Inuit elders see their lives reflected in mural
Artwork at Isaruit conference created by artists in Iqaluit, Arctic Bay and Ottawa
Attendees view a two-metre by nine-metre Inuit community mural at Isaruit Inuit Arts’ Ata! Inuit Creators’ Conference in Ottawa on March 25. The work, created by roughly 60 artists from Iqaluit and Arctic Bay, was completed over three months in August 2023. (Photo by Nehaa Bimal)
When the Louvre Museum in Paris offered to buy an Inuit community mural, Ben Illauq said he immediately knew his answer.
“Our culture and who we are is not for sale,” said Illauq, the program co-ordinator at Isaruit Inuit Arts in Ottawa, recalling the venerable art institution’s overture.
The two-metre by nine-metre Mural of Reconciliation reflects the imagery and ideas of 60 Inuit artists in Ottawa, Arctic Bay and Iqaluit, where it had travelled over a three-month period in 2023. And it is still a work in progress.
The mural is scheduled to go to Clyde River later this year so elders there can add to it.
The mural was presented as a surprise Wednesday to elders at Isaruit’s Ata! Inuit Creators’ Conference in Ottawa.
Regilee Piungnituq from Clyde River told people at the event she had “never seen so much of her life displayed behind her.”
The mural portrays key aspects of Inuit life, including traditional hunting scenes and colonial history. One section depicts the Canadian Coast Guard Ship C.D. Howe, which was involved in the 1953 High Arctic relocations of Inuit from Inukjuak to Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord.
“A picture is worth a thousand words, but when you go into the mural setting, it becomes a million words,” said Illauq.
A close-up of the Inuit community mural at the Ata! Inuit Language and Creators’ Conference in Ottawa on Thursday. (Photo by Nehaa Bimal)
“We’re trying to showcase to the world that we have our own culture, we have our own beliefs, and that’s the backbone of the mural.”
Darker details are infused with baleen, a bristle-like material harvested from whale jaws, and the lighter sections are sprinkled with ivory dust.
The mural project began 2022 when Dr. Martin Nweeia, a narwhal researcher affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard University, contacted Illauq about creating a large-scale piece of Inuit art.
Work began at the Ottawa Art Gallery in 2022, where the initial background was created.
From there, in July 2023, Nweeia and American artist Joe Rohde took the mural to Iqaluit and Arctic Bay, where residents were invited to add imagery and symbols to it.
The mural was displayed at UNESCO headquarters in Paris in November 2023 before returning to Ottawa right after.
“We’re basically just the guardians for it right now,” Illauq said.
“It doesn’t belong to Isaruit. It doesn’t belong to a specific community. It belongs to Inuit as a whole.”
Several outlined sections remain to be completed, including the addition of beluga pieces, sealskin, part of a walrus skull and a polar bear skin, along with traditional hunting tools.
Illauq said he also hopes to record elders discussing different aspects of the work, to ensure the mural can be presented with full cultural context.
“Our elders need to showcase what real reconciliation is, and they need to have a chance to have a voice in what it represents,” Illauq said.
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