Image reproduced in Jean Blodgett, Grasp Tight the Old Ways: Selections from the Klamer Family Collection of Inuit Art, exh. cat., (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1983), p. 98.

As Jean Blodgett observes in Grasp Tight the Old Ways, Kiakshuk’s work is rooted in firsthand experience, particularly with the land and traditional Inuit practices. In Three Bear Hunters, he translates that familiarity into a composition that is both tense and playful. Three figures descend in a zig-zag toward a fierce, wide-mouthed bear, each one more hesitant than the last. The final hunter turns and runs, injecting humour into the scene. It’s a moment of danger, softened by wit and human fallibility.