On the cover of The Beaver

Helen Kalvak’s 1969 print From People to Animals (stonecut on paper, Co-op/50, 45.6 x 61 cm) appears on the cover of The Beaver supplement in this issue. Born in 1901 on Victoria Island, she died in 1984 at Holman (now Ulukhaktok), N.W.T., where she settled in 1960 and began her career as a graphic artist. After helping to establish the Holman Eskimo Co-operative in 1961, Kalvak created drawings for craft items such as parkas and mittens. They portrayed traditional Copper Inuit life but also stories she learned from her father, who trained her as an angakuk, or shaman. Many of her drawings represent interrelationships between human and animal worlds, such as the transformation between an angakuk and animal spirit helpers or guides. More than 150 of her drawings were made into prints for sale as art, including stonecuts by printmaker Harry Egotak such as From People to Animals. Kalvak was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and was appointed to the Order of Canada.