Paper Pushers: Drawings from Qamani’tuaq

Introduction

Throughout the Canadian Arctic, drawing has remained an especially important medium for artists, who have pursued the genre regularly, and with ingenuity.  This exhibition explores the transformation of the medium of drawing in the settlement of Qamani’tuaq by the artists of the first and second generations and the ways in which they pushed the boundaries of artistic production. 

 

For the structure of this exhibition, we are entirely indebted to Marion Jackson, who was the first to present the drawings of the Qamani’tuaq artists with a decidedly academic approach.  Jackson first explored  Qamani’tuaq  drawings in her PhD dissertation in 1985 and in 1995, she expanded on her thesis for the catalogue produced for the MacDonald Stewart Art Centre’s travelling exhibition, Qamanittuaq (Where the River Widens): Drawings by Baker Lake Artists.  In addition to providing valuable information on the origins of the settlement of Qamani’tuaq, which we have discussed elsewhere, Jackson suggests a theory of the differences between the first and second generation of artists in Qamani’tuaq, which remains one of the most succinct and inspired ways of looking at the drawings produced in Qamani’tuaq for the period of 1960 to the 2000s.  We have chosen to present the works in this exhibition with Jackson’s framework in mind.

 

Nadine Di Monte

  

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  • SETTLEMENT ORIGINS

    Up until the first half of the twentieth century, qallunaat interactions with the inhabitants of what was then known as the Keewatin District (now Kivillaq) were relatively limited [1]. Trading and mission posts, as well as government and military installations, were established in Qamani’tuaq but the Inuit in the region remained, generally speaking, quite isolated [2].  Infrequent trips to the trading post by young Inuit did take place but much of the Inuit of the region continued living in semi-nomadic hunting camps and, with the exception of the diffused trade goods, remained unaware — and perhaps even uninterested — in the more Occidental goings-on in Qamani’tuaq. 

     

    Settlement into Qamani’tuaq came substantially later than its Eastern Arctic counterparts. In addition, Qamani’tuaq drew its population from a larger diversity of regional backgrounds than any other settlement.  The graphic artists from Qamani’tuaq came from three main groups: the Kivallirmiut (Caribou Inuit), Netsilingmiut (the Netsilik Inuit), and the Iglulingmuit (the Iglulik Inuit).  Contained within each of these groups were a number of distinct subgroups, identified by hunting regions [3]. The dependence on caribou of the Kivillaq-dwelling Inuit made the groups particularly vulnerable to the decline in herds during the 1950s.  As a response to the mass starvation and disease, the federal government established centres for education, medicine, and social services near existing trading posts.  The Kivillaq people were relocated to a number of coastal communities and to the inland settlement of Qamani’tuaq [4]. Before relocation into the settlements, interactions between these subgroups was largely by chance encounter or a formalized association, such as trade [5].  This blending of individuals from disparate cultures, in addition to encounters with qallunaat, would have a profound effect on the art produced in Qamani’tuaq [6].  These talented individuals arrived at their graphic expressions with a strong sense of individuality, informed, in part, by their particular subcultural groups and their proudly held customs and traditions.
  • FALSE STARTS: EARLY ATTEMPTS AT GRAPHIC PRODUCTION (1961-1969)

    As they had elsewhere, in the 1960s, the Canadian federal government supported arts and crafts initiatives in the settlements in an effort to create financial independence for the community [7].  Although William Larmour, who arrived at Qamani’tuaq in the early winter months of 1961, recognized the artistic potential for the settlement, it was not until 1963, when Gabriel Gély arrived to take the role of Craft Officer, that the formal arts program was created.  Because of financial constraints and a lack of materials and facilities,  Gély’s efforts focused primarily on carving and textile production. Gély did encourage artists to make drawings; at the 1982 Conference for Curators and Specialists who Work with Inuit Art, Gély confirmed that he purchased drawings from Simon Tookoome and Luke Anghuhadluq. In his October 1963 Crafts and Carvings report, Gély indicated that the first stoneblock was ready for proofing but the results were considered to lack potential and did not lead to further efforts [8].

     

    After Gély’s departure in 1965, his successor, Roderick McCarthy, resumed the efforts at printmaking and the resultant proofs were sent to the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council, where they were favourably reviewed [9]. Facing ill health, McCarthy left Qamani’tuaq just a few months later. Robert Paterson, who had experience in printmaking in Kinngait, arrived in Qamani’tuaq to find that the print stones had been ground down and there was a shortage of suitable stone to make replacement blocks. As a result, Paterson taught the artists the linocut technique but the effort to produce a catalogue of editioned prints was brought to a halt [10].  Boris Kotelowitz was then appointed as the Qamani’tuaq Craft Officer, and arrived at the settlement in the spring of 1966. Just as his predecessors had noted, printmaking production was difficult due to the lack of supplies and suitable facilities [11]. Kotelowitz resigned in 1969 and was replaced by Ken Krassweller.  Krassweller attempted to have the earlier linocut transferred to stone but the resulting proofs were printed backwards. These prints were deemed unsuitable and, once again, there was a temporary abortion of print making in Qamani’tuaq [12].

     

    SUCCESS IN THE SEVENTIES

    Revival of the program came shortly thereafter.  In the summer of 1969, at the encouragement of George Swinton, Jack and Sheila Butler arrived to begin their three month contract. Unsurprisingly, the preexisting difficulties remained in place and many of the artists were, rightfully, suspect of another kick at the proverbial can. Unfettered by what seemed like insurmountable hurdles, the Butlers approached the task with great vigor. Using the drawings gathered by previous craft officers, the pair began to produce prints themselves. The Butlers offered drawing materials to anyone who expressed interest. They instituted an aggressive purchasing campaign for drawings and offered the gunshy artists an hourly wage to work in the printshop. By November of this same year, the portfolio of 31 prints was ready for review by the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council and the Butlers agreed to a four month contract extension [13]. 


    After receiving great critical reception for the inaugural print collection, the Butlers instituted a weekly meeting wherein the artists and printmakers would gather to discuss production and critique drawings [14]. In essence, the Butlers acted, as George Swinton described, in a rather limited, advisory role [15]. As such, the works produced in this period were derived from an actual fund of original work produced by creators that were untutored in and, thus, unencumbered by southern notions of art. The Butlers left the settlement in 1972 but would visit as consultants until 1976. 
  • FIRST GENERATION ARTISTS

    With limited connection to southern standards of art making, the first generation of Qamani’tuaq artists made works guided largely by their own compulsions.  Though each artist developed their own unique style of communicating their subject matters, similarities emerge in looking at the body of works created in the settlement.  The First Generation of Qamani’tuaq artists — represented in this show by Luke Anguhadluq, Martha Ittulaka’naaq, and Jessie Oonark —  hailed from remote areas in the Kivillaq region.  Oonark and Anguhadluq, both Utkuhikhalingmiut from the Back River and Chantrey Inlet area were connected by marriage. Martha Ittulaka’naaq, likely of Harvaqtuurmiut descent, was from the Kazan River area. All three were young children when the Hudson’s Bay Company opened its trading post in 1916, several kilometers away from where they were residing. It was not until around 1960 when the three would relocate to Qamani’tuaq.  As these artists grew to maturity living a traditional lifestyle that was much similar to that which sustained their ancestors for generations previous, representations of traditional tools and activities are chief among their chosen motifs. Their inland location meant that caribou, hare, fish, birds, and muskoxen are represented in abundance, with very few depictions of coastal marine animals. Spiritual aspects of traditional culture are depicted, broadly speaking, in scenes of the drum dance but, again, given their orientation, do not feature the Talelayu figure.  While the three have much in common, their visual language is solely their own. Seemingly unfettered but what art ought to look like, each of the drawings of these artists are characterized by a purity of spontaneous expression. 
  • Luke Anguhadluq

    The drawings of Luke Anguhadluq, represented in this show with three works, show keen observational skills and considerable imagination. Anguhadluq’s rugged style draws us — none too gently — into his fertile memories.  All three works represented in this show illustrate Anguhadluq’s unconventional approach to scale and perspective. In Caribou with Dogs and Geese, 1975, we encounter a frenetic and densely populated scene of a caribou hunt that presents its cast of characters from all different orientations. In the central scene, we see two men, each of a slightly different scale, approaching a caribou, whose red tongue juts out to suggest that it is bellowing a defensive bleat.  The trio can be easily read as being presented in profile but the flanking figures are more difficult to interpret. Nine birds, each composed in Anguhadluq’s gestural lines of coloured pencil, are depicted from a distinctly ariel vantage point, save one that is shown in profile.  In the top left corner, three dogs of a similar size are shown in different arrangements.  Depending on how we read the image, only one is positioned upright, while the others have been drawn so that they appear to hover upside down in midair.  As the entire image is devoid of a background, Anughadluq has, perhaps unconsciously, allowed us to complete the image through our own understanding. 

  • MARTHA ITTULUKA'NAAQ

    Martha Ittulaka’naaq, too, channelled her own memories into impactful compositions.  As with Anguhadluq’s works, Ittulaka’naaq’s pictorial strategy resists any easy orientation and lets us be guided by our own intuitions. We can explore her works piecemeal.  As one grouping leads to another, there is seemingly no end to the ever changing events that we are seeing. 

     

    In the first two works shown, Old Way of Hunting and Old Way of Living, the figures are composed of boldly coloured straight lines that swing into curves, which float on the sheet like stout, airy structures.  In the Old Way of Hunting , motifs of the hunt — primarily caribou and kayaks — are jostled together in a lively, imaginative manner. In the Old Way of Living, nestled amongst similar views of the hunt, is a figure with a drum. 

  • SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 

    For the Second Generation of artists, relocation to  Qamani’tuaq came at an earlier, more formative age.  The great strength of the second generation artists — represented in this exhibition by Nancy Pukingrnak Aupaluktuq, Victoria Mamnguqsualuk, and Janet Kigusiuq, Oonark’s daughters; Janet’s husband, Mark Uqayuittuq; Hannah Kigusiuq, Harold Qarliksaq, Simon Tookoome, Françoise Oklaga, Irene Avaalaaqiaq Tiktaalaaq, Myra  Kukiiyaut,  and Ruth Annaqtuusi Tulurialik —is their ability to merge their absorption of imagery from life on the land with life in the settlement and to synthesize these diverse sources into visual languages that were entirely their own.
  • Hannah Kigusiuq HANNAH KIGUSIUQ (1931-) BAKER LAKE (QAMANI'TUAQ) Community Gathering, mid-1970s graphite on heavy wove paper, 26 x 40 in...
    Hannah Kigusiuq 
     
    HANNAH KIGUSIUQ (1931-) BAKER LAKE (QAMANI'TUAQ)
    Community Gathering, mid-1970s
    graphite on heavy wove paper, 26 x 40 in (66 x 101.6 cm)
     
    SOLD

     

    Hannah Kigusiuq settled in Qamani’tuaq somewhat earlier than her contemporaries in this exhibition. After her husband was sent south to receive treatment for tuberculosis in 1956, Hannah elected to stay at the settlement for the duration of this absence. The couple stayed in Qamani’tuaq upon his return in 1958. In the present work, Community Gathering, Hannah captures the energy of a bustling community.  The figures appear casual and unposed and this absence of any real sense self-consciousness differentiates this sampling of human beings from any comparable work in the preceding generation. As with the majority of Hannah Kigusiuq's drawings, Community Gathering is executed in graphite with the figures rendered in deft pencil outlines with only the hair and clothing trim details filled in with graphite.
  • HAROLD QARLIKSAQ

     

    HAROLD QARLIKSAQ (1928-1980) QAMANI'TUAQ (BAKER LAKE)

    Shaman Entering the Drum Dance, c. 1970

    graphite on wove paper, 20 x 26 in (50.8 x 66 cm)

     

    $950.00

     

    Similar to Hannah Kigusiuq, Harold Qarliksaq rendered his subjects in carefully executed, unerring graphite lines. In this hospitable scene of a drum dance, the hair of Qarliksaq’s crowd are shaded with gossamer pencil strokes, their parkas elegantly trimmed with short, hatched lines. In an interesting contrast, the outlines of his figures are heavy and overdrawn, expressing a full and more sculptural sense of volume. Qarliksaq worked at the nickel mine in Naujaat (Rankin Inlet) before moving to Qamani’tuaq in the early 1960s to see that his young children pursued an education. He began to draw only in the 1970s at the encouragement of Jack and Sheila Butler to supplement his trapping income. 

     

    Marion Jackson explained that, unique to the second generation of artists was the incorporation of syllabic inscriptions to clarify the meaning of a drawing, possibly a result of the encouragement to do so by Jack and Sheila Butler [16]. Here, Qarliksaq draws an arrow to his central figure and inscribes on his arm, “ᑕᒻᓐ |ᒧᒥᖅᑐᖅ” meaning "this one dances.”

  • JANET KIGUSIUQ

    Like Qarliksaq, Janet Kigusiuq, Jessie Oonak’s eldest daughter, moved to Qamani’tuaq at the urging of the Canadian government to see that her children attend the newly constructed schools. Represented in this exhibition by ten works, these drawings illustrate not only her prolific output but her transition from figural works to  highly abstracted landscapes

     

    In the first five works shown above, the sheets positively teem with the depictions of camp life in Kigusiuq’s dynamic pictorial style, which Cynthia Waye, in her solo exhibition on the artist, referred to as quite complex  [17]. Each of these five works contain scores of figures that are drawn with assured graphite lines and ornamented with scant but deft touches of colour to accent their garments.  The introduction of larger swaths of colour is primarily used to decorate animals, inanimate objects, and the very occasional piece of clothing. Two of the smaller works, Safe Inside the Igloo and Waiting in a Summer Tent, feature the same essential stylistic drawing methods but their mood is a much softer one of private interiority. 

     

    In the latter three works, we are introduced to what would prove to be Kigusiuq's signature style of draughtsmanship: employment of colour in a decidedly architectural maner.  Blocks of heavily coloured pigment establish the contours of her still internally blank figures.  A liberally drawn expanse of black, for example, aids to delineate the form of one of the polar bears in Man, Woman, and Dogs Approach Two Polar Bears. The effect of this unique style of optical drawing is one that is, to our eye, missing from her strictly landscape works of the 2000s. 

  • Mark Uqayuittuq

    Mark Uqayuittuq was the adopted son of Luke Anguhadluq.  He was also married to Janet Kigusiuq, with whom he created a personal sign language as Uqayuittuq, himself, was deaf and mute.  Although his body of work, from a numbers perspective,  is nowhere near comparable to that of his wife, there are stylistic similarities between the two, best seen in Shamans Transforming. As with Kigusiuq, the bulk of the figures in this maze of erupting beasts that resist any easy identification are composed of simple graphite lines and adorned with small touches of colour.  Sea Spirits At Play is similar in subject to many of the celebrated prints and drawings of Uqayuittuq’s mother in law, Jessie Oonark.

  • Irene Avaalaaqiaq Tiktaalaaq

    After recovering from tuberculosis, Irene Avaalaaqiaq relocated permanently to Qamani’tuaq in the fall of 1958 but only began her artistic career in the late 1960s / early 1970s, at the encouragement of the Butlers. Almost exclusively, Avaalaaqiaq’s inspiration for her works comes from her desire to visualize the stories told to her as a child by her grandmother. Avaalaaqiaq told Judith Nasby, “‘The stories my grandmother told me are from the time when animals used to talk like human beings. [... She] used to tell me about an animal that could turn into a man and a man that could turn into an animal [18]”  Each of the six works by Avaalaaqiaq in this exhibition reflect her preoccupation with the animal and/or human hybrid creatures of these narratives.  

     

    In the first three works shown, we see figures that retain a distinctly human appearance but with subtly adopted bird-like traits. This bird-human motif appears so often in Avaalaaqiaq’s works that Judith Nasby wrote that the image of hybridized bird-human figures “crops up, almost like a signature, in many of her works [19].”  Avian figures appear also in Spirit Figure in a Cartouche where Avaalaaqiaq has cleverly manipulated the negative space of her black sheet to simultaneously describe frontal human faces and birds with open beaks in profile. We see the bird motif again in Alternating Creatures Surrounded by Humans and Birds, wherein the torrid pink border ripples and swells at the left and right with bird and human faces in profile. The central four figures of this work recall the beasts featured in her Avaalaaqiaq’s work Fighting Creatures, 1999 in the collection of the Art Gallery of Guelph. The artist explained that the hybrized creatures were either half fish, half human, or half wolf, half fish [20]. 

     

    In Human / Muskox  in a Landscape, Avaalaaqiaq deviates entirely from the feathered creature to depict a different composite human-animal character.  Set a midst a colourful landscape, we see an ambling beast whose muskox body features windswept wool drawn in electric yellow and its human face composed of an equally vibrant pink.

  • Nancy Pukingrnak Aupaluktuq

    The youngest daughter of Jessie Oonark, Nancy Pukingrnak Aupaluktuq relocated to the settlement of Qamani’tuaq in her late teenage years.  Though she had been drawing regularly since the 1970s, only five of her works were included in the annual print collections from Qamani’tuaq, one of which, Rescued from Two-Faced Monsters, featured the same multi-faced humanoid monsters that we see in the first three drawings illustrated above. Monstrous in form and electric green in colour, these creatures, Pukingrnak explained, were simply birthed from her imagination. “One time I was making a soapstone carving [...] and the stone had lumps on the back of it [like faces] [21].” Elsewhere, Pukingrnak explained that the creatures were an expression of her angst ridden pathos. Of a similar work, she said, “This I drew out of my own mind. I am scared a lot and this is a scary scene [22].” 

     

    In striking contrast to these disquieting visions of monsters, is Father Teaching Son to Hunt Caribou. The careful construction of this ambitious composition provides a detailed description of a young boy learning to capture caribou with his father.  While similar in subject to her predecessors, unlike the first generation artists, there is a clear attempt by Pukingrnak to illustrate spatial depth in her work.  In her 1985 dissertation, in which this work is reproduced as figure 49, Marion Jackson gives a detailed and superb description of the present work, which reads,

    Pukingnak’s recent drawing of a father teaching his son to hunt caribou (fig. 49) evokes the sense of a benevolent and harmonious natural order [...]. The soft, light colours of Pukingnak’s naturalistic landscape are applied in evenly controlled strokes. A light blue sky with fluffy white clouds and a full sun provide an idyllic setting in which ground squirrels frolic and birds flutter, establishing a pastoral contact for the main action of Pukingnak’s drawing.  The primary figures are a wounded but passively immobile standing caribou and a father and son whose placid expression and languid gesture belie the violence of the action about to occur.  The gray knife in the father’s right hand is nearly obscured by the brown-gray landscape, and neither he nor the caribou which stands obsequiously before him give any evidence of the [...] struggle in which they are engaged. Pukingnak captures and expresses the harmonies of nature through the quiet harmonies of her drawings [23].

  • Simon Tookoome

    Preoccupied primarily with aesthetics, Simon Tookoome’s drawings are often skilled arrangements of splendid symmetry. This disciplined sense of balance is seen in all four of the present works and in particular in Shaman Flanked my Men and Dogs, wherein the figures are arranged in a near perfectly mirrored composition.  We are impressed with the same reflective symmetry in Hunters and Dogs and Inuit, Dogs, and Shamans Transforming but also by the way inwhich Tookoome has filled his entire page with illustration.  In these two aforementioned works, rapid, angular strokes infuse the scene with a vibrating energy. 

     

    The final two works presented above, while still harmoniously balanced compositions, stand quite apart from the others. One of the latest arrivals to Qamani’tuaq, Tookoome was in his mid 30s before he settled in the community in 1969. As a result, Marion Jackson suggests, the subject of hunting, in addition to being a common subject of the first generation of artists, was a favourite of the artist as well [24]. The way inwhich Tookoome presented interpretations of this common theme, however, differs dramatically from his predecessors. In Spirits of Preys, the animals subject to the hunt are treated in a wholly unique and rather dreamlike fashion. What seems a fixed scene begins to shift and never quite yields to a specific naming of what is represented.  In Homeward Bound, as we see in Hunters and Dogs and Inuit, Dogs, and Shamans Transforming, the entire sheet is filled with mixed media marks by Tookoome but here the figural elements are subordinated by the landscape. Silhouettes of humans done in sketchy black ink strokes dot the undulating hills, beckoning home the green hooded hunter in the distance.

  • FRANCOISE OKLAGA

     

    FRANCOISE OKLAGA (1924-1991) QAMANI'TUAQ (BAKER LAKE)

    People, Dog, and Igloo, 1984

    coloured pencil on heavy wove black paper, 22 x 30 in (55.9 x 76.2 cm)

     

    $1,500.00

     

    Françoise Oklaga arrived in Qamani’tuaq much later than the other artists represented in this exhibition, migrating from  Salliq (Coral Harbour) in the mid 1970s.  Like other artists in this exhibition, she began only to draw in her 50s at the encouragement of the Butlers.  As with much of her work, what seems most affable about People, Dog, and Igloo is its cheerful energy. Streaks and smears of colour wobble about on the black sheet to indicate both elements of the figures and the background. A horizontal figure comically careens toward the Inuit around the igloo, all while a small dog gives a curious head turn at the lively goings-on. 

  • MYRA KUKIIYAUT

     

    MYRA KUKIIYAUT (1929-2006) QAMANI'TUAQ (BAKER LAKE)

    Spirits, 1994

    coloured pencil on thin laid paper, 9 x 12 in (22.9 x 30.5 cm)

     

    $500.00

     

    Unlike the other artists so far represented in this exhibition, Qaernermiut artist Myra Kukiiyaut was born in Qamani’tuaq, while her father was employed by the RCMP.  As a young child, she and her family relocated from the settlement to the camp of her maternal grandparents. She would return to Qamani’tuaq permanently in 1956.  Characteristic of many of her works, in this diminutive scene we are presented with a dizzying vision of blurring contours and whirling forms that overlap to produce a sense of great excitement. Her forms and figures are spirited in their gestures and the emphasis is clearly on creating a dramatic sense of action. For energy and vehemence of movement, Kukiiyaut is unsurpassed.

  • RUTH ANNAQTUUSI TULURIALIK

    Ruth Annaqtuusi Tulurialik, was born in the Kazan River area but was adopted as an infant by Thomas Tapatai, the assistant to the Anglican missionary, Canon James.  Living so nearby to Qamani’tuaq from a young age, Annaqtuusi’s works offer a rather unique perspective than those of her contemporaries.  Her proximity to the settlement meant that in addition to her contact with the qallunaq in Qamani’tuaq, Annaqtuusi  encountered many individuals from the disparate subcultures of the Kivillaq region who would first visit the trade centres in the settlement before any permanet relocation to Qamani’tuaq. Boldly presented, highly complex, and brilliantly colourful her graphic works are imagined recollections of the customs and stories of her culture that speak to a sense of preservation.  In a 1986 interview she said, “We can show that our ancestors used to do things a certain way, even if we won’t do it the same way [25]. 

  • Works Cited

    1.  After the creation of Nunavut in 1999, the Keewtain Region became the Kivalliq Region, with only slightly different boundaries.

     

    2.  With an increased interest in white fox furs, the first trading post was established at the southside of Qamani’tuaq in 1916 by the Hudson’s Bay Company.  The Anglican and Roman Catholic churches established mission posts in Qamani’tuaq in 1926 and 1927, respectively.  In 1946, during WWII, as part of “Operation Muskox,” the Royal Canadian Air force built an base in Qamani’tuaq. A weather station was built in 1947.

     

    3.  Though the subgroups within the Kivallirmiut classification are similar in many respects, they differ rather significantly in many ways, including contact with quallunaq. The Harvaqtuurmiut and Paallirmiut remained inland throughout the year and were the most isolated.  The Qainigmiut (Qaernermiut) came in the summer months to the coast to trade with whalers and other visitors.  The Utkuhiksalingmiut had cultural similarities with the central Kivallirmiut as well as the Netsilingmiut. We encourage anyone interested in further information on the subject to consult Marion Jackson’s 1985 dissertation and her 1995 contribution to the catalogue, Qamanittuaq (Where the River Wides): Drawings by Baker Lake Artists. 

     

    4.  Other settlements include: Arviat [Eskimo Point], Tikiraqjuaq [Whale Cove], Kangiqliniq [Rankin Inlet], Igluligaarjuk [Chesterfield Inlet], Salliq [Coral Harbour], and Naujaat [Repulse Bay]

     

    5. Marion E. Jackson, Baker Lake Inuit Drawings: A Study in the Evolution of Artistic Self-Consciousness, University of Michigan, PhD Dissertation, 1985, p. 72

     

    6. The first generation of artists in Qamani’tuaq were affiliated with ten cultural sub-groups. The largest segment of the population at this time held ancestral ties with the Netsilingmiut: the Utkuhiksalingmiut, the Ualingmiut, the Saningayukmiu, and the Iluiliaqmiut.  The next largest population segment, composed of the Qainigmiut (Qaernermiut), the Akilinirmiut, the Harvaqtuurmiut, the Tariaqmiut, and the Paallirmiut, which have ancestral ties to the Kivallirmiut. Finally, representing a relatively small portion of the population were member sof the Aivilingmiut, whose heritage stems  from the Iglulingmuit 

     

    7. The potential for artistic production in the area had been documented before.  In 1947, during “Operation Muskox,” two service men suggested that the Inuit in the region should be encouraged in art making.  Dr Andrew MacPherson and Edith Dodds recognized Oonark’s talents early on.  The latter would send a handful of Oonark's drawings to Kinngait to be made into prints for inclusion in the 1960 and 1961 annual print catalogues.  Having  sold the rare c. 1958-9 drawing by Oonark, we now know that the schoolteacher Bernard Mullen, indulged Jessie in her artistic whim.

     

    8.  Helga Goetz, The Inuit Print, exh. cat., (Ottawa: National Museum of Man, 1972), p. 192

     

    9. Ibid.

     

    10. Judith Nasby, Marion E, Jackson, et. al, Qamanittuaq: Where the River Widens, (Guelph, ON: Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, 1995), p. 35

     

    11. Kotelowitz’s efforts to get the print shop up and running were most admirable. First, he recognized the extraordinary talent of Jessie Oonark and provided her a stipend and study to create her drawings. After searching for suitable stone with which to make print blocks, he could not locate dynamite to excavate the stone. He placed an order for the explosives but, in the interim, spearheaded a crew to drill the stone out to no avail.  By the time the ordered dynamite arrived, the snow had melted and there was no way to transport the rock from the quarry to the settlement. 

     

    12. Nasby / Jackson, 1995, p. 36

     

    13. In the author’s opinion, the importance that Jack and Sheila Butler played in artistic production cannot be overstated.  The pair contributed not only to the creation of the print shop but assisted in seeing renewed interest in textile works and secured the necessary materials for tapestry making.  Their business savvy secured a $50,000 federal loan for the creation of the Sanavik Cooperative.

     

    14.  George Swinton, Baker Lake Prints 1972, (Qamani’tuaq: Sanavik Cooperative, 1972), unpaginated.

     

    15. Ibid.

     

    16. Jackson, 1985, p. 213

     

    17. Cynthia Waye, The Urge ofAbstraction: The Graphic Art of Janet Kigusiuq, exh. cat., (Toronto: Museum of Inuit Art, 2008), p. 6

     

    18. Judith Nasby, Irene Avaalaaqiaq: Myth and Reality (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002), p. 56

     

    19.  Ibid., p. 70

     

    20. Ibid., p. 95, pl. 18

     

    21. Nasby / Jackson, et. al, 1995, p. 123.

     

    22.  Ibid., p. 124

     

    23. Jackson, 1985, p. 198

     

    24. Ibid.

     

    25. Kirk LaPointe, “Inuit artist’s drawings reflect the changing times,” Calgary Herald, 4 March 1986, p. F1