Arctic Talent: The art of athletics

Art and athletics are Blair Boiteau’s passions. She found a way to pair them together.

The Chesterfield Inlet seamstress and former Arctic sports competitor designs decorative and practical sealskin targets.

These sealskin targets for Arctic sports, such as the Alaskan high kick, swing kick, and two-foot high kick are the creations of Chesterfield Inlet artist Blair Boiteau. Boiteau competed in Arctic sports throughout her youth at the Kivalliq Summer Games and Arctic Winter Games. (Photo courtesy of Blair Boiteau)

The targets are used in events such as the two-foot high kick, the one-arm reach, and the Alaskan high kick, together called Arctic sports and also referred to as Inuit games.

“I used to enjoy kicking those targets and I love keeping the Arctic sports alive, so I use my art to share that,” Boiteau said.

A bit smaller than a softball, the targets are fashioned from shaped strips of sealskin and leather sewn into a tight sphere. Boiteau adds leather designs showing the silhouette of Arctic sports athletes in action, and other shapes.

She has sold the targets to customers across Nunavut.

The targets are used in competition at the Arctic Winter Games and in the recently revived Kivalliq Summer Games.

Boiteau helped coach the athletes during the first Kivalliq Summer Games to be held in 12 years, from Aug. 14 to 16 in the Chesterfield Inlet community hall. The event brought about two dozen athletes from Arviat, Baker Lake, Rankin Inlet and Whale Cove to Chesterfield Inlet to compete in 14 traditional Inuit competitions.

Boiteau’s 14-year-old daughter, Ashlynn Boiteau, was one of those athletes.

Ashlynn earned nine medals throughout the weekend.

Sports is not all mother and daughter share in common. Ashlynn is creative as well as athletic, and is beginning to draw, her mom said.

Boiteau described her path from sports to art during a recent interview.

Winter 1993: Boiteau learns to sew in junior high at Victor Sammurtok School, back when several cultural studies teachers worked there.

As a student she makes parkas, mitts, and kamikpak – cozy duffle socks. She keeps sewing into adulthood.

”I’m always learning,” she said.

Winter 1993-Summer 2012: Boiteau competes in Arctic sports in every Arctic Winter Games and Kivalliq Summer Games except for 2010, when she studied at Ottawa’s Nunavut Arctic College.

Summer 2019: Boiteau creates her first tapestry. It depicts a woman facing the horizon with a bright sun above. Other symbols include fish, ulus, and a bird in flight.

“It’s to show that the future is bright,” she said.

It goes on permanent display at Rankin Inlet’s Sakku Office Building.

Winter 2023: Boiteau wins her first logo-design contest. Her winning logo is adopted by the Foxe Basin Kivalliq North Sapujiyiit Society. The Inuit-led organization provides environmental monitoring services for the hamlets of Chesterfield Inlet, Coral Harbour, and Naujaat.

Summer 2024: Boiteau wins a second logo contest, for the Inuit Association of Manitoba.

The logo features an ulu framed by a drum.

Summer 2025: Boiteau wins another logo-design contest, this one for a local daycare. She also names the business, Iglu Tots. The logo includes two children with an igloo between them.

”It’s really cute,” said daycare staff member Francine Alogut.

”It’s nice and colourful.”

Spring 2026: One of Boiteau’s sealskin targets goes on display in the permanent art exhibit in the Chesterfield Inlet airport terminal.

Talent Tip: “We learn from our mistakes,” she said. “Just keep trying.”