Ottawa group enraged at treatment of carver

MONTREAL — A celebration commemorating Nunavut’s first birthday in Ottawa a the beginning of the month has enraged Tungasuvvingat Inuit, a community group that provides social services to Inuit in and around Ottawa.

TI’s president, Eva Adams, is furious, because she feels that the government of Nunavut’s liaison office in Ottawa stomped on the rights of an Inuk carver in Ottawa.

She says this carver was asked to exhibit soapstone carvings at an event to be held March 29 at the legal offices of the Gowling, Strathy and Henderson law firm in Ottawa.

“Naturally, the artist was excited about the opportunity to share stories about life as an artist and to describe what each carving portrays,” wrote Adams and several other TI executives in a recent letter of complaint they sent to Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik on Mar. 31.

But TI’s letter says a member of the artist’s family was told only at the last minute that the government of Nunavut had decided the Inuit Art Foundation would represent Nunavut’s Inuit artists instead.

The artist in question had apparently created more than 20 carvings in preparation for the reception and was under the impression that these could be sold or would even be purchased by the Nunavut government at the event.

But the artist, whose identity Adams does not want to reveal, did not get a chance to display her carvings at the reception.

TI’s letter asks Okalik to state where his government stands on supporting Inuit artists who are “so often exploited because of financial hardship, ignorance of southern business practices” and “the lack of truly nonprofit support for one of the greatest entrepreneurial traditions our culture has produced.”

Copies of the letter were also sent to Sen. Willie Adams; Nunavut MP Nancy Karetak- Lindell; Sustainable Development Minister Peter Kilabuk; ITC President Okalik Eegeesiak, Matthew Nukingak of Nunavut Artists Association, Les Cooper, the manager of the Nunavut liaison officer, Gowling, Strathy & Henderson Law Firm and members of the media.

Staff at the Nunavut liaison office in Ottawa declined any comment when contacted by Nunatsiaq News.

Marybelle Mitchell, the executive director of the Inuit Art Foundation, said she had no idea that anyone else had been contacted to display at the reception, and that she is “surprised” by some of the letter’s allegations.

“There’s little we can say about it,” she said. “Our position is that we were contacted by the Nunavut government.”

Mitchell said the foundation considered the reception to be a “useful opportunity” to promote Inuit art, but she said she didn’t see it as an occasion for sell art work.

The foundation, Mitchell emphasized, is a nonprofit organization that tries to be flexible, and which includes all artists.

Those selected by the foundation represented many different artists in Nunavut.

Adams, however, maintains the reception “could have been important” as a way of promoting Inuit artists in Ottawa.

Adams said TI wants to work more closely with Inuit artists in Ottawa and hopes to set up a carving and sewing facility when the centre is able to move to larger premises.