Little has been written about Etirayaqyuaq Pee and for decades his name has hovered at the margins of Inuit art history, mentioned rarely, if at all. Which is unfortunate, because this work is rather beautiful. The caribou calf’s gentle eyes, the downward tilt of its ears, the finely carved snout, are all details that speak to a hand both observant and assured. There’s restraint in the form, but also a surprising tenderness, a sense that the artist was not just replicating an animal, but remembering it.

If it weren’t clearly signed, we might have guessed Kiugak, or even Osuitok as the artist. And that guess, wrong as it would be, raises a harder question: how many works like this have been misattributed, absorbed into the legacy of better-known names? This isn’t just a beautiful carving. It’s a reminder of how easy it is to overlook someone remarkable, and how thrilling it 

is when we finally don’t.

ND

References: One of the artist’s works was included in the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s 1967 exhibition Eskimo Sculpture, (Pool of the Black Star, Manitoba Legislative Building. Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery), listed as Bust of Man (cat. no. 213) and noted to be in the collection of Bessie and Dorothy Bulman. Two additional works are held in public collections: Bird with Seal in Mouth (accession no. 1981.98.2) in the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, and an Owl sculpture in the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Twomey Collection, (accession no. 1024.71).