This detailed model whaleboat — complete with oars, rudder, rigging, canvas sail, rifle, and harpoon — not simply as a representation of maritime technology, but as a sculptural record of a specific historical convergence: the era of Arctic whaling. This period, stretching from the early nineteenth century into the early twentieth, marked a profound shift in the rhythms of life along the northern coast of Hudson Bay.

Inuit communities in Repulse Bay were not peripheral to the whaling economy. They were integral. Whalers depended on Inuit labour, knowledge, and survival skills. Inuit boatmen were “first-class,” wrote William Wakeham in 1897, and “quite as expert as white men in the use of modern whaling tools” [1]. These tools included shoulder guns, bomb lances, and rigged whaleboats, all of which altered how Inuit hunted. Rifles made the final strike less dangerous. Whaleboats allowed for longer trips, heavier loads, and safer pursuit of whales, especially in ice-choked waters where traditional vessels were more vulnerable.

The whaleboat became a site of shared activity. Drawing on Inuit seamanship and European design, it served both practical and symbolic purposes in a period of sustained contact and exchange. This convergence of Indigenous knowledge and foreign equipment was not seamless, nor was it always equitable, but it was real and formative. This model reflects that history. Carefully made and thoughtfully detailed, it helps preserve the memory of a time when Inuit communities adapted to new conditions. It does not celebrate the arrival of outsiders so much as it acknowledges the skill and resilience required to navigate a changing world.