Elisapee Inukpuk

Woman Adopts a Caterpillar

The materials list could be a poem.

stone, steatite; skin, seal; skin, caribou; skin, sheep; fur, rabbit; fur, muskrat; wood

Maybe it’s not a poem, but a recipe.

It takes the magic of the artist to read it, to take the static materials in hand and turn them into a story and to use active hands to take an idea and turn these fine materials into anything one might imagine. For many years Elisapee Inukpuk (1938–2018) created a miniature world, made from cloth, skin, fur, twigs, grass and stone. A world populated by Inuit ingenuity: our tools, our activities and our stories.

In this piece, stone and skin are stitched together to tell the story of the “Woman Who Adopted a Caterpillar.” A woman clothed in furs is seated, legs jutting straight out before her and back erect, in the centre of a twig sleeping mat, clutching a mitten. Only, “clutching” isn’t quite right, because she is holding it close to her, cradling the mitten. Curiously, out of the top of the mitten, pokes a furry black blob, punctuated with two bright yellow dots. They—what come to be known as eyes—are one of the first things you notice, but also the hardest to understand. You almost never see an auvvik (caterpillar) in a mitten. This is a scene of mother and child, or rather of a secret mother and child, to be exact. The work is a study in contrast between the two characters. The mother’s smooth stone face is placed in relation to the auvvik’s furry head, peaking out of the smooth, tanned-skin mitten, this subtle detail is where Elisapee’s skills shine.

Woman Adopts a Caterpillar (2003) is one doll in a special series that Elisapee was inspired to make after travelling around Nunavik listening to elders tell stories. Each of her careful and skillful cuts and stitches were made to help illustrate and bring life to this story. The children whom these stories are meant to reach were kept in mind each step of the way.

These past years my great aunt Elisapee has created a world uniquely her own, one where Inuit tools, activities and stories live and thrive. Elisapee has made an incredible contribution. Her work reminds me that my hands are precious tools, that I should keep them busy and that our stories are worth telling.

You can find more of Elisapee’s remarkable dolls as well as the stories that inspired them in Unikkaangualaurtaa/Let’s

Tell a Story (2006), which contains stories, songs and games for children in Nunavik and beyond.

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Asinnajaq is a visual ar tist, filmmaker, writer and curator. She is a member of the guest curatorial team for the Winnipeg Art Gallery Inuit Art Centre’s inaugural exhibition calendar as well as a member of the curatorial team for the Canada Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale.