Storybook workshop energizes Ivujivik women

Mary Paningajak Alaku poses front of a drawing that she is in the process of transforming into a print. Paningajak Alaku participated in a 16-day storybook-making workshop in Ivujivik in March, where local women illustrated elders’ stories. (PHOTO BY GILLES BOUTIN)

Ivujivik artist Mary Paningajak Alaku works on a linocut print at a March storybook making workshop. (PHOTO BY GILLES BOUTIN)

“Everyone loves a story,” says Kathryn Delaney, a Montreal-based visual artist and printmaker, “and everyone has one.”

And few cultures appreciate the art of storytelling as much as the Inuit culture, which has passed its history down to future generations that way, she said.

In March, Delaney helped teach a 16-day storybook-making workshop in an empty house in Ivujivik that was converted into an artists’ studio.

Delaney and about a dozen participants, all women, illustrated stories told by local elders Mary Mangiuk and Pita Kristensen.

They were personal stories from the elders’ youth, some about Inuit wrestling and other games they used to play, and many about survival on the land.

One told the tale of a young woman in a skin boat that sunk off the coast of Ivujivik many decades ago. This woman and the other passengers miraculously survived by floating back to the shoreline on avataqs.

The participants in the workshop, called Visual Stories, hope to showcase their work to a wider audience one day.

The group is looking around for money to compile a collection of stories and illustrations from the recent workshop into a book, which Avataq Cultural Institute could then publish.

“There are so many rich stories that aren’t told because storytelling isn’t practiced as much,” Delaney said.

Delaney is familiar with Inuit story-telling; she worked as an art teacher in Inukjuak in 2003.

There, Delaney was also a member of the local women’s hockey team.

She wrote about her experience and that writing went on to form the basis of the APTN television series The Uluit.

Delaney was hired by Makivik Corp. in 2009 to design and teach a storybook making workshop. That’s where she met Qumaq Mangiuk Iyaituk, a budding artist from Ivujivik.

“We kind of hit it off, she was a really good leader,” Delaney said.

The two teamed up to apply for a Nunavik arts grant to host the Ivujivik workship, which was held March 10 to 26.

“I’ve always been an artist, but I was too shy to say it before,” said Iyaituk, the project leader. “But I’m very much interested in keeping my culture –I don’t want it to fade, what we had.”

Inuit elders give youth a sense of what life was like, Iyaituk said. Then the group’s ink drawings, water colours and prints help bring that story to life.

“We listened to the stories, and the important parts came to mind,” Iyaituk said of the storybook process. “And we just started drawing what they said.”

The group learned two types of printmaking as well as stencilling.

Although many of the women had practiced an art form before, they grew more confident as artists as the workshop progressed, Iyaituk said. Many emerged with the ability to see themselves as independent artists.

“Once they started to see what was going on, their work (reflected) what they learned, and it was beautiful,” Iyaituk said. “Now I want people to see our drawings and paintings.

“I want to show my life… and pass this on to our children and grandchildren.”

If Avataq agrees to publish their work, Iyaituk hopes to see the storybooks used as a tool in Nunavik classrooms –and for southerners to learn more about the North.

The workshop also made Iyaituk and her colleagues realize the value of having a permanent art studio in Ivujivik for young and old to access.

The group put in a request through their local Makivik Corp. representative for money to build such a facility. Meanwhile, the municipality has offered a temporary space to local artists.

Inuit women are often encouraged to do handicrafts but the “fine arts” aspect hasn’t been developed, Delaney said.

That, she says, is probably due to a lack of venue, materials and instruction available to Nunavik communities.

Delaney thinks that art studios could help tap into the region’s talent, which she says is “world-class.”

“Creativity abounds in the culture and it hasn’t had the opportunity to develop over the last 30 years,” she said. “It’s just starting to happen.”

This stencil print and ink drawing was produced during a March workshop called Visual Stories in Ivujivik. (PHOTO BY GILLES BOUTIN)