Quick Pick: Death Boat And Other Stories

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Roger Aksadjuak, “Death Boat,” 2008, ceramic (photo by Don Hall)

Drawn from the Kampelmacher Memorial Collection of Indigenous Art, Death Boat and Other Stories is on now through May 2, 2027 at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Sask.

Just one of the many works on view, Death Boat is a ceramic sculpture created by Inuk artist Aksadjuak in 2008. MacKenzie curator Felicia Gay, who chose the work, says “it spoke to her.” 

“At first glance, the death boat appears to represent a funerary practice, perhaps representing the transition from life to death or the continuation of life after death. As a vessel, it carries not only one person, but also a story,” according to the news release.

“The spaces that humans, animals, and other sentient beings inhabit are temporal — never fixed. Gay asserts that to be Indigenous is to know profoundly what transformation is.”

Thomas Druyan and Alice Ladner started their collection of Indigenous art in 1992, naming it after Druyah’s parents, Wolf and Sala Kampelmacher. With more than 1,000 works, it is the largest collection of Indigenous art that the MacKenzie Art Gallery has received to date. ■

Death Boat and Other Stories is on view now through May 2, 2027 at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Sask.

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