Award-winning Mary Paningajak sees art as a way to heal

Mary Paningajak grew up surrounded by art in Ivujivik.

She watched her father, Tivi Paningajak, make prints and sculptures, and she remembers visiting his studio.

“One time, he let me make a screen print,” Paningajak said in an interview Tuesday at Kuuujjuaq’s adult education centre.

She was nine years old when she first started making art and spent years learning different tools and techniques.

Now 65, her artistic practice has earned her northern Quebec’s artist of the year award from Quebec’s Council of Arts and Letters, or the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. It’s a $15,000 prize that recognizes her contribution to Nunavik’s arts community.

The council’s director general Véronique Fontaine presented the award on Nov. 8, during the opening night of the Path to 100 festival in Kuujjuaq, which commemorates the anniversary of the signing of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement.

“I was so surprised to hear that I won because there are lots of artists in Canada and Quebec. I was thinking, how come they chose me?” Paningajak said in an interview.

Mary Paningajak demonstrates one of the printmaking techniques she taught participants at the Path to 100 festival, using a spoon to press an inked design onto paper in Kuujjuaq on Nov. 10. (Photo by Dominique Gené)

Working in printmaking, graphic arts and sculpture, she draws inspiration from Inuit history, personal experience and her community.

Pursuing art in Ivujivik, a community of about 412 people on the northern tip of the Ungava peninsula, comes with practical challenges.

“We only have one store, and it doesn’t have any art supplies inside. It’s hard to get materials because we have to travel south by plane or ask people to order things for us,” she said.

Despite those challenges, Paningajak’s work has been exhibited across Canada.

Sikutsajaq, a solo exhibition, inaugurated the Centre Sanaaq in Montreal in May 2025. 

Sharing her knowledge of art is also an important part of her work.

During Path to 100, Paningajak led a printmaking workshop, showing participants how to create prints using rubber plates. Participants drew designs onto the plates, carved them into the rubber and rolled ink over the raised surfaces before transferring their images onto paper.

“I hope that what they learned, maybe some of them will be interested in making more art,” Paningajak said.

The festival invited artists and community members to reflect on Nunavik’s past and imagine what the next 50 years could look like.

For Paningajak, that future includes giving younger generations opportunities to express themselves and find healing through art.

She said making art has helped her work through trauma from past abuse.

“It was important to me to heal through the paper, and I want them to heal in any way they can in the future,” she said.