Photo by Lisa Graves, Concordia University

In the absence of access and recognition comes resilience and creativity.

This became apparent to Heather Igloliorte, an Inuk scholar and art historian, as she researched the presence of Labrador Inuit artists in Canada’s history during her years of doctoral research at Ottawa’s Carleton University.

What she discovered was the near absence of information on their artistic work and contributions. “I found there were no books on Labrador Inuit—only a handful of journal articles, and not many magazine essays,” she recalls. “When we don’t see a culture represented in literature or the arts, then we think they don’t exist.”

Such is the inspiration behind her book, SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut, the first major publication to celebrate art from Nunatsiavut, Labrador, the world’s most southerly Inuit community, which achieved self-government in 2005. SakKijâjuk, in the Nunatsiavut dialect of Inuktitut, literally means “to be visible.” Along with an accompanying exhibition, curated by Igloliorte, the project brings together the diverse works of 47 Nunatsiavummiut artists and craftspeople.

The project spans four generations of Nunatsiavut artists—Elders, Trailblazers, Fire Keepers, and The Next Generation. “I really felt strongly that there was a conversation happening between generations,” says Igloliorte, who was born in Happy Valley Goose Bay, the exhibition’s first stop on its national tour. And while there’s a tendency to use words like “traditional” and “contemporary” to distinguish artists, she says it’s important to recognize how intergenerational connections frame and influence Inuit art.

“I think of traditions—that being the thing passed down through generations, and knowledge of the land—as living traditions.” For instance, the project features the photography of James Andersen, an influential artist included in the Elders section, who documented the community of Makkovik for over five decades. While photography is an art often associated with contemporary media, Igloliorte points to how it was one of the ways Andersen chronicled the long and intimate history of life in the Labrador coast as far back as before 1949, when the Newfoundland government joined Confederation and refused to submit to federal jurisdiction over its Aboriginal peoples.

The lack of institutional support and acknowledgement from the Canadian government, in contrast to the rest of the country, left Labrador Inuit artists out of the developments of the modern Inuit Arts movement beginning in the late 1940s. Igloliorte’s book recognizes the stories and cultural contributions of a group that has long been absent from the history of Canadian Inuit art as a result. “We don’t have many exhibition venues in Labrador so it’s very hard for artists to get the word out about their work, and a book is forever,” she says.

The exhibition. Photo courtesy of SakKijâjuk

The work of artists showcased are inspired by materials that “come from the land,” like stone carvings, woodwork, and sealskin. But many works in the exhibition also “transgress those boundaries.” These include ceramics, paintings, and digital photographs.

Igloliorte says it’s also important to challenge and broaden the way people categorize Inuit art. “What’s distinct about Nunatsiavut is that it tells us the kind of things that Inuit make when they don’t have access to the art market. It proves that Inuit are still prolific, creative, do beautiful work, continue to pass traditions down to families, and all the other things we think are important to Inuit art.”

In spite of the historical absence of the works and stories of Labrador Inuit artists, Igloliorte says she hopes their voices will continue to be heard beyond the region.

“I want artists to continue to be included, thought about and represented… I just want it to grow.”

Abbie Ootova and Linnea Swan workshopping "Night" in Pond Inlet, Nunavut. Photo courtesy Human Cargo.

For a playwright from Toronto, creating a play about Canada’s North is a daunting task. How do you talk about a culture that, though Canadian, is as foreign as one from the other side of the world? How do you approach difficult issues like suicide when you’re not just an outsider, but also a member of a majority that has too often ignored aboriginal concerns?

These were the questions Christopher Morris, artistic director of the theatre company Human Cargo, had to navigate when working on Night, a play that explores life in the Arctic and the intersection of north and south.

Morris began working on Night seven years ago when he first visited Pond Inlet, a hamlet of fewer than 1,500 people at the north end of Baffin Island. He spent a month there getting to know the community. He didn’t have a script or even a story in mind, just an idea for a play about the effects the dark Arctic winter has on the people who live within it. “It was a steep learning curve,” recalls Morris.

Morris would visit Pond Inlet six more times. He brought other actors from the South with him to work with local Inuk actors. To discover material for the play, the group used theatre games, improvisations, and just talked about their own experiences. “It was a very wide-open process,” says Morris.

Many of those personal experiences informed the material. During the run of the play’s second workshop, a youth in Pond Inlet committed suicide. Two days later, in Iqaluit, a cousin of Abbie Ootova, one of Night’s Inuk actors, also took his own life. “It was pretty intense,” reflects Morris. “It affected the community. It affected the group.” Suicide became a central issue in the play. By the third workshop, Morris had a potential story with characters. Returning to the South, he felt comfortable enough with the material to put pen to paper.

Still, he does not pretend to fully understand the north, nor its complicated relationship with the south. “I don’t know what the right steps forward are,” says Morris. “We’re all living with the effects of our shared history, so what do we do?”

Night opens at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on January 4, before touring the north.