SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut

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Chesley Flowers, "The George River Herd," 1995-1996

wood and antler. 121.92 x 121.92cm. The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, Memorial University Collection. Photo: Ned Pratt Photography.

SakKijâjuk means "to be visible" in the Nunatsiavut dialect of Inuttitut. This striking group show reveals the distinctive and innovative art of Inuit from northern Labrador, produced over seven decades. Their stories, memories, and knowledge are little known outside the region, until now. See 85 works by four living generations of contemporary artists and craftspeople with video, photography, sealskin-sewing, painting, saltwater grass basketry, stone sculpture, and much more! Join us as we celebrate this exciting stop of the exhibition’s historic national tour. 

Nunatsiavut, the Inuit region of Canada that achieved self-government in 2005, produces art that is distinct within the world of Canadian and circumpolar Inuit art. The world's most southerly population of Inuit, the coastal people of Nunatsiavut have always lived both above and below the tree line, and Inuit artists and craftspeople from Nunatsiavut have had access to a diverse range of Arctic and Subarctic flora and fauna, from which they have produced a stunningly diverse range of work. Artists from the territory have traditionally used stone and wood for carving; fur, hide, and sealskin for wearable art; and saltwater seagrass for basketry, as well as wool, metal, cloth, beads, and paper. In recent decades, they have produced work in a variety of contemporary art media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, video, and ceramics, while also working with traditional materials in new and unexpected ways.

Curated by Dr. Heather Igloliorte, co-chair of the WAG's Indigenous Advisory Circle

Dr. Heather Igloliorte is an Assistant Professor of Aboriginal art history at Concordia University in Montreal. Her research interests centre on Inuit and other Native North American visual and material culture, circumpolar art studies, performance and media art, the global exhibition of Indigenous arts and culture, and issues of colonization, sovereignty, resistance and resilience.