Labrador artist Raeann Brown
Growing up in Postville on the north coast of Labrador, Raeann Brown couldn’t wait to leave the Inuit community. It seemed so small and unexciting, she said, and she wanted to see the world. Now, as an adult living in Wabush in western Labrador, she realizes she didn’t know what she had as a child.
“It’s like that old saying, ‘youth is wasted on the young,’” she said with a laugh. “I was so lucky to live there and grow up the way I did, surrounded by my culture. I try to show that through my work.”
That work is her art, which ranges from etched glass and painting to writing. A children’s book she authored, “Bedtime in Nunatsiavut,” was chosen for the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize longlist. That was her second book, the first being “Inuky Art, The Colors of our Culture,” a Labrador Inuit-inspired adult colouring book.
Brown said art has been a part of her life for a long time, starting with poetry she enjoyed as a child, and she tries to reflect her culture and traditions in her work.
“It’s very important to me that I show that,” she said. “I’m proud of where I’m from and being Indigenous, I want my work to help showcase that.”
She began doing glass etching about 10 years ago and began selling her creations online through her homebased business, Inuky Glass Art. However, it got to be too much to do from home, and the business expanded into a retail location in Labrador City last year.
“It’s always risky when you make a big move like that, especially in a pandemic,” she said. “It just felt like time. It was a big risk, but I’m glad I did it.”