For this international MUN student, Inuit art exhibit is a chance to unlearn and relearn region's culture
Helping Hands: 30 Years at Kinngait Studios is on display at The Rooms
I recently went to The Rooms in St. John's, to see a new exhibition I had been looking forward to viewing, called Helping Hands: 30 Years at Kinngait Studios.
Master printmaker William Ritchie kept a copy of every print he worked on at the studio in Nunavut. His donation of nearly 400 prints — by dozens of Inuit artists — is one of the largest and most significant ever made to The Rooms, the cultural complex that houses Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial gallery, museum and archives.
I'm both an international student and an art lover, so viewing this exhibition was a chance to educate myself — to learn the different stories these prints illustrate, and the unique culture they showcase.
It was an informative, inspiring and culturally rich experience, one that pushed me to do my own research, especially on the avataq, which is a sealskin float.
The uniqueness of the display stood out to me. It inspired me to have meaningful conversations about seal hunting, to read about the whales in the Kinngait community, to unlearn and relearn the region's Inuit culture, and to share what I have gathered with my family and close friends.
If you have not seen the exhibition yet, I hope you do.
It expresses contemporary Inuit identity and everyday reality, which is an educational creative work as well as an opportunity to support and share the beautiful messages of the artists.
Two pieces that really spoke to me were Bird's Eye View and Helping Hands.
They paint a vivid picture of the Kinngait community and the teamwork consolidated within Kinngait Studios. Bird's Eye View illustrates an aerial view of a pod of whales. It's an abstract composition, showing the perspective of something flying above the whales. The main element of the artwork — the pod of whales — explains to viewers the Kinngait community is a whaling community, where you can spot belugas coming into the harbour during the fall.
From this artwork, I learned the Kinngait landscape is dotted with beluga whales from which the artist has drawn inspiration. I feel that it also highlights how symbolic, representative and culturally important beluga whales are for the artist to capture the scenery.
Likewise, the Helping Hands piece showcases many hands stretching forward in the same direction, outlining the many hands that make the Kinngait Studios. Although an experimental composition, to me it portrays the genuine solidarity among the artists and the due recognition and celebration of everyone's contributions at the Kinngait Studios.
Finally, Avataq — an installation of 18 handmade foil, helium balloons resembling an avataq — was another powerful highlight.
It not only celebrates the region's Inuit culture but also creates the focus on meaningful conversations about the seal hunt, the international ban on products made of sealskin and the destructive effects of the ban on livelihoods in the North.
The installation tells the story of seal hunting, and the swaying balloons bring the activity to life: the flipper-like limbs, the screen-printed sealskin texture, the inflated balloon symbolic of the hunter's breath inside the full skin of the animal, the strings symbolizing harpoons, which the hunter uses to catch their prey and track it through water once harpooned.
The details, the symbolism and the metaphorical, lifelike-yet-inviting depiction of the seal hunt through simple materials imparts the knowledge of the traditional and cultural seal hunt that is an integral element of the Inuit way of life and voices out how education is crucial to understand the impact of the ban by learning how seals are a food source, clothing source such as boots and mittens as well as an important income to the Inuit community.
One wall is dominated by a telling quote: "I have always wished I could be paid more for the things I make to sell that were valuable in our traditional culture. I would like to be able to make money from selling things I can make out of caribou and sealskins instead of selling the drawings I make about those things," wrote artist Mayoreak Ashoona.
This exhibition provided me with the platform to a bigger picture and new educational information and resources that I otherwise would have most likely not come across.
Unlearning and relearning or simply educating ourselves on the rich Indigenous culture and traditions is necessary.
It raises awareness, motivates to take actions, acknowledges and encourages conversations on the legacy, culture, traditions, history, current and past barriers, and keeps the survival and meaningful transmission of this knowledge vividly alive and loud instead of suppressed and attacked.