Lizzie Ittinuar
Ittinuar has almost completely abandoned the traditional motifs and often symmetrical compositions associated with Inuit wall hangings in exchange for a contemporary view of her home.
Master seamstress Lizzie Ittinuar’s work ranges from tapestry and finely beaded clothing to carving and doll making. Born in 1930 in Salliq (Coral Harbour), NU, like many artists before her, as well as her contemporaries, Ittinuar learned her craft through watching her ancestors. “We still follow our grandmothers and their grandmothers,” she explained in a 1992 interview with the Canadian Museum of Civilization (now the Canadian Museum of History). “It’s the way we pass it on. It’s the traditional way of doing it. We are following the traditions of our ancestors.” In Map of Hamlet of Rankin Inlet, Nunavut (2005), the artist combines traditional technique with contemporary subject matter. Using a large piece of black felt approximately 5 feet high by 6.5 feet wide as her canvas, she has beaded, with striking detail, and likely incredible patience, a street map of the hamlet of Kangiqliniq (Rankin Inlet), NU, including identifying names, houses, lakes and the local airport. Framing the map are beaded and felted images of the local people, flora and fauna, the Nunavut flag and the Inuktut title of the work. In this piece, Ittinuar has almost completely abandoned the traditional motifs and often symmetrical compositions associated with Inuit wall hangings in exchange for a contemporary view of her home. Ittinuar’s piece offers us the most fleeting window into her life and the community context in which it was produced. Purchased directly from the artist by the Canada Council Art Bank in 2006, this work was created through a grant from the Canada Council. It is a particularly beloved artwork by many visitors to the collection, which is comprised of over 17,000 artworks. I, myself, am repeatedly struck by the mastery of the material and technique of the artist, and I chose to highlight this work because of the powerful affect it has on me each time I view it. My eyes move back and forth across the beadwork and embroidery as I soak in the artist’s choice of colour and texture. If textile works traditionally feature narratives of life and community—family, games, animals, hunting and life on the land—as a way to carry forward culture for future generations, what story is shared through Ittinuar’s piece? The lines of the town and surrounding topography, combined with named locations, fill me with curiosity and quite literally send me straight to Google Street View where I am met with confirmation of Ittinuar’s accuracy and deep intrigue of life in this place. The artist’s delicate stitches trace the outlines of familiar and numbered buildings and individual homes, as well as the undulating shorelines and the diagonal pull of the north arrow marker on the bottom right corner of the map. The tiny silver and white beads offering the sensation of viewing the town from above, seen as though twinkling lights during a nighttime fly over. What emerges from the deep black ground of Ittinuar’s cloth canvas is the intimate observation and indexing of a home, proudly named and sited in the Kivalliq region of Canada’s largest and northernmost territory.