Kinngait artist brings Inuit legend to Sydney Opera House

One of Ningiukulu Teevee’s animated illustrations of Inuit legend The Owl and the Raven is projected on the sails of the Sydney Opera House as part of the First Nations show Badu Gili: Story Keepers. (Photo by Mark Pokorny)

Kinngait artist Ningiukulu Teevee is sharing the story of The Owl and the Raven with audiences on the sails of the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

Teevee’s illustrations will be projected on the sails of the opera house as part of its nightly First Nations show, Badu Gili: Story Keepers, starting Dec. 17.

The six-minute animation, which was done by Sydney-based agency Vandal, pairs Teevee’s work with the paintings of Gooniyandi elder Mervyn Street.

The Gooniyandi are an Indigenous people from the Kimberley region of western Australia.

“It’s amazing that both our works could be one, like they said, from two hemispheres,” said Teevee in an interview over Facebook Messenger.

The projections of their work will run nightly on the opera house sails — the shell-shaped structures that make up the roof — throughout 2026.

When Teevee heard her work would be projected on this iconic landmark, she said she felt “disbelief and then it was all excitement.”

She travelled to Australia on Nov. 20 with her brother for a preview of the projection.

Teevee said the long flight to Australia was scary, as she’d “never been on a plane that’s going to fly over 13 hours,” but the trip was also a connection to her late father, Joanasie Salamonie.

Salamonie, who died in 1998, worked as an artist and helped incorporate the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative. He visited Australia in the late 1960s and was a pioneer in Inuit film and television.

Teevee’s animation brings to life the Inuit legend The Owl and the Raven, a story Teevee first heard as a child told by an elder.

“Through this animation, I explore how Raven’s restless spirit and Owl’s calm wisdom reflect human nature and the lessons found in our traditions,” she said in a media release.

Teevee said the story has stayed with her since childhood.

“Only a few can tell [these stories] so well, the songs and ayayas. Keeping the stories alive is important to keep our language,” she said, crediting Kinngait artist and storyteller Mialia Jaw, who died in 2006, as an inspiration for her images.

The projection is a collaboration between the Sydney Opera House, the Biennale of Sydney and Paris-based institution Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.

This is not the first time Teevee’s work has been shown internationally. In 2024, 26 of her pieces were featured in the exhibit Stories from Kinngait at Canada House in London, England.

Teevee also has 47 pieces in the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq collection and in 2023 won the Inuit Art Foundation’s biennial Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award, which includes a solo exhibition at the gallery this fall.

Teevee said she’s thankful “for the interest of the Australian people that put the works together and brought them to life, and the hospitality that was shown.”

“And last but not least, to the one I love who said to carry on, we miss you,” she said.