Captured in time

MIRIAM HILL

A small piece of history was on display during ICC, in an exhibit depicting Nunavik archeology and genealogy

Kuujjuaq’s new convention centre was transformed last week into a mini-museum housing an exhibit presented by the Avataq Cultural Institute.

The institute was created in 1980 with a mandate to protect and promote Inuit language and culture in Nunavik.

The exhibit, Kuujjuatuqaq 1882-1884 / Kuujjuaq c. 1968, pulled together artifacts and photographs from around Nunavik and showed a link between Inuit of the 19th century and today.

Louis Gagnon, a full-time curator for Avataq based in Quebec City, spent a week in Kuujjuaq setting up the exhibit he co-curated with Joshua Sivuarapik. Gagnon said it was a historic project for museology in Nunavik.

An Avataq kiosk, with banners showing examples of published posters, was one of three parts of the exhibit. The kiosk included a table of traditional games, and a computer demonstration of some of Avataq’s activities.

“It was about archaeology and genealogy,” Gagnon said.

The curators also selected items from other communities, an amauti from Inukjuak, and three other artifacts from Purvirnituq.

Last spring Gagnon removed 300 artifacts from the Anglican Church in Kuujjuarapik. Three dolls, two women and a hunter with a very long whip, from the site were also on display, complete with caribou fur clothing.

“They are nicely carved, wonderful pieces, small ones but very, very nice,” he said. The pieces probably date from the 1940s or 1950s. “They are in pretty good condition considering they weren’t cared for very well.”

The second segment of the exhibit was a collection of 65 black and white photographs taken by a Mr. Corcoran (his first name isn’t known) in 1968 while he was working on a project for anthropologist Bernard Saladin d’Anglure. Gagnon obtained the negatives of the photographs and had the prints enlarged.

“They are great pictures because they were made in a very systematic way, so every single family in Kuujjuaq had their picture taken. We have a full portrait of the community at that time,” he said. “People were able to make links to the exhibit.”

As the exhibit space was relatively small, the photographs were mounted on zig-zag-style screens and while the exhibit is no longer on display, the photographs will remain, Gagnon said, as they were made for the community.

Community members visited the exhibit and could see pictures of themselves as children, or pictures of their relatives in younger years.

The third part of the exhibition was 17 Inuit artifacts borrowed from the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The objects came from the Lucien M. Turner Collection. Turner collected photos, observations and artifacts from the Fort Chimo area in the mid- to late 1800s.

A book was made of the collection, including the artifacts loaned to Kuujjuaq.

“I think, for the people of Kuujjuaq, it was more exciting to see their relatives in the photographs,” Gagnon said.

The pieces collected by Turner 120 years ago were in very good condition, he said.

“We put on display the very rare and unusual things Turner collected because he was mainly collecting daily used artifacts,” Gagnon said.

From the collection came a woman’s amulet with four faces, “imagine a cube,” he said, and a string made of leather for it to hang from.

“It was a charm used by a lady who had arthritis and other health problems. This brought better health for her,” he said. “[Turner] had to trade a lot before getting the piece because she didn’t want to be separated from it.”

There were also examples of kamiit used as ice shoes, with “treads” on the bottom of the boots, sewn on in leather so the wearer wouldn’t slip.

“It was an ingenious thing,” Gagnon said.

Ice goggles and earlier examples of dolls made from caribou fur and muskox fur were shipped with the other artifacts in specially designed containers filled with foam that had spaces cut for the pieces. There were even indicators on the box that showed if it was lifted at an improper angle or shocked.

“Even the Plexiglas cases are made of UV-proof Plexiglas,” Gagnon said. “Before cutting it is worth $500 a piece.”

Funding for the project came from Avataq, the community of Kuujjuaq, the Kativik Regional Government, Makivik and First Air.

But the significance of the artifacts and the experience it gave to those working on the exhibit in Kuujjuaq, Gagnon said, was priceless.