Kinngait, NU
While Kananginak Pootoogook’s name is synonymous with the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative for his detailed narrative wildlife drawings and prints, the artist’s full involvement with the co-operative is much broader. An early friend and collaborator of James Houston, OC, Pootoogook was instrumental in opening the first print shop in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, in 1958, and teaching local Inuit techniques of copper engraving, lithography, stone cutting and silk-screening. He also served as president of the Board of Directors for many years.
Back in the early 1970s I was a trainee for the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative. I did a little bit of everything; issuing tickets, buying, cargo, interpreting, there was no job description at the time. Kananginak had already been active in the co-op by the time I star ted in 1971. He told me stories about trying to make art much before the co-op happened, that he tried drawing on a cigarette package and on tin-can labels. He also told me about a research trip he took to Greenland before the co-op existed. He spent two or three months there learning about the Greenlandic artist co-operative membership system.
Kananginak was always visioning ahead. He was a very strong individual and he wanted to have a very good plan for Kinngait people to have economic success. It was mostly Inuit who worked at the studio with one or two visiting artists or studio managers from outside of the community at a time and that is still the case today.
JIMMY MANNING, FORMER WBEC BUYER AND STUDIO MANAGER (1971–2011)
Kananginak Pootoogook, RCA (1935–2010)