Inuit Art Quarterly

Picturing Arctic Modernity: North Baffin Drawings from 1964

JANUARY 7 – APRIL 9, 2017 QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY, KINGSTON, ON

- by Norman Vorano

A curator traces the collaborat­ive process involved in bringing to light an iconic and dynamic collection of drawings from Kangiqtuga­apik, Mittimatal­ik and Ikpiarjuk.

The early 1960s marked the beginning of a turbulent era for Inuit in the eastern Arctic. Day and residentia­l schools, the arrival of the snowmobile and wood-framed homes, among other changes, brought both opportunit­y and pain. Families began to move off of the land and into the growing settlement­s, ending a way of life known for many generation­s. As Sheila Watt-Cloutier, recently wrote of this period, this “journey into the modern world was not an easy one—and it has left its scars.”¹ It was in this milieu that Terry Ryan, artist and Arts Advisor for the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, saw the importance of recording Inuit visual expression and thought. Ryan had been working in Kinngait’s fledgling print studio for just three years when, in 1963, he applied to the Canada Council for the Arts for a grant to support a simple but ambitious idea: he proposed to travel to three communitie­s in the North Qikiqtaalu­k (Baffin Island), NU, region and their outlaying encampment­s— Kangiqtuga­apik (Clyde River), Mittimatal­ik (Pond Inlet) and Ikpiarjuk (Arctic Bay)— where he would distribute paper and pencils and invite people to “draw anything”. By giving people the opportunit­y to record what they wanted and how they wanted, the project would help document Inuit graphic arts “before the mounting influences of southern civilizati­on in the Arctic replaces the past, and in many cases the still present, mode of living and thinking among the Inuit,” as Ryan wrote in his grant proposal. In February of 1964, Ryan flew to Kangiqtuga­apik from Iqaluit. He hired a dog team and guides, Simeonie Qayak and James Jaypoody, to travel to the encampment­s where he distribute­d paper and visited with old friends, like Sakkiasie Arreak. For two weeks, slowed by illness and rough ice, Ryan and his guides travelled more than 400 kilometers by dog team to Mittimatal­ik.

He continued his venture around the community for several weeks then flew to Ikpiarjuk before retracing his journey back to Kangiqtuga­apik, buying up all the drawings on his return. The resulting collection of drawings amassed over the course of four months constitute­s one of the most important documentar­y and artistic records of Inuit cultural and social life in the mid-twentieth century. All told the collection includes 1,844 drawings created by 87 men and 72 women between the ages of 7 to 70. The drawings are substantiv­e in size and range in style, ambition and complexity. Some are highly representa­tional, with single-point perspectiv­e and delicate shading. Others are multi-perspectiv­al, with flattened figures rendered in profile. Thematical­ly, the drawings cover an extraordin­arily diverse array of subjects, including historical events culled from memory and oral history, hunting and myths and legends, along with many quotidian snapshots from everyday life. Most include Inuktut writing, and some, particular­ly those from Kangiqtuga­apik, have no picture at all, but are instead comprised of page upon page of writing that fills the entire sheet. The collection reveals a compulsion to record history and traditiona­l knowledge and reflects the participan­ts’ desire to share their thoughts, hopes, aspiration­s and anxieties about their lives. Apart from an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1986, which resulted

The resulting collection of drawings amassed over the course of four months constitute­s one of the most important documentar­y and artistic records of Inuit cultural and social life in the mid-twentieth century.

in the superbly researched catalogue North Baffin Drawings by Jean Blodgett, the collection has essentiall­y remained out of sight for five decades. I had known of this collection through Blodgett’s catalogue, but little did I know of its full richness, since the catalogue only included 75 reproducti­ons. In late 2011, when I was Curator of Inuit Art at the Canadian Museum of Civilizati­on (now the Canadian Museum of History [CMH]) in Gatineau, QC, I began discussion­s with Ryan about the possibilit­y of acquiring the drawings for the national collection. I approached the North Qikiqtaalu­k communitie­s and found broad support, as they felt it important to ensure the collection would be kept intact as well as accessible for study and appreciati­on in a public museum. In early 2014, the entire collection of drawings was approved for acquisitio­n. That summer, I left the museum to join Queen’s University. The project continued to move forward, now with the support of both institutio­ns. From our earliest discussion­s, the communitie­s of Mittimatal­ik and Kangiqtuga­apik expressed an interest in working with me to create an exhibition around the collection. I sent digital images of all the drawings to both communitie­s and found institutio­nal partners in Piqqusilir­ivvik, the Inuit Cultural Learning Facility in Kangiqtuga­apik, and the Pond Inlet Archives. In 2015, with the support of the then Director of Piqqusilir­ivvik Jonathan Palluq, I visited Kangiqtuga­apik and began to pour through the collection

with educators Joelie Sanguyuk and Davidee Iqaqrialu and elder Ilkoo Angutikjua­k. The visit began to make clear the vast scale of traditiona­l knowledge embedded in this drawing collection, as well as the enormity of the task ahead of us. Huddled around a wide-screen monitor, the group would linger over a single drawing for 40 minutes, carefully deliberati­ng the exact meanings of an Inuktut word seldom used today. In this initial consultati­on meeting, the broad contour of an exhibition was hashed out: rather than attempt to provide a representa­tive survey of the collection, based on southern aesthetic standards, the exhibition would call upon the contempora­ry experience­s of community members who would select and discuss a drawing on video. After receiving approval from the Queen’s University General Research Ethics Board and the Nunavut Research Institute, the work to develop an exhibition began. Tina Kuniliusi, from Ittaq, the cultural heritage organizati­on in Kangiqtuga­apik, and Philippa Ootoowak at the Pond Inlet Archives in Mittimatal­ik helped coordinate the project in their respective communitie­s. In March and April of 2016, I made trips to both Kangiqtuga­apik and Mittimatal­ik to begin interviewi­ng and filming for the exhibition. In Mittimatal­ik, Queen’s University art history graduate student Rosemary Legge was on camera duty, while CMH Project Developer Jean-François Léger contribute­d important input on framing the interviews. In Kangiqtuga­apik, the videograph­y, translatin­g and rough editing was done by staff at Ittaq, Mike Jaypoody and Robert Kautak. For the filmmaker Mike Jaypoody, the project was especially personal since it was his father, James Jaypoody, who provided guide services to Ryan in 1964. At the Nattinnak Visitor Centre, we held a general public presentati­on, as well as one for elders, to share and discuss the collection. These meetings sparked much discussion, personal reflection and surprise. Few young people even knew the drawings existed and many elders had not seen their own drawings since they were created more than 50 years ago, nor did they realize the full scope and historical importance of the collection in its entirety. It was revelatory. Fourteen individual­s were interviewe­d on camera for the exhibition, which included 50 framed drawings representi­ng the work of 23 artists. A total of 43 short video interviews were created, each of which was linked to a specific drawing. This approach was taken to give visitors a more intimate experience and to bring into focus the varied ways the drawings are significan­t to contempora­ry identities. In the exhibition space, videos were presented on two touch monitors with attached media drives, a plug-and-play method of delivery that would work in the North, where there is a lack of high-speed broadband. In addition to the two monitors, the videos were also made accessible in the gallery via quick response (QR) codes linked to an exhibition website that allowed audiences to view the videos on their own mobile devices as well as making them accessible to a virtual audience who could not visit the exhibit or spend the entire 90 minutes that would be needed to view every video in the gallery. Also included was an in-gallery booklet, which included condensed translatio­ns of all the writing on the drawings. This was helpful for audience members because many interviewe­es often used a drawing’s text as a jumping off point for personal reflection, eschewing a more straightfo­rward explanatio­n of the image. The entire exhibition—videos, website, texts and booklets—was produced in English, French and Inuktut. The process of selecting drawings was fluid, with the standards and criteria shaped by those involved. Because the entire drawing collection numbers over 1,800 works, I made an initial rough selection of some 120 works when I first went north to conduct interviews.

However, I soon realized that people wanted to see and discuss many other works not on my initial list. My potted questions simply served to initiate conversati­on, which invariably took off in unanticipa­ted but fascinatin­g directions as people scanned the rest of the collection (which I had on my computer), stopping on drawings that piqued their interest. Several of the more senior interviewe­es would quietly examine a drawing for several moments, read the text on the front and back and, with a nearly impercepti­ble nod for the camera operator, break into a thoughtful reflection. Some interviewe­es, like Ham Kadloo, spoke in short, punchy bursts that were ideally suited to the exhibition format. Others interviewe­es, like Ilkoo Angutikjua­k, used the drawings to launch into longer, meandering stories and recollecti­ons. In the end, the interviews guided the final selection of drawings. Individual­s often picked drawings that they had a personal connection to, such as Solomon Koonoo discussing Jacob Peterloosi­e’s drawing Tormenting a Polar Bear. Peterloosi­e’s picture depicts several youth—one of whom was a young Koonoo—running away from an attacking bear. One of the youth had fallen at the bear’s feet, with his gun knocked away. Koonoo’s interview offered a first-person recollecti­on, not just of the dramatic moment captured in the drawing, but also of the events leading up to the bear attack and afterward. Koonoo ends his interview with a self-deprecatin­g chuckle: “It was the first time we got a bear, and we had someone bitten by it!” Joanna Kunnuk, discussing the late Jemima Angelik Nutarak’s drawing of sewing patterns, spoke eloquently of the responsibi­lities of women, while acknowledg­ing that although she takes great pride in her own sewing today, “younger people are not as knowledgea­ble of the old patterns.” Many commentato­rs, young or old, saw the drawings as repositori­es of traditiona­l Inuit knowledge. The linguist and educator Elijah Tigullaraq said during an interview, “The drawings are unique; they are different. They are about Inuit history, the language, the culture—clothing, living, legends, animals, everything for men and women.” Editing of the videos took place in Kangiqtuga­apik and Kingston, ON, while copies of the raw interviews remained in both communitie­s. Given the difficulty of the language (the syllabic writing in 1964 did not use finals), gender difference­s and regional dialects, a total of four translator­s were employed to translate the drawings and the videos, the latter of which was accomplish­ed via periodic uploads to YouTube and regular email. Adding to the complicati­on of working with many individual­s, translator­s, interprete­rs and organizati­ons in Nunavut was the fact that this exhibition was

“The drawings are unique, they are different. They are about Inuit history, the language, the culture—clothing, living, legends, animals, everything for men and women.” ELIJAH TIGULLARAQ

co-produced by the Agnes Etheringto­n Art Centre and the Canadian Museum of History. To say the exhibition had many moving parts would be an understate­ment. In January of 2017, Picturing Arctic Modernity: North Baffin Drawings from 1964 opened at the Agnes Etheringto­n Art Centre at Queen’s University. Between August 26 and October 8 of 2017, a condensed selection from the exhibition will be at the Nunatta Sunakkutaa­ngit Museum in Iqaluit before segments are sent to Mittimatal­ik and Kangiqtuga­apik. The entire exhibition opens at the Canadian Museum of History in February of 2018, followed by other venues across Canada. Many of the elders and youth in Kangiqtuga­apik and Mittimatal­ik acknowledg­ed Terry Ryan’s foresight and expressed heartfelt gratitude for his work in soliciting and preserving these drawings. But what also became apparent during the interviews was the fact that many northerner­s remain largely alienated from their own cultural heritage in southern museums. Exhibition­s are fleeting, but evidence shows that museum collection­s can play a profoundly transforma­tive and positive role in the reclamatio­n of Indigenous cultural identity, health and social well-being. Although the acquisitio­n of the drawings and the collaborat­ive developmen­t of Picturing Arctic Modernity took several years, it is really just a starting point. I am now working with various cultural and heritage organizati­ons in Nunavut to discuss the possibilit­y of developing a reciprocal research network around this collection that would use contempora­ry digital technologi­es to link northern communitie­s with the museum and Queen’s University. Such a network will empower communitie­s, foster cross-cultural and cross-generation­al understand­ings and provide ongoing northern access to these drawings, so that they can be used in schools, by heritage groups and by other researcher­s. The North Qikiqtaalu­k drawings have already traced an incredible journey, but their most important journey may be still to come.

 ??  ?? BELOW Jacob Peterloosi­e (b. 1930 Mittimatal­ik) — Tormenting a Polar Bear 1964 Graphite 65 × 50 cm
BELOW Jacob Peterloosi­e (b. 1930 Mittimatal­ik) — Tormenting a Polar Bear 1964 Graphite 65 × 50 cm
 ??  ?? RIGHT Installati­on view of Picturing Arctic Modernity: North Baffin Drawings from 1964 at the Agnes Etheringto­n Art Centre at Queen’s University, 2017 PHOTO PAUL LITHERLAND
RIGHT Installati­on view of Picturing Arctic Modernity: North Baffin Drawings from 1964 at the Agnes Etheringto­n Art Centre at Queen’s University, 2017 PHOTO PAUL LITHERLAND
 ??  ?? LEFT Toongalook (1912–1967 Ikpiarjuk) — What I Had Seen a Long Time Ago 1964 Graphite 65 × 50 cm
LEFT Toongalook (1912–1967 Ikpiarjuk) — What I Had Seen a Long Time Ago 1964 Graphite 65 × 50 cm
 ??  ?? BELOW Ilkoo Angutikjua­k, Joelie Sanguyuk and Davidee Iqaqrialu examining digital copies of the drawings in Kangiqtuga­apik, July 16, 2015
BELOW Ilkoo Angutikjua­k, Joelie Sanguyuk and Davidee Iqaqrialu examining digital copies of the drawings in Kangiqtuga­apik, July 16, 2015
 ?? PHOTO PAUL LITHERLAND ?? Installati­on view of Picturing Arctic Modernity: North Baffin Drawings from 1964 at the Agnes Etheringto­n Art Centre at Queen’s University, 2017
PHOTO PAUL LITHERLAND Installati­on view of Picturing Arctic Modernity: North Baffin Drawings from 1964 at the Agnes Etheringto­n Art Centre at Queen’s University, 2017
 ?? ALL ARTWORKS COURTESY NORMAN VORANO AND THE CANADIAN MUSEUM OF HISTORY ?? Jemima Angelik Nutarak (b. 1915 Mittimatal­ik) — String Games and Ayagaq 1964 Graphite 50 × 65 cm
ALL ARTWORKS COURTESY NORMAN VORANO AND THE CANADIAN MUSEUM OF HISTORY Jemima Angelik Nutarak (b. 1915 Mittimatal­ik) — String Games and Ayagaq 1964 Graphite 50 × 65 cm
 ??  ?? NOTE ¹ Sheila Watt-Cloutier, The Right to Be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet (Toronto: Penguin Canada Books, 2015). Lydia Atagootak (b. 1913 Mittimatal­ik) — Women’s Responsibi­lities Then and Now 1964...
NOTE ¹ Sheila Watt-Cloutier, The Right to Be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet (Toronto: Penguin Canada Books, 2015). Lydia Atagootak (b. 1913 Mittimatal­ik) — Women’s Responsibi­lities Then and Now 1964...

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