After converting to Anglican Christianity in the mid twentieth century, Jessie Oonark occasionally brought Christian imagery into artworks. Raised in a traditional nomadic hunting life on the Barren Lands, she came to the faith through contact with Anglican missionaries and later worked as a janitor at Saint Aidan’s Anglican Church in Baker Lake.

Her Christian-themed works often feature biblical figures and symbols rendered in her bold, graphic style. This striking liturgical vestment can be interpreted as a harmonious blending of Christian faith and traditional Inuit life. Read from top to bottom, the church represents the new Anglican faith, followed by the qulliq (seal oil lamp) as the heart of the home, the igloo as shelter, the hunter with bow and arrow as provider, and the goose in flight as sustenance from the land. Together, they suggest that, for Oonark, Christianity sanctifies and embraces the full cycle of Inuit existence rather than replacing it. This lavender stole, with its tall, slender form and soft hue, stands as a powerful example of faith expressed through fabric and line.

MBL