MALAYA TEEMOTEE (1954-) IQALUIT (FROBISHER BAY) / PANNIQTUUQ (PANGNIRTUNG)
weaver: MEEKA AKPALIALUK (1949-) PANNIQTUUQ (PANGNIRTUNG)
titled, signed, and inscribed, "ᓂᓕ ᐅᕙᔪ / ᒪᓖᔭ / ᒥᑲ ᐊᒃᐸᓕᐊᓗᒃ / ᐸᓂᑐ ᑲᓇᑕ";
further inscribed, "#208 Nesting Geese 6/10 22 x 31.5 / Malaya Timotee / Meeka Akpalialuk / Pangnirtung N.W.T. Canada."
6/10
*Meeka Akpalialuk was one of the first to work as a weaver in the Panniqtuuq Tapestry Studio. She continued until 1982.
Provenance
Private Collection, Montreal;Estate of the above.
Weaving was introduced to Panniqtuuq as an economic initiative in the early 1970s. The Canadian federal government contracted Karen Bulow Ltd., a Montreal-based weaving firm to initiate the program. The firm hired Donald Stuart as the first manager of the studio.
The first products woven were scarves and sashes but as the artists became familiar with the loom, production expanded to include tapestries that featured distinctly arctic imagery. Like print production in other parts of the Arctic, the creation of the wool weavings in Panniqtuuq is a collaborative process that involves two individuals to create one work. Drawings were purchased from the community and the weavers would make their selection to translate the designs into a tapestry.
For an excellent account of wool weaving in Panniqtuuq, see Maria Von Finckenstein, ed., Nuvisavik: The Place Where We Weave, exh.cat., (Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002)