Ottawa Inuit mourn Pootoogook, demand help for the homeless

Nine people walked to the alter at St. Paul’s Eastern United Church in Ottawa Oct. 13 to sob and tell stories about Annie Pootoogook, a Cape Dorset-born artist who was found dead in Ottawa Sept. 19. She was 46. Her memorial drew about 100 family, friends and reporters. (PHOTO BY COURTNEY EDGAR)

Harrowing sobs of mourning echoed through St. Paul’s Eastern United Church Oct. 13 during Annie Pootoogook’s memorial in Ottawa, before the memorial got underway.

Pootoogook’s cousin Kilatja Simeonie cried deeply throughout the service, hunched over and gasping. Several other friends and family members wept with her, red-eyed, arms around Simeonie’s shoulders, comforting and taking comfort from each other.

At the end of the memorial, her family members huddled in a circle at the front of the room near two photographs of Pootoogook on the altar. They just cried and held each other there.

One day after Pootoogook’s funeral in her hometown of Cape Dorset, nearly 100 people gathered at St. Paul’s to celebrate the short life of the Inuit artist.

Pootoogook was found dead Sept. 19 on the shores of the Rideau River in downtown Ottawa.

Though Ottawa police have said there were “suspicious elements” surrounding her death, they have laid no charges, nor have they released a cause of death. Pootoogook was 46.

Family, friends and community members said their goodbyes to Pootoogook in the city she had called home for the last 10 years—a city which they claim she wanted to leave. In the months before her death, they say she wanted to go home to Kinngait but didn’t have the money.

July Papatsie performed a drum dance in her honour, while nine other speakers shared fond memories of Pootoogook and the impact her death has had, both on them personally and on the community.

At one point, Sytukie Joanasi, who also goes by Joamie, a community worker and cousin of Pootoogook, asked that everyone in the room hold hands and, as they did, he spoke.

Joanasie said that the challenges surrounding missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada can only be overcome through community and teamwork—that with each new case, each suspicious death that remains unsolved, the community will gather and hold hands.

“She is not silenced,” Joanasie said. “She has a great voice.”

Mary Akavak, a friend of Pootoogook, was one of the last people to see Pootoogook alive—just two days before her body was found. After a few other speakers had shared lengthy stories in Inuktitut, Akavak spoke earnestly in English, bridging the translation divide for non-Inuktitut speaking friends and reporters.

“I think there should be more done,” Akavak said, as she cried at the podium. “The others didn’t say it in English. But there needs to be more help for those who are homeless. For those who don’t know what to do.”

She added that she usually met Pootoogook at the Shepherds of Good Hope shelter in Ottawa’s Byward Market, “when she was fleeing” and that Pootoogook was always grateful.

“This is our home and yet we are homeless on our own lands,” said Jocelyn Wabano-Iahtail, an advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women. “We need to stand up for all the Annies. I want you to go look at her art work. Her art work speaks volumes.”

“The last time I saw Annie I was at a pow-wow and I asked her if she had a steady place to stay,” said Joanasie, Yesterday, he said, she found a permanent home, back in Cape Dorset.

“No longer will she be kicked out. No longer will she live in fear.”

Sgt. Bruce Pirt of the Ottawa Police Service was contacted for an update on the investigation into Pootoogook’s death and a separate investigation into an OPS member, Sgt. Chris Hrnchiar, allegedly making racist remarks online about Pootoogook’s death, and about Aboriginal people in general. Pirt did not return our calls.