Pitseolak Ashoona’s works most often focus on traditional Inuit life. Summer Trek is no exception. Here, a group of families migrate together to a summer camp. They trail after each other, carrying huge bundles on their backs - even the dogs. On the distant hill are two inuksuit, the stone cairns that marked a frequently used route. This print is unusual in that it is a serigraph, a printing technique being used only experimentally in 1969. (Summer Trek was not released in an annual collection and thus is quite rare in the market.) The silkscreen medium lends itself perfectly to this scene, the irregular shape of the image emphasizes the high hills as well as the path ahead. The colours of the landscape flow seamlessly into each other as the brown of the hills in the distance give way to the valley in the foreground. The palette then changes again as they head to new terrain.

References: For an introduction to Pitseolak’s life and art see Dorothy Eber ed., Pitseolak: Pictures out of my life, (Montreal/Toronto: Design Collaborative Books/Oxford University Press, 1971) unpaginated. Eber’s publication illustrates many prints and drawings similar in theme to this experimental print.