world of Inuit art studies has for a long time been its own insular little domain, somewhat removed from the intellectual issu es that have animated scholarship in other areas of Native arts puzzling about the fury expressed in the review is that the practice that Zepp objects to most vehemently - involving the artists in their own exhibition - is one practised daily in shows of 20thcentury art made by non-aboriginal artists. It is routine practice in every art gallery and museum in Europe and North America for a living artist to be curator (whether from within the culture or without) allempts not so much to impose a curatorial viewpoint as to facilitate communication between artists and audience and to acknowledge the complexity of the human experience embodied in the works of art.

38 Camp Scene, c. 1972, Lucy Qinnuayuak, Cape Dorset (felt pen and graphite on wove and bleached-wood-pulp paper; 45.6 x 60.9 cm; Canadian Museum of Civilization, gift of Alma Houston). While non-inuit scholars of Inuit art will surely continue to curate shows and write essays about this work without consultation or collaboration with the artists, this will no longer be the only model of scholarship. The point that Conlogue and Zepp seem to miss is that lsumavut does not narrow the possibilities for scholarly investigation - it enlarges them. For a reviewer to say that quality was not a driving factor in this show is absurd; five minutes in the exhibition hall is proof of that. Yet what seems to incense Conlogue and Zepp is that one lone (white) curator's autocratic idea of quality is not the sole and over-riding factor in the exhibition. My visual response to this exhibition, as an art historian who has curated a number of shows of Inuit and other arts, was very similar to my response to any sort of exhibition: some works excited me greatly, others I found less interesting. I appreciated the deft hand of the curator in the juxtapositioning of some objects that I would not have linked on my own. Perhaps other such groupings escaped my notice while they aroused the admiration of different viewers. I suspect that four Inuit art specialists looking at this exhibition, or any other exhibition, would Necklace, 1976, Qaunak Mikkigak, Cape Dorset (stone, ivory, bone, sin ew, leather and metal; 36 x 7.8 x 3 cm; Inuit Cultural Institute, gift of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development). find that only about 40 per cent of the objects elicited the same critical response in all of them. We bring our own idiosyncratic preferences to our experience of all art. There is no universal standard of quality that exists in a vacuum, discernible only to the museum professional and unsullied by opinions of arti sts and others - although Conlogue and Zepp would have us think so, by the depth of their outrage. As I read The Globe and Mail review, I was led to reflect that, indeed, this show must have seriously destabilized the old, colonialist, male-expert model of the museum curator and art critic as the final arbiter of taste, if these howls of protest were any indication. It is fascinating to me that this cross-cultural model of collaboration, in which some small vestiges of authority and control are relinquished by those "experts" in power, is very much a female model of cooperation. Moreover, it is laudatory that the editors of the volume, all women, hail from three distinct cultures: French Canadian (Leroux), Anglo-American (Jackson) and Inuit (Freeman). When I travelled to Ottawa in November to review this exhibition, I had the opportunity to speak with just one of its contributors, Marion Jackson. One anecdote that she related remains vivid in my mind. During the opening week of the show, when most of the artists and organizers had a busy round of gallery events, book signings, and other social engagements, there was a quiet moment one afternoon when some of them had gathered in the Friends' lounge at the CMC. Jackson commented to one of the artists that they had all been busy signing copies of the book for museum patrons, and that she, too, would like to have her own copy signed. The first woman not only signed her name, but drew an outline around her hand. On the same page, the next woman followed suit, and then the next. ''By the time they were all done," Jackson said, "the overlaying of the tracing of many hands made a new and complex pattern on that page in my book. You couldn 't really discern individual hands. That, to me, became a metaphor for the process of this show." Janet Catherine Berlo is a Professor of Art History at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

39 MARION SCOTT GALLERY classics of Oviloo Tunni llie, Spirited Sedna, Howe Street Vancouver, B.C. V6C 2E5 Fax(604) Tel (604) Celebrating 20 Years the past and the future Continuing to bring you

40 38 On Collector EXHIBITIONS Selections from the Herb and Cece Schreiber Family Collection AT THE ART GALLERY OF HAMILTON, MAY 21 TO AUGUST 21, 1994 ith so many Inuit art exhibits today focusing on a single theme, genre or community, th e Herb and Cece Schreiber Family Collection at the Art Gallery of Hamilton this summer was a delightful reminder of catholicity. Like collectors Harry and Marcia Klamer, the Schreibers seem to be motivated to acquire the widest possible variety of Inuit art, whether it be in the form of felt wall hangings, early Cape Dorset prints, or carvings ranging from early Inukjuak to the most contem porary. From auction houses and dealers, the Schreibers have bought works emanating from both sides of Hudson Bay, from Baffin Island and, in one instance, bought a Pacific Indianstyle raven by Abraham Anghik, created in a southern workshop. Most of the art comes from the commercial market. It was not, in fact, until two years ago that the Schreibers travelled "north of 60" to buy art directl y. Untitled (a pair of Inuit hunter bookends), Jaka Echalook, lnukjuak (ivory and green soapstone; 17.8 cm high; collection of Herb and Cece Schreiber). Some of the works are unquestionably blockbusters, perhaps purchased for their presumed classical - and sometimes literal - weight. In this respect, the Schreibers often seem to be treading too safely behind the Klamers. In common with the Klamer colleclion, for example, there was a requisite Family Migration copy piece by Joe Taliruniti; a 1965 print, Chasing Geese into Stone Pen, by Jamasie; and the well-known 1974 print, Our Camp, by Pitseolak. There were also several heavy and cliched pieces, such as an ungainly hawk-headed fantasy monster, featured on the exhibit folder, by Kiawak Ashoona, and a mother and child piece in white marble by Kaka Ashoona.

41 InuitArt n O I O T J I,; 39 and Collecting: It was really the more atypical pieces that I enjoyed in this coll ection. The Schreibers, for instance, have picked up quite a number of ivory miniatures by Mark Tungilik. Some figures mounted on ledges of soapstone are so miniature that they tend towards the microscopic (but are never cute). The effect was less an impression of craftsman tour de force than a Surrealist play on scale. There were a number of the copperplat e engraving prints from the early 1960s by Kiakshuk, Parr and Jamasie from Cape Dorset, which are not often seen outside catalogues because prints utilizing that technique never really captured much interest in the South, although they were important in the development of Cape Dorset art. Some of the most interesting work, alas, is "anonymous." This is inevitable with early carvings. There were, however, three nameless wall hangings that are not particularly ancient. One featured Ught-coloured, expertly cut and sewn skin silhouettes of winter camp scenes on black felt. While it looked like work encouraged by Alma Houston in the 1950s, neither collectors nor curator provided any intelligent guesses as to its authorship, date or, even, prov enance. Another felt hanging with four standing people in parkas with stone faces and beaded chest decoration was poorl y identified only by place: Eskimo Point [Arviat]. I suspect unnecessary timidity here. Theme, size and features of composition provided a number of logical clues for identification. Although the show was set up very effectively inside the gallery hall, the captions for the pieces were uninformative. Against accepted practice for all plastic art today, identification of materials, particularly carvingstone, and dates was not provided. The dating of Cape Dorset prints is crucial, but it is only the curious viewer who would reliably bother to make out the faint pencil date on the bottom edge of the print itself. Likewise, there was no effort to help the viewer understand the iconography. The best Inuit art has always dazzled because of its formal qualities and the richness of its materials, but the under- 1 ying themes of mythology are also important for both artist and the involved viewer. A sun or moon on a wall hanging, for instance, is not just a sun or moon, but has loaded connotations, the way, for example, a Madonna does in Western art. Still, the Schreiber collection has such inherent interest that it really does stand on its own. Armed with a bit of historical knowledge, the viewer can spend an unusually productive hour poring over the pieces of this superior collection. Perhaps with a catalogue and improved identification of pieces, the collection could have a produ ctive second life on tour. John Ayre John Ayre is a freelance writer living in Guelph, Ontario. Untitled, Judas Ullulaaq, Gjoa Haven (whale bone; 53.3 cm high; collection of Herb and Cece Schreiber). Untitled, Judas Ullulaaq, Gjoa Haven (whale bone, sinew, green stone; 45.1 cm high; collection of Herb and Cece Schreiber).

42 EXHIBITIONS In the Time o the l(ayak: Hunting in the Eastern Canadian Arctic Skin working tools, early 20th century. Left to right: ivory needle case and need les; ulu {Inuit woman 's knife); and flensing knife, skin needle case and bone thimble. AT THE ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM, INDIGENOUS GALLERY OF TORONTO, PEOPLES, FEBRUARY 19, 1994 TO SUMMER 1995 The use of the kayak in Inuit culture has passed, but the knowledge of that time still lingers with the current generation. In an attempt to help preserve knowledge of the Canadian Inuit culture and the method of constructing a kayak, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) has assembled a collection of kayaks and material culture that show a people connected with the land. Although the intention is to show the kayak as a "hunting tool," we are also reminded that the Inuit have not made or used sealskin-covered kayaks for hunting since the early 1960s. Consequently, firsthand knowledge of how to make and use kayaks belongs to the elders, the last of the kayak hunting generation. Documentation of the traditional kayak and its construction is of vital historical impor tance to contemporary culture - Inuit and other. Curator Kenneth Lister considers that this could be the "last chance to get this information." The intent of the exhibition is not to romanticize the kayak or the people who used it, but to present it as a hunting tool in its cultural and historical context. Briefly, the exhibition includes examples of early kayaks, tools, hunting, sewing and fishing equipment, and samples of sealskin and gutsk in clothing worn on the hunt. One can quickly appreciate the resourcefulness and mastery required to create the tools and equipment, which were originally made from bone, ivory, skin, sinew and/or stone (later, steel was incorporated ). The show represents the culmination of years of work and experience by Lister and the ROM's Department of Ethnology. In 1990 and 1991, Lister visited Arctic Bay on Baffin Island to organize and document the making of a kayak frame. In 1990, he met with the Arctic 40 Vol. JO. No. I Svrina 1995

43 The kayak frame, along with a video entitled Between Generations: narrated by Simon and his of Knowledge, "....,..... ' y The Transference! 9th-century kayak fully equippe d with and land of the long Day ( 1951 ). Beside this,_ another glass case contains the fishing!he ~ od~ rn kayak is an int eresting Royal Ontario Museum In the Time of the Kayak is concise and both art and artifact. We agreed that the Jill Barber f rom Sir W1/fnd laurier University, where she studied I1111i t cult11r e. Non 41 I lnuitart 1 Quoted from the text accompanying the works on display at the ROM. wife Iga Qamanirq, is promin entl y on disp lay in the exhibition. Another video demon strates how the sea lskins and sinew thread were traditionally prepared and used, as well as how the skins were stretched on the kayak frame. The video illuminates the important role of women, who wielded extraordinary skill and resourcefulness in outfitting the kayak with a waterproof sealskin linin g. The few tools that were used to efficiently prepar e and sew the skins are also on display. Excluding the fram e, there are five full-scale kayaks on display. Miniatur e mod els of kaya k styles from across l( ll Barber is a freelance writer associated with Feheley Fme A~s 111 T~ronto. She has a degree in anthropology mclus1on m this section, wh ich is dedicated to "cultural change." It repr esents an item/d esign from the Inuit culture that has been incorporated into the Western world. Changes to Inuit culture through southern influence are, of course, more dramatic. The introdu ction of guns, wooden whaleb oats and, ultimately, the motorized boat, has rend ered the kayak obsolete, as Western technology has made life and hunting easier and mor e efficient. However, even with such cultural changes, the Inuit remain hunter s. The viewer is remind ed that, although their culture has changed and new technolo gies have repl aced the old, "the Inuit effectively displ ayed. It achieves much more than simp ly pr esenting the kayak as an integral part of tradit ional Inuit technol ogy. It plac es the kayak in its context of culture and tradition, central to the procuremen t of food, clothing and an important element in Inuit technology. When I spoke with Ken neth Lister, he was careful to point out that this is not an art exhibi t. Certainly, it is not art for art's sake. The materials used were developed with purpose, utilizing the natural shap e and properties of materials from nature with perform ance in mind. However, design and function can be found in shape and de sign of the maste rfull y crafted wood structure and the skilfull y assemb led sealskin cover are in trinsi cally beautiful. Even the delicately carved ivory. sew ing needles and the papery gutskm waterproo f coat are exquisite ly crafted forms. These are th e tradit ions and tools of an old culture, of people who resourcefu ll y used all that was given by the land, and used it wisely and respectfully. many of the hunting tools as they would traditio nally have appear ed during a hu~tin g expedition. Above this display, a video shows a hunt er in action, with excerpts from Nanook of the North (1922) equipment not shown on the kayak. Fina lly, to bring us up to date, a contemporary sea kayak is on exhibit - a descendant of the skin kayak, engineered using the design of the rraditional kayak because of its unpre cedent ed effectiveness in negotiating treacherous waters. Bay Elders Council, which approved his proposal, indicatin g that there was only one elder who could still construct a traditional kayak. In 1991, Lister travelled with a videographer to Victor Bay, near Arctic Bay, to wit ness and record the all-but-lo st art of const ructing a kayak frame. Elder Andrew Oyukul uk worked with Simon Qamanirq to pass on this knowl edge. Canada and Alaska are also includ ed in the exhibition, pro vidin g a mor e dramatic contrast in styles and sizes. Within the Eastern Arctic, there are regional differences in kayak styles, as the shape was adapted to perform different functions. Each area adapted the fonn of the kayak to meet dhferent purpose s and conditi ons. A highlight of the exhibit is an early I rema in a cu ltu re tied to the land. Through their interaction with the land the Inuit mainta in their identity."' ' Model of an East Hudson Bay-type kayak, c. 1945, wood frame and sealskin covering, 75 cm.

44 Woman Va11ci11g. l-'ilsrvt:1k Nl\i aqsi. C.1pc /Jorset. J 5 ~,\ 7.5" x 5.2.:; 1 ' Fehele y FmeArts 45 Avenue Roar!, Toronto. Ontari o M5R 2G3 (416) Fax: (4 16) Profe ssional artvisors Lo pr ivale and corporate coll eclion s of tnuil Art since 1961 l(iawak Ashoona Cape Dorset.%ww1flH., (!)u/., g;-w {5o/fecdmz, [!/-'cjaj'f!fjcu_fnw«e,, and~ Arctic Artistry 2 Spring Str eet Hastings-on-Hudson, New York (914) Fax (914) Call or write to receive our mailings "Mother and Child", 25" H, circa I 960's 42 11,.f 111 "''" 1 ('.,.. :.,.,..,o n..:

45 DRAWrm Only 500 tickets -will be sold! A chance to win one of five artworks donated by Inuit artists who support the programs of the Inuit Art Foundation. First prize "We are the arti.jtj and we have put a little bit of 0111"JeivCJ into the We have 0011ated theje ii'ork,, of art to the Inuit Art Fou11datwn." - Charlie Kogvik, Baker Lake. J/011e. Second prize All proceeds will go to the programs of the lnuit Artists' College. The College provides professional development courses and educational resources to Inuit artists. The draw will be held March 31, 1995 at the Ottawa School of Art in Ottawa. Winners will be announced in the Summer 1995 issue of Inuit Art Quarterly and will be notified by phone. Prizes will be available for pick-up immediately following the draw. Winners are responsible for packing and shipping costs. Third prize Fourth prize Fifth prize First prize - Owl, Mattiu si lyaituk, 1991, lvujivik (crystalline alabaster, orange alabaster, Labrador soapstone; 5½ x 13½ x 12½ in.). Value $3,000 (donated by the artist). Second prize -Man Giviil!JMe,Mage, Natar Unga laq, 1994, lglooli k (red marble; 13½ x 9½ x 6¼ in.). Value $1,800 (donated by the artist). Third prize -Bear, Simata Pitsiulak, 1991, Lake Harbour (Brazilian soapstone; 15½ x 8 x 10 in.). Value $1,00 0 (donated by the artist). Fourth prize - Tuullik (Loon), Mayoreak Ashoona, 1990, Cape Do rset (lithograph: green and bla ck; 56.7 x 76.2 cm). Value $350 (dona ted by Dorset Fine Arts, Toronto). Fifth prize - Unique ca11vlld jack et with hand-embroidered Arctic design and syllabics, made and donated by Ivalu Arts and Craft s Centre in Rankin Inl et. Value $150. Fill out the form below or the inserted card and return with your payment (VISA, MasterCard or cheque) to fouitart Foun'Jation, 2081 Merivale Road, Nepean, Ontario, Canada K2G IG9. Not open to staff or directors of the Inuit Ari Fou11'Jation, or their relatives. Ottawa Licence number Na me: _ Address : _ Phone number : 0 VISA/Mast ercard num ber: _ Exp iry date: 0 Cheque enclosed Signature: _ City of Ottawa Licen ce # INUIT ART FOUNDATION Merivale Road, Nepean, Ontario K2G 1G9 (613) Price: $50 Draw will be held on March 31, 1995 at 12:00 p.m. at the Ottawa School of Art, 35 George Street, Ottawa, Ontario Fax: (613) Only 500 tickets printed

46 44 UPDATE MONUMENTAL ARCTIC ART: TRADITION AND INNOVATION The International Arts and Cultural Festival, held during the 15th Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia in August 1994, was a rare occasion for artists from various circumpolar regions to gather. Arts from the Arctic, an exhibition of circumpolar art, was on display at Canada House during the games. And, at a sculpture site in Victoria's inner harbour, artists sculpted enormous blocks of limestone, soapstone, whale bone, wood and fibreglass. lnua Rising, 1994, Abraham Anghik, Saltspring Island (whale jawbone; 15 feet high). The exhibition and the monumental sculpture were captured in a film called Spirit of the Arctic, produced by Alex Brown of Hamilton-Brown Productions. The artists came from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and artistic training. Abraham Anghik, originally from Paulatuk, Northwest Territories, who now Jives on Saltspring Island in British Columbia, and Joe Nasogaluak, from Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, are two Inuit artists who participated in the monumental carving sessions. Dolphus Cadieux, of Slavey and French descent, has had extensive formal training and prefers to be called a contemporary artist. For Cadieux, innovation includes newer media, exemplified by his lofty steel and fibreglass sculpture called Northern Kachina. Anghik commented on the impact that monumental art has on an audience: "When you have monumental sculpture work out in the public, the viewer has a singular impression that he takes home with him; he has an impression of the Arctic, the landscape, the people, all encompassed in one image." Monumental art is, he said, a vehicle that allows artists "to stand with other international artists in their own right." Technical and logistical problems arose with the monumental sculpture, not the least of which was transporting blocks of stone, each weighing several tons. Special tools were needed for carving, and an understanding of the structural limitations of the medium was required. Common to the carvers at the games was a tendency to let the material dictate the image. Cadieux described the experience as "a period of chipping and removing a lot of stone... I find images and shapes within the stone and it dictates to me what is in there." Nasogaluak's Napatiit Nurnani (detail), 1994, Joe Nasogaluak, Tuktoyaktuk (whale bone neck vertebrae; 36 x 28 x 82 in.). Bill Zuk approach was similar: "When I looked at the whale bone, the shape of a seagoddess was there and it was really exciting... so I just put it there." In some cases, the inspiration came quickly, but each artist adopted planning strategies such as using templates or scale models to aid in the process. There was a strong identification with the emerging image. Nasogaluak spoke of

47 ln11it Art UPDATE SIX INUIT WOMEN ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE t: '-'.D 0 0:: feeling the power from the bone and of becoming the dancers he was carving. Cadieux's Northern Kachina also refers to a dance - one performed by the Hopi - as an expression of a wider Native consciousness. When the form was completed, it seemed somehow incompl ete. It was then that Cadieux had the idea of adding electric wires to the limbs of the sculptur e. "The wires represent the energy that happens when you're dancing and moving about." Bill Zuk and Robert Dalton Bill Zuk and Robert Dalton are faculty members of the Departmenr of Arts in Education at the University of Victori a. Spirit of the Arctic aired on regional television networks in western Canada throughout the winter. Northern Kachina, 1994, Dolphus Cadieux, Yellowknife (steel and fibreg lass; 7 feet high). "It is always the men's work that has been recognized, never the women's. It makes us feel proud that our work now has respect," says Oopik Pitseolak, one of six women artists who participated in a ten-day workshop at the Ottawa School of Art in October This was the first workshop organized by the Inuit Artists' College (owned by the Inuit Art Foundation) to focus on the achievements and the development of Inuit women artists. Four of the six participating artists were represented in Isumavut: The Artistic Expression of Nine Cape Dorset Women, which opened at the Canadian Museum of Civilization on October 6. They were joined by two graphic artists from Pangnirtung. The workshop was an opportunity for women from the two communities to work together in a professional studio and to share ideas and experiences. The women, who were artists-in-residence at the Ottawa School of Art from October IO to 20, were: Mayoreak Ashoona, Oopik Pitseolak, Napachie Pootoogook and Pitaloosie Saila of Cape Dorset, and Ida Karpik and Towkie Qarpik of Pangnirtung. During the workshop, the women experimented with some new techniques, including dry-point etching, and lowrelief clay sculpting and casting. At the Artist-in-residence Oopik Pitseolak with Oopik Going for Water, the sculpture that greets visitors to lsumavut: The Artistic Expression of Nine Cape Dorset Women, at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec, October Artist-in-residence Napachie Pootoogook, left, and Qaunak Mikkigak throat singing at the opening of lsumavut: The Artistic Expression of Nine Cape Dorset Women, October 6, artists' request, a session on drawing techniques was organized midway through the session. The women also met with Canada Council officers to discuss ways in which the council's programs can be made more accessible to Inuit artists. Six Inuit Women Artists-in-Residence culminated with a luncheon, held to honour participants and sponsors at the Canadian Museum of Civilization on October 19. Assistance for the workshop was provided by the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Canada Council and the Bank of Montreal.

48 4fi Several participants in t h e Baker Lake carving workshop, inside the old fire hall, Baker Lake, October On the extreme right are Mattiusi lyaituk (standing), the wor kshop leader, and Paul Toolooktook (sitt ing), president of the Ujaraqtatit Society (Baker Lake Artists ' Associat ion). The t wo first met dur ing an Inuit Art Foundation session in Ottawa in February An uniden t if ied carver at the Baker Lake carv ing workshop, Octobe r On Sept ember 26, I arrived in Baker Lake, whi ch is whe re all of the students were from. We were slow in getting started, but as the tools arrived and the old fue hall was set up, things began to move. Although the students who had never carved before had problems with the hard stone, they managed to fmish some pieces. Some of the students did ha ve softer stone, and that worked well for them. On the first day of the wo rkshop, I poin ted out to them that safety was top prior ity. We assemb led the masks and passed them around. I talked a bit about the dangers of the stone du st and, as we were going to work with the power tools, I also talke d about the proper use of the tools. I told them that I w as not there to Mattiusi Iyaituk, an artist from lvujiv ik in northern Quebec, was engaged by the Ujaraqtatit Society (Baker Lake Artists' Association) to lead a two-week workshop on power tools and safety measures in September last year. The idea for the workshop came from artist Paul Too/ooktook, president of the Ujaraqtatit Society, who met Iyaituk during an Inuit Art Foundation session in Ottawa February Toolooktook, who felt Baker Lake artists would benefit from such a workshop, was impressed with Iyaituk's skill with power tools and his knowledge of safety techniques. Financial assistance for the workshop was provided by the Inuit Art Foundation, First Air, Air Inuit, and the Department of Economic Developmen t and Tourism, Keewatin Division. Support was received from the Hamlet of Baker Lake, Boreal Tools (Iqaluit), Lee Valley Tools, Safety Supply Canad and Princess Auto of Ottawa. What follows is Iyaituk's account of the workshop: in WORKSHOP FOR CARVERS OLD AND NEW UPDATE

49 11 p.m. every day, except on Sunda ys. lnuitart UPDATE Mattiusi lyaituk Mattiusi Iyaituk is a carver from Ivujivik, northern Quebec, and a direct or of tire Inuit Art Foundation. PEOPLE Charlie Kogvik, a carver from Baker Lake and a dire ctor of the Inuit Art Foundation, is workin g on contract for the Inu it Art Sect ion of Indian and No rth ern S per copy (plus 7% GST and $ 3.50 for shipping and handlin g) National Library of Canada A Video from the National Library of Canada! North: Landscape of the Imagination -Celine Saucier received her PhD in June 1994 from Laval University's Department of History (Quebec City). Her thesis was en titled The Representation of Women in the Contemporary Inuit Sculpture of Nunavik ( ). Saucie r is now working Please make your check or money order payable to the Receive r General for Canada and mail to: 47 Bibliotheque nationale du Canada Canada See the North as recreated in the art of indigenous people, explorers and visitors who have been captivated by its beauty. The National Library of Canada has produced a 16-minute closed-captio ned video of the exhibition "North: Landscape of the Imagination" held in See images of paintings, sketches, photographs and sculpture s, while words and music describe the fascination of the North. National Library of Canada 395 Wellington Street Ottawa, Ontario KlA 0N4 Telephone: (613) Fax: (613) There was one nig ht when I felt like carving and I worked unt il 2 a.m. Some people came and went. We also talked to those who were curious about what was going on in and around the old fire hall. We did the heavy grindfog outsid e, and the sand ing inside. We also did the inlay work insid e using the vacuum cleaner. Durin g the first few days, quite a few people came to the worksh op. But, as we did not have enough power tools for all of them, some wandered away and did not come back. There were abou t seven people who participat ed full-time. Although some were new at carving, they were very good at it. There was one person, Barney Aarvaq, who had never carved before, but he was doing it as if he carved all the time. The oth ers who were regulars includ ed : Paul Toolooktook; Thomas Akilak; Simon Tookoome; Janet Ekuutaq; Denni s Eqqaa t; Elizabeth Paungrat, and David Quinangnaq. We had plan s to have a show of the work that was produced during the workshop, but it was not possible. As soon as for UNESCO... Affairs Canada in Hull, Queb ec. Kogvik, who speaks Inuk titut an d English, is ac ting as an int ermediary between northern artists and southern clients who call the Inuit Art Section for inform ation on mark eting and exh ibiting Inuit art. Artists who have questions or concerns, or who would like to pass on information about th ems elves or their ar t to the section, can ca ll Kogvik, toll free, at the work was completed, it was taken to who knows where to be sold. I left Baker Lake on October 10. I hope other commun ities wi ll be ab le 10 ben efit from similar workshops. I feel very proud that I was invited to work wi th the Baker Lake carvers. I have the feeling that a few new artists will be emerging from Baker Lake because of this wo rkshop. show them how to carve, because they have their own Baker Lake style. I was there only to show them how to use the power tools to do their artwork. This proved to be of benefit to some of the stud ents wh o were comfortable w ith the powe r tools. We started work at 9 a.m. and went until 5 p.m. And then we went back to the old fire hall to do some more work at 6:30 p.m. and stayed unt il lo p.m. or

50 48 Now AVAILABLE FROM THE INUIT ART FOUNDATION! PELTS TO STONE: A History of Arts and Crafts Production in Arviat Compiled, translated and edited by Mark Kalluak. Thi s is the first art history written by an lnuk. The book is packed with anecdota l information about people's first experiences with carving, personal biographies and stories about how people settled in Arviat. PELTS TO STONE - order now Soft cover, 114 pages, laser printed, 36 black and whit e illustrations C$24.95 plus $3 shippin g and handling within Canada, C$5 in the US T o order contact: Inuit Art Foundation 2081 Merivale Rd. Nepean, Ontario K2G 1G9 Tel : (613) Fax: (613) CD CANADIAN NATIVE ARTS FOUNDATION is accepting applications from Aboriginal individuals for artistic training. The CNAF provides financial assistance to Status and Non-Status, Metis and Inuit persons who are seeking training in the performing, visual, literary and communication arts. Please write, telephone or fax for an application. CANADIAN NATIVE ARTS FOUNDATION 77 Mowat Avenue, Suite 508 Toronto, Ontario M6K 3E3 (416) (tel.) (416) (fax) Deadline to receive applications: March 31, IMAGES ART GALLERY For Sale Pri"ate Collectio11 of Inuit Sculpture fronz 1970 to 1990 by Pro11zi11e11t Arti.,t., ji onz Cape Dor.,et~ Baker Lake e3 other area., 3345 Yonge Street Toronto, Ontario M4N 2M6 Tel./Fax: (416) Appleton Auction Galleries After 30 years at our previous locatio n... we have moved to a new ShowroomM'arehouse We have one of the largest & finest collections of INUIT SCULPTURE & WEST COAST INDIAN ART "featuring Collector's & Museum Pieces" Open by Appointment Tel: (604) Fax: (604) Hornby Street Vancouv er, B.C. Canada V6Z 1 W8 M ember: Vancouver Board of Trade

51 CANADIAN GUILD OF CRAFfS QUEBEC A COMPLETE SELECTION OF INUIT ART A PERMANENT COLLECTION OF INUIT ART ON DISPLAY THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 2025 Peel Street, Montrea l, P.Q. H3A 1T6 Tel: (514) Galerie Elca London INUIT MASTERWORKS *Vid eo cotalogue available upon request 1616 Sherbrooke 0., Montreal, Quebec H3H 1C9 (514) Membre de!'association Professionelle des Galeries d '.4rl du Canada Inc. Member of Professional Arl Dealers Association of Canada Inc. lnuitart - RLRSHRN ESHIMO. INUIT & NW COAST INOIRN RRT SCULPTURE PRINTS MRSHS caribou by Oshuitok lpeelie Tues -Sat llam-5:30pm. Sundaq 1-Spm 8806 Roosevelt Haq N.E.. Seattle. WR 98ll PAULOOSIE TAKPANI 49 KAKA ASHOONA KIAWAK ASHOONA SHORTY KILLIKTEE KUMWARTOK MATHEW NUNA PARR LUKTA QIATSUQ AXANGAYU SHAA MUNAMEE SHAQU NICK SIKKUARK LUCY TASSEOR NALINEK TEMELA CHARLIE UGYUK JUDAS ULLULAQ - 1 /

52 50 IN MEMORIAM WILLIAM TAYLOR: William (Bill) Taylor, archaeologist, died in Ottawa on November 13, He is remembered here by colleague and friend Frank Vallee, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University: A CELEBRANT OF LIFE On such occasions as the opening of the gallery that bears his name in the Grand Hall of the Canadian Museum of Civilization (IAQ Winter 1994:53), or the endowing of honorary degrees, speakers have extolled William E. Taylor's outstanding contributions to culture and learning in Canada. His curriculum vitae alone provides ample evidence that the praise was due. What a formidable document! It contains page after page of awards and honours (academic and other, national and international), important posts occupied, research projects undertaken and papers published. I think Bill would be embarrassed at such public acknowledgement of his achievements, and would chide the speakers for taking him, and themselves, too seriously. For Bill was a scholar and institution-builder with a twinkle in his eye. He combined, without incongruity, a genuine seriousness and a genuine light-heartedness. To convey a flavour of this aspect of Bill's personality, I offer an anecdote concerning a joint lecture presented by Bill and his close friend, George Swinton, distinguished artist and authority on Inuit art. I had invited them in the late 1960s to enlighten me and the students in one of my anthropology courses about a topic on which they were breaking new ground: archaeology and art among the Inuit. 1 Picture this: a lecture theatre seating about 100 with a projection screen at the front. On each side of the screen is a lectern. At one stands Bill Taylor and at the other, George Swinton. The unusual format could be described as a kind of duet in which the words were delivered in sequence rather than in unison: the remarks of one would be followed by those of the other, with illustrative materials on the screen punctuating the discussion. What made the occasion a typical Taylor-Swinton production was the bits of banter and mutual needling that lightened the serious academic atmosphere - lightened the atmosphere without trivializing the topic. William E. Taylor, Jr. was a serious scholar, but not at all a solemn one. No solemn scholar would, as he did, name the site of some of his archaeological digs after distillers of Scotch whisky: Ballantine's, Bell's, and Buchanan. To make sure that his cheerful presence would be felt even after his last breath had been drawn, Bill insisted that the mood of his memorial service be upbeat, less of a lament over a death than a celebration of life. With the help of Bill Taylor: his wife, Joan, and his friend George MacDonald, Executive Director of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, he planned a program that included a few of his favourite arias, jazz numbers, military marches, and the skirl of the bagpipes. Set between these short musical offerings were addresses by family and friends featuring anecdotes and evoking feelings of what he was like as a family man, friend and colleague. His specifications were faithfully followed at the memorial service in the Grand Hall of the Canadian Museum of Civilization on November 21, Among those who knew him, he will be remembered as I am sure he wanted to be remembered: an outstanding scholar and public servant who was a down-to-earth, sensitive person with a fine-edged sense of humour. NOTES Frank G. Vallee I "Prehisto ric Dorset Art," The Beaver, Autumn 1967, pp , was based on this lecture.

53 IN MEMORIAM FRANZ BADER: Franz Bader, dean of Washington, D.C. art dealers, died on September 14, 1994 at the age of 90. Franz had sold Inuit art from 1971 until his retirement in 1985, mounting exhibitions of individual artists and of annual print collections, and maintaining a high-quality inventory of works he personally selected in Canada. By exhibiting Inuit work next to art from traditional Western sources, he encour aged the acceptance of Inuit art in the United States. Franz Bader fled his native Austria in 1939 after the Nazi Anschlus s, and landed nearly penniless in the United States. In 1952, he opened Washington's first contemporary art gallery, and soon became legendary for the quality of his offerings, the strong support he gave young artists, and his energetic and gregarious personality. In addition to managing his gallery and a fine-arts bookstore, he pursued his hobby as a photographer, showing a wonderful appreciation for design and beauty in the ordinary things surrounding him. A number of exhibits of his photographs have been mounted in local museums and galleries. At a recent show of his work at the Austrian Embassy in Washington, D.C., he was honoured by his native land for his contributions to the arts, both as a dealer and a creator in his own right. After his retirement, Franz kept abreast of the Washington art scene with numerous visits to galleries and museums, providing advice and encouragement to me and to other dealers and artists active in the community. His death marks the end of an era in Washington and the loss of a major supporter of Inuit art in the United States. John M. Burdick John M. Burdick is the owner of a private gallery in Washington, D.C. GALLERY PHILLIP A WIDE SELECTION OF FINE INUIT ART Sculpture: soapstone, whalebone and ivory Prints Original Drawings Wall Hangings Appraisals Private and Corporate Art Consulting Bringing Inuit Art to a location near you! INUIT IMAGES OF BOSTON will be exhibiting collector-quality works in a city near you this S ring. Albany, NY - Sat. Feb. 25 North Haven, CT - sun. Feb. 26 Minneapolis, MN - Sun. April 23 Skokie, IL - Sat. April 29 Newton, MA - Sun. March 19 Columbus, OH- Sun. April 30 Washington, D.C. Sat. April 1 W.Conshohocken, PA.. Sun. Aprll 2 Cleveland, OH - Sat. May 6 Morristown, NJ - Sun. May 7 Peter Tunilie Lawrence Ave. E., Don Mills Centre, Don Mills, Ontario, M3C 1P InuitArt INUIT IMAGES OF BOSTON Call or write for our full schedule with all the details. P.O. Box 2501, Quincy, MA USA (617) ,..

54 AT THE GALLERIES AT THE PUBLIC GALLERIES In September last year, the Bayly Art Museum in Charlottesville, Virginia hosted a symposium entitled The Inuit of the Canadian North: Views of a Culture in Transition. Norman Hallendy, a research fellow of the Canadian Museum of Civilization and research associate at the Arctic Institute of North America, gave the keynote address: Nunanara: Physical and Spiritual Landscapes in the High Arctic. Other speakers included Janet Mancini Billson of George Washington University (Inuit Dreams, Inuit Realities: Shattering the Bonds of Dependency); Edith Turner, an anthropologist at the University of Virginia (Shamanistic Meaning in Inuit Art); and Bernadette Driscoll-Engelstad, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland (Contemporary Inuit Art in Context). Woman with Braids, c. 1975, Alice Akammak, Arviat (black wool braids, soapstone, beads, chamois; 11½ in. high; The lsaacs/lnnuit Gallery). Participants in The Inuit of the Canadian North: Views of a Culture in Transition symposium, Bayly Art Museum of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, September 24, Left to right: Bernadette Driscoll-Engelstad (Johns Hopkins University); Stephen Loring (Smithsonian Institution); Norman Hallendy (research fellow, Canadian Museum of Civilization); Judith Burch (Arctic Inuit Art, Richmond, Virginia), and William Fitzhugh {Smithsonian Institution). AT THE COMMERCIAL CiALLERIES Northern Images in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories presented Sulijuk: The Sculpture of Rex Goose in an exhibition that opened on November 25. More than 30 sculptures, including works in walrus ivory, muskox horn and caribou antler, were on display. Goose, a native of Holman Island, was present on opening night to discuss his work. Dolls from the Arctic, an exhibition of Inuit dolls from several communities, including Holman Island, Spence Bay, Pangnirtung and Arviat, was presented at The Isaacs/Innuit Gallery in Toronto on November 25. Lasting until Christmas Eve, the display included dolls made with fur, fabric, beads, teeth and carved stone. C'l

55 AT THE GALLERIES The work of Cape Dors et artist Kellypalik Etidlooie was showcased in an exh i bition at the Inuit Galerie in Mannheim, Germany that opened on September 25. The exhibition ran until October 29. Fellow Cape Dorset arti st Kellypalik Qimirpik was featured in an exhibition at the Inuit Galerie from November 27 to December 23. -The Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec in Montreal opened an exhibition entitled Sculpture Inuit on Novemb er 19, featuring many of the top contemporary Inuit carvers. Work by Abraham Anghik, Manasie Akpaliapik, Pitseolak Niviaqsi and Toonoo Sharky, among others, was displayed until December 31. -On Arctic Ice: The Inuit Hunters of Canada, an exhibition of traditional hunting gear, clothing and tools, opened on November 5 at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois. The exhibition also incorporated photographs, a video, and interacti ve units in which visitors could experi ence the challenge of travelling on sea ice. Cape Dorset artist Qiatsuq Shaa demonstrated his carving methods to guests at a preview on November 3. The next night, Shaa visited with collectors at the Orea Aart Gallery. Two weeks previous to that, the Orea Aart Gallery had hosted a reception to celebrate the opening of the 1994 Cape Dorset Print Collection on October 21. It was attended by the Canadian Consul General Allan N. Lever. Sculpture by Women, an exhibition at Feheley Fine Arts in Toronto featuring works by women artists from Cape Dorset, was on display from October 29 to November 19. More than 20 works by Ovilu Tunnillie, Qaunak Mikkigak, Omalluq Oshutsiaq, Tayaraq Tunnillie, Kenojuak Ashevak and Oopik Pitseolak were exhibited. Also, Feheley Fine Arts op ened its third annual exhibition of small work by Cape Dor set artists on November 26. Entitled Small Sculpture by Great Artists, work by Latcholassie -Akesuk, Pitseolak Niviaqsi, Iyola Kingwatsiak, Qaunak Mikkigak, among others, was featured. Transformation, n.d., Kellypalik Qimirpik, Cape Dorset (light gray soapstone; Inuit Galerie, Mannheim). Caribou Playing Guitar, n.d., Tayaraq Tunnillie, Cape Dorset (stone, antler; 19 x 10 x 9 in.; Feheley Fine Arts).

56 11,.I 1n,i t,. I C'.--.',.,. 11\l'lC 54 ' ~:;;: Little Bird Woman, c. 1993, Malaya Akulukjuk and Towkee Etooangat, Pangnirtung (wool; 27 x 20 in.; Arctic Artistry). fii <, C.:; s: -.:; ;: :, Winnip eg and Arctic Inuit Art of Richmond, Virginia. Sculpture by Judas Ullulaq of Gjoa Haven, Nick Sikkuark of Pelly Bay, and Mattoo Moonie Michael of Lake Harbour, among others, were featured along with Baker Lake prints by Jes sie Oonark, Victoria Mamnguqsualuk, Irene A vaalaaqiaq and Myra Kukiiyaut. While one evening was devoted to guests who were Inuit art retailers, on ano ther evening Judith Burch of Arctic Inuit Art gave a presentation expla inin g the co-op and Inuit art retail system to interested guests. Arctic Artistry in Hastings-on-Hudso n, New York is inst alling several exh ibitions this spr ing. Artists and Weavers V: Fine Tapestries from the Canadian Arctic features l 7 limited edition wall han gings. Also on disp lay are The lpellie Family of Iqaluit: Srnlpture by Nuveeya, Seepee and Joamie, and Two Private Collections the 1970s].-.. [from Maslak-McLeod Canadian Art opened a gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico on Octob er 28. Curren t offerin gs include large sculpture by artists such as David Ruben Piqtoukun, Abraham Anghik. Nuna Parr and Charlie Kogvik. Gallery owners David Wilkinson and Susanna McLeod say they were attracted to the area by the already strong presence of Native American art in Santa Fe. In keeping with the indigeno u s theme, the gallery is housed in a 2,000 square-foot, 2S0-year-o ld adobe (a building mad e of mud and straw) with 18-inch thi ck walls. The Canadian Embassy in Washin gton, D.C. hosted a two-day showcase of Inuit art on November 8 and 9, organized by Arctic Co-operatives Limited of The Maslak-Mcleod Canadian Art gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is housed in a 250-year old adobe made of mud and straw. AT THE GALLERIES

57 lnuitart 55 LOCATED IN WASH INGTON'S DUPONT CIRCLE GALLERY DIST RICT, BURDICK GALLERY SPECIA LIZES IN INU IT SCULPTURE AND PRIN T S FOR COLLECTORS. CALL OR WRITE FOR PHOTOGRAPH S OF MAJOR PIECES. UIIJ 9 J tll 8 GALLE RY FINE I NUI T ART S I NCE R ST REET NW WASHINGTON DC MARIE KUUNNUAQ, BAKER LAKE, \X'OMAN AND CI IILDNEN, (C. 1972), BLACK ST ONE, 14'/, " HIGH ASHEVAK TUNNILLIE, CAPE DORSET, 1992, L=26"

58 ARCTIC INUIT ART JUDITH VARNEY BURCH CONTEMPORARY INUIT AND NORTHWEST COAST FINE ART PRESEN TING A NATNE BY APPOINTMENT ~ ART SPACE GA LL E R Y PERSPECTIVE THROUGH THE ARTS EXHIBITIONS ART RETURNED ENDED- FROM Baltimore Museum of Fine Art, Travelled Internationa lly, Baker Lake Wall Hanging s Bayly Art Museum, University of Virginia Cape Dorset Prints & Sculpture Canadian Embassy, Washington, D.C. Old Baker Lake Prints & Sculpture Also through March SCULPTURE FROM LABRADOR Judith Varney Burch Richmond, Virginia Telephone: (804) Fax: (804) By Appointment 56 Vol,n Nn I ~nrina I 995

59 IGUTAQ PRINT A NEW COLLECTION RELEASED APRIL FIRST 1995 IGUTAQ CLYDE RIVER, N.W.T., XOA OEO vox ( 819) Discover The Spirit Of The CANADIAN NORTH with Arctic Canada Wholesale Arts & Crafts Specializing in beautiful Dene and Inuit craft from across the Northwest Territories Repulse Bay Carving s:::1. Acho Dene Native Crafts '\.. Jessie Oonark Inuit Prints, Artcards, Sweatshirts, T-shirts, Silk Ties. Wool Duffie Slippers & Mitts ~ l)roughton Island Jewellery i Aklavik Fur Parkas Fort McPherson Tent & Canvas -,,;:. lvalu Jdckets ~retie,..,,..a Canada Arctic Canada Wholesale Arts & Crafts Ltd. For Further Information contact: P.O. Box 1437, Yellowknife, NWT Canada X1A 2P1 T (403) / F (403) OR: 6357 Longspur Road, Mississauga, Ontario Canada L5N 6H1 T (905) / F (905)

60 LETTERS LABRADOR UPDATE Here's an upd ate on what's been happening in Labrador. Things have been pretty busy here this summ er and fall. Herb Brown, who owns Birches Gallery in Happy Valley, has been doing prett y well. He has a good stock of carvings on hand for the Christmas season. Marine Atlantic, which sells package tours, has been bringing its customers to his gallery in Happy VaJley. Sometimes he does well, but at other times not so good. When he doesn't have what they want, he sends them on to me here in Nain. The centr e of art seems to be shifting from the coast to Happy Valley these days. Since Herb started his gallery, the Inuit in the Lake Melville area are starting to do quite a bit of carving. Also, Herb is encouraging the inmates at the Labrador Correctional Institute to carve. It would be good if they keep carving after they get out. Here in Nain, the art situation is pretty much what it has always been, except that Gilbert [Hay] hasn't been doing much carving lately. My son Charlie is now teaching carving to school kids two days a week. Personally, I've been as busy as ever carving, but now the majority of my carvings are made from serpentine found near Hopedale. The stone is beautiful and, so far, I've used about 1,500 pounds (since late August or September). My brother David and I went to Hopedale along with a geologist from the Department of Mines and Energy. He showed us where the serpentine was and we brought back about 1,000 pounds. The Labrador Inuit Development Corporation has the quarry permit for that site and they have some guys stockpiling the stone, but, so far, the y have sent up only l,000 pound s here to Nain. I' ve been looking around the Nain area and I've found some serpentine, but what I've found is in very thin bands, about one-half inch to an inch wide. I figure if there are thin bands, there must be some good outcrops somewhere and I'm going to keep on trying to find them. So far, I'm the only one who has been carving it. Everybody else finds it too hard. I think I'm not having trouble with it because I learned to carve marble in Vermont. I'v e enclo se d a picture of my son Charlie's forearm, showing a deep cut he got from using a nine-inch cut-off saw for concrete. I had taken the guard off my nine-in ch grinder to do some flat grinding and I didn't put the guard back on right away. Charlie used the grinder without the guard to cut some stone. He cut the stone without a problem, but he's used to having the guard on the grinder and he put the grinder down the way he always does, with the blade still turning. The blade touched his forearm and cut about an inch into his arm. He cut the muscle, two nerves and two tendons and lost a lot of blood. It's taken him about one and a half months to get his strength back in that arm. He had 18 stitches, 9 inside and 9 outside. This picture is a good safety hint to show what can happen when you take the guard off your grinder. That's all for now, John Terriak Nain, Labrador A PLACE IN THE HEART Enclosed please find a cheque for the Uqqurmiut Recovery Fund, Pangnirtung Print Shop fire. Pangnirtung has a special plac e in my heart after my own art trip there in I was able to re-focus my artistic style and develop it. I completed IO works on paper on Pangnirtung. All the best, Hope Bergeron Scarborough, Ontario KEEPING AU COURANT Since I will be changing my addr ess twice in the next five months, I prefer not to renew my subscription to Inuit Art Quarterly at this time and to purchase a copy at the newsstand. You have produced a wonderful publication which keeps me "au courant" of the Inuit world and I appreciate your efforts. In lieu of the subscription fee I would like to mak e a donation to the Scholarship Fund. Thank you, and [all] the best in your work. Madeleine Kneider Toronto, Ontario THE POWER AND MAGIC OF INUIT ART Hello, my name is Tabita Kore. I am very interested in Inuit art. One reason is that my Dad is a Russian Inuk and the other is the pow er and magic I see and feel when looking at Inuit art. I know little of my culture, but, I hope to learn more as I grow older. I currently have three copies of Inuit Art Quarterly, which I treasure. There is only one bookstore that sells Inuit Art Quarterly in Coquitlam. I greatly appreciate your time and patience in reading my letter. Keep up the good work and I hope to see more articles on the Inuit people of the former Soviet Union. Thank you, Tabita Kore Coquitlam, British Columbia AN ITALIAN ENTHUSIAST I am a subscriber to Inuit Art Quarterly. I also have a small collection of Arctic sculpture bought through the years during my trips to Canada and the United States. Once, I also bought two sculptures in Denmark (from Greenland). It is a pity 58 V-,/ Ill I\T,. I ('....;w, 100~

61 that the art of the Arctic is completely unknown in our country and in other European countries. Being a professor in the College of Agriculture at the University of Ancona, I am not in the art business, or an art expe rt, but I think something could be done to let Arctic art be known in Italy. I do not know if it is a problem for you to send me the address of other subscribers in Italy. I could try to write them, as surely they are interested and know the subject. I will appreciate your answ er and comments, and thank you for the help. Pasquale Rosati Ancona, Italy Editor's note: We cannot give out subscriber addresses, bur if any otl1er readers in Italy are interested in contacting Mr. Rosati, he can be reached at: Dipartiment o di Biotecnologie Agraire ed Ambientali, Via Breece Bianche, U11 iversita degli Studi, Ancona, Italy. AMBASSADORS FOR INUIT ART My husband, Mr. Hiroshi Kitamura (Japanese Ambassador to Canada between 1988 and 1990) and I became deeply interested in Inuit art and started subscribing to Inuit Art Quarterly. We continu ed subscribing when we moved to London from Ottawa in We have been back in Tokyo, Japan since [last] spring. Masters of the Arctic: Art in the Service of the Earth has been at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo since September 20, 1994 and more people in our country are now more aware of the great art and inspiration of the Inuit. As one of the humble lovers of their art (particularly prints and sculpture), their history, and their way of life, I am eagerly hoping the deeper interest in their art and in their environmen tal activities continue in our country. My very best wishes and appr eciation to you all! Sachiko Kitamura Tokyo, Japan lnuitart Q IJ A R T E R l Y

62 CALENDAR Every effort is made to ensure that information in this calendar is correct, but readers are advised to check dates and times with event organizers. EXHIBITIONS Isumavut: The Artistic Expression of Nine Cape Dorset Women, Canadian Museum of Civilization, 100 Laurier Street, Hull, Quebec, October 6, 1994 to March 3, An illustrated volume based on the exhibition, entitl ed Inuit Women Artists: Voices from Cape Dorset, is available from the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Exhibition information, Tel: (819) ; mail order, Tel: (819) Threads of the Land: Clothing Traditions from Three Indigenous Cultures, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec, February 2, 1995 to February 14, In the Time of the Kayak : Hunting in the Eastern Canadian Arctic, Royal Ontario Museum, Gallery of Indigenous Peoples, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, February 19, 1994 to summer Qaminittuaq: Drawings by Baker Lake Artists, Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, 358 Gordon Street, Guelph, Ontario, April 27 to September 10, Selections from the Inuit Art Collection, Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph, Ontario, February 15 to October 1, The Ashoona Family of Cape Dorset, Winnipeg Art Gallery, 300 Memorial Boulevard, Winnipeg, Manitoba, November 19, 1994 to May 14, Selections from the Permanent Collection, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Islington A venue, Kleinburg, Ontario, February 19 to May 21, TRAVELLING EXHIBITIONS Arctic Wildlife: The Art of the Inuit, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec. Itinerary: Thames Art Gallery, Chatham Cultural Centre, Chatham, Ontario, January 20 to March 19, Catalogue available from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Tel: (514) ACART, Ottawa, Ontario Alaska Shop, The, New York, New York Albers Gallery of Inuit Art, San Francisco, California Ancestral Spirits Gallery, Port Townsend, Washington Appleton Auction Galleries Vancouver, B.C Arctic Artistry, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York Arctic Canada, Toronto, Ontario Arctic Inuit Art, Richmond, Virginia Arctic Trading Company, The, Churchill, Manitoba Art Space Gallery, Philad elphi a, Pennsylvania Arts Induvik, Montreal, Quebec; Vancouver, B.C.; Mis sissauga, Ontario Beauregard, Ottawa, Ontario Burdick Gallery,Washington, D.C Canadian Arctic Producers, Winnipeg, Manitob a... I.F.C. Canadian Guild of Crafts Montrea l, Quebe c Canadian Native Arts Foundation, Toronto, Ontario Feheley Fine Arts, Toronto, Ontario Galerie Elca London, Montreal, Quebec Gallery Phillip, Toronto, Ontario Advertiser Index Indigena: Perspectives of Indigenous Peoples on Five Hundred Years, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec. Itinerary: Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, June 8 to September 5, Book/catalogue and poster available from the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Tel: (819) The Inuit and Diamond Jenness, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec. Itinerary: Wellington County Museum and Archives, Fergus, Ontario, January 15 to March 26, I 995; Diefenbaker Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, August 27 to November 12, 1995; Musee J. Armand Bombardier, Valcourt, Quebec, December 10, 1995 to March 3, Catalogue and poster available from the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Tel: (819) Inuit Art from the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre Collection, Guelph, Ontario. Itinerary: York Quay Gallery, Toron to, Ontario, April 28 to June 11, Great Northern Art s Festival, The, Inuvik, Northwest Territories Houston North Gallery, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia... 2 lgutaq Co-op, Clyde River, Northwe st Territories Images Art Gallery, Toronto, Ontario Inuit Art Foundation... 43, 48, 62 Inuit Image s of Boston, Quincy, Massachusett s Isaacs/Innuit Gallery, The, Toronto, Ontario Macdonald Stew art Art Centre, Guelph, Ontario Marion Scott Gallery, Vancouver, B.C Nationa l Library of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario Northern Images l North West Company Inc., The, Rexdale (Toronto), Ontario... l.b.c. Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers' Co-operative, Anchorage, Alaska Shoestring Gallery, Rochester, New York Snow Goose Associates, Inc., Seattle, Washington Upstairs Gallery, The, Winnipeg, Manitoba Waddington's, Toronto, Ontario PERMANENT EXHIBITIONS Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario. Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec, Montreal, Quebec. Chedoke-McMaster Hospital, Hamilton, Ontario. Crafts Museum, Crafts Guild of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Dennos Museum Center, Traverse City, Michigan. McCord Museum of Canadian History, Montreal, Quebec. McMichael Canadian Kleinburg, Ontario. Collection, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec. Toronto Dominion Gallery of Inuit Art, Toronto, Ontario. Vol. I 0, No. I Svrin_q I 995

63 lnuitart northern Images Celebrating artistic expression for over 20 years Offering the finest sculpture, print$ and tapestries We are proud to bring you the work of Canada's foremost Inuit and Dene artists Throatsingers, muskox horn & walrus ivory, 6.6 cm x 6.0 cm, by Rex Goose Whitehorse VK PH/FAX (403) JARVIS ST. Y1A 2H3 lnuvik NWT PH/ FAX (403) S MACKENZIE RD. P.O. BOX 2398 X0E OTO Yellowknife NWT PH (403) FAX (403) th AVE. X1A 3SS Edmonton AB PH (403) FAX (403) H0th ST TST 3J7 Winnipeg MB PH/ FAX (204) 942-SS PORTAGE AVE. R3B 3H6 Churchill MB PH/FAX (204) P.O. BOX 336 ROB 0E0 JOHN TIKTAK ( ) El -2 66, Rankin Inlet : A mottled grey soapstone carving of a standing Inuit figure, 9". Sold in our Dec e mber 7, 1994 Inuit art auction for $9,900 For catalogues and furth er information please contact: A. Duncan McLean 189 QUEEN ST., EAST, TORONTO, ONTARIO M5A 1S2 Tel. (416) Fax (416)

64 In addition to publishing this magazine, the Inuit Art Foundation provides professional development services to Inuit artists... through the Inuit Artists' College : The Scholarship Fund enables art ists to attend workshops organized by the Found ation in collaborat ion with other art organizations, such as th e Ottawa School of Art. Awards are also given to artists who attend regular sessions at art instituti ons, such as the Vermon t Carving Studio. Portable Library Boxes, containing education al mate rials for art ists - videos, posters and art books - are placed in northern communities. through Publications: The Adventures of Sananguaqatii t, an educational com ic book for artist s, de als with issues of health and safety, copyright, quarrying, and art marketing. Complimentary subscriptions of The Adventures of Sananguaqatiit and Inuit Art Quarterly are sent to 2,000 Inuit art ists across Canada. through Artists' Associations: Grants are given to Inuit Arti sts' Associations to obtain stone, to hold exhibitions, to conduct workshops, and to cover th e costs of other local project s. Patron ($2,000 or more) All the privil eges of an Associate plus an invi tat ion to visit the studio dur ing an artist workshop and an opportuni ty to meet and talk with art ists at a special lunch. Patrons may choose to receive a special edition folio of 10 original linocut prints created by the Beyond Boundaries workshop partic ipants (while quant ities last). Associates ($1,000 or more) All the priv ileges of a Supporter, plus an invitat ion to attend the pre view opening of an exhibition during artists' workshops (usually one per year, pending funding). Supporters ($500 or more) All the privileges of a Friend, and three issues ofthe Adventures of Sananguaqatiit. Friends ($100 or more) One issue of The Adventures of Sananguaqat iit, and an invitation to Inuit Art Foundation events. Donors (up to $100) As above. Artists (any amount) In addition to a tax receipt and press releases, donors in this category receive a Practise Safe Art poster. All Canadian and U.S. donors will receive a rax receipt. All donors will be added ro the mailing lisc for Inuit An Foundation press releases. ( See separate Insert for donation form.)

65 Patrons Joan Martin Dr. Dorothy M. Stillwell Anonymous ",.. ---~vft I-IANDKNITS QIVIUT Associates Patrick Odier Celine Saucier Virginia Watt Friends Marcia & Gary Anderson C.D. Bredt Pamela Brooks Timothy Carpentier Denise Cherrington Sheldon Chester Dr. Anne Croy A. Kenard Gardiner Dan Gray Johanna J. Kassenaar Diana Laubitz Colleen Laventure Marion Scott Gallery Dr. Assa Mayersdorf Sheila Mccallum Nick Murray Orea Aart Gallery Polar Associates Inc. Dr. and Mrs. Sidney Stern Robert G. Strahs John Ullmer Norman Zepp Donors Arriscraft Corporation Dr. & Mrs. Robert A. Brown Mary Craig (in memory of W.T. Bill Larmour) Violet Czigler Alfred H. Lupton IV Arthur Mondoux Suzanne Selig Project Sponsors Air Inuit Boreal Tools Inc. Canadian Aboriginal Economic Development Strategy Economic Development & Tour ism, Keewatin Division First Air Lee Valley Tools Safety Supply Canada The finest and warmest of the rare wools, from the domestic Arctic Musk Ox. Order these exquisite garment s, hand knitted in traditional patterns by Alaskan villagers. Brochure available. See or order from : OOMINGMAK MUSK OX PRODUCE RS' CO-OP 604 H Street, Dept. IQ, Anchorage, Alaska Phone (907) Inuit & Iroquois s c u I p t u r e Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection Western N.Y. Artists ' Paintings and Drawings Established 1968 SHOESTRING GALLERY 1855 MONROE AVE./ROCHESTER, NY 14618/(716) lnuitart Q U A R T [ R L Y 63

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67 INUIT QUVIANATULIAK TAKPAUNGAI Cape Dorset CANADA'S LEADING DISTRIBUTOR OF INUIT ART FOR A LIST OF DEALERS IN YOUR AR.EA, PLEASE SEE ADVERTISER INDEX, OR CALL (416) FOR REFERRAL TO THOSE NEAREST YOU.

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