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Luke Anowtalik
Born1932[1]
Ennadai Lake[1]
Died2006[1]
Arviat,Nunavut[1]
NationalityCanadian
Educationtraditional
Known forSculptor[1]
MovementFirst generation Inuit artists
SpouseMary Ayaq[1]

Luke Anowtalik, Anoteelik, Luke Anautalik CM (1932–2006); Inuktitut syllabics:ᐊᓇ) was an Inuit artist who was known for his small sculptures carved in antler in stone.

Anautalik was born in the Ennadai Lake in what is now known as the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut and was raised in the traditional Ihalmiut lifestyle. He began carving commercially in Whale Cove and continued in Arviat and is considered to be one of the founders of contemporary Inuit art in the region then known as the Keewatin.[1] His generation is considered to be the first generation of Inuit artists and the last to grow up with the traditional lifestyles that date back to before 3000 BP.[2] Anowtalik has work in major galleries including the National Gallery of Canada, the Marion Scott Gallery and Spirit Wrestler gallery in Vancouver, Inuit Galerie in Mannheim.

Early years

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Anowtalik was born in 1932 in the the Ennadai Lake area in where he began carving his small swivel figures in caribou antler and sold his first carvings to Ministry of Transport employees working there.[3][4] The federal government relocated him first to Whale Cove, then to Arviat where he continued carving often using the hard stone that was available there. His wife Mary Ayaq Anowtalik [5]is also a well-known carver.[6][7]

Starvation

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In 1947, when Anautalik was about fifteen years old his entire village died of starvation leaving him and Rita, his five-year-old sister as sole survivors. Charles Schweder, a Metis trader, found them and they joined him at his camp.[1][8] In 1947 Farley Mowat was hired as field technician for the the legendary American naturalist, Francis Harper in his study of the barren-ground caribou in the Nueltin Lake in what is now Nunavut's Kivalliq Region[9] resulting in the publication of Harper's book entitled Caribou of Keewatin.[10] Charles Schweder, his son Mike and Luke and Rita Anowtalik were also on this field trip were depicted in his book.[10] Due to a clash of personalities, Mowat undertook his own explorations. "Harper later extracted a promise that neither would mention the other in their respective future writing, a promise also extracted from Mowat by later field companions for their lifetimes."[11]

Relocations

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He later joined another group of Ihalmiut who had also survived this period where many Inuit perished.[1] But in the late 1950s, the Canadian federal government relocated the moved the group first to Whale Cove and then Arviat on the western shore of Hudson Bay.[1] In 1956 Luke and Mary Anowtalik were featured and photographed in Life magazine.

The Ihalmiut were relocated by the Government of Canada in May 1957 to Henik Lake.[12] The caribou were scarce in the Henik Lake area and starvation soon set in.[13] They were later relocated again to Whale Cove, Nunavut.[14][15]

  • 1949, Ihalmiut were relocated from Ennadai Lake to Nueltin Lake, but the relocation did not last as hunting was poor, precipitating the band's return to Ennadai Lake. The Canadian Army Signal Corps built the radio station at Ennadai Lake in 1949.[16]
  • May 1957, Ihalmiut were airlifted from Ennadai Lake to Henik Lake, 45 miles from the Padlei trading post, a distance considered reasonable by the Government of Canada. Many Ihalmiut starved.[12]
  • Later in 1957, Ihalmiut were moved to Whale Cove where some began carving figurines for income.[3][4]
  • In 1958, 29 Ihalmiut went to Padlei because of its trading post, 39 were at Yathkyed Lake, and the majority were brought to Eskimo Point by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.[12]
  • In 1959, the Padlei trading post closed, and the remaining Ihalmiut was relocated.[12] Mowat's 1959 revisit to the Ihalmiut inspired the follow-up book "Walking on the Land", a depiction of the effects of the federal government, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Catholic missionaries, and big business upon the people.[17]

The relocations to Nueltin Lake and Henik Lake were complete failures. "The Ahiarmiut themselves maintain that Ennadai Lake was an excellent hunting area and failed to understand why they were relocated."[18]

In 7 September 1985 36 elders returned to Ennadai Lake from where they had been relocated in the 1950s. [19]

In an article in Inuktituk magazine David Serkoak,[20] who was a child at the time of the relocation, attempted to understand the reasoning behind decision to move the Ahiarmiut.

"[S]tarvation was approaching us, although some of the people at Ennadai lake were living quite well. Hard times came once in a while, but nothing very drastic. I don't believe that many people had much advance warning that they would have to move. Some of them found out the same day they were to be moved. When we returned to Ennadai recently, we stopped at a traditional camping spot where, the elders told us, a vehicle came to pick us up one day-we were told we had to move. The people had to pack so quickly that many articles were left behind. We were moved to the Henik lake area. That was when the real trouble hit us. I guess it was new for some of the people. The hardest time for them was between Ennadai lake and the coast. I think the idea behind the move had something to do with a change in caribou migration patterns, which meant that the caribou were farther away from the Ennadai lake area. I think the government wanted the Ihalmiut to move to the coast so that we might become fishermen and make ourselves useful."

— Serkoak, 1985

A workshop was held in Arviat in 2003 with Ahiarmiut elders on 'Survival and Angakkuuniq' in which "Ahiarmiut elders Job and Eva Muqyunnik, Luke and Mary Anautalik often reflected on the events that almost fifty years ago had disrupted their lives and still affected them."[21] This was followed by a second workshop in 2006 held at Ennadai Lake with Ahiarmiut originally from Ennadai Lake, including Eva Muqyunnik, Job Muqyunnik, Mary Anautalik, John Aulatjut, Silas Ilungiyajuk, Geena Aulatjut then living in Arviat, Andrew Alikashuak living in Whale Cove, and Mary Whitmore from Churchill. Annie Seewoe and Luke Anautalik from Arviat and David Serkoak from Iqaluit were unable to attend.[21]

Context

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Until 1957, Ennadai Lake was home to Ihalmiutᐃᐦᐊᓪᒥᐅᑦ [ihalmiˈut], Caribou Inuit people.[13] Inland Inuit were also "known as the ("People from Beyond")[17] or Ahiarmiut ("the Out-of-the-Way Dwellers").[22][23][24] The Ahialmiut "subsisted almost entirely on caribou year-round, unlike other Inuit groups that depended at least partially on harvest of animals from the sea."[25]

The ancestors of present day Inuit in the area along with ancestors of the Dene, who later left the area "used the Kazan River during summer for more than 5,000 years, retreating to the treeline or the coast for the rest of the year."[26]

"The ancestors of the Ahialmiut had moved inland from coastal areas in what is now the Kivalliq region of Nunavut. When the Dene joined the fur trade, and stopped following caribou onto the tundra each summer, the Ahialmiut moved farther inland, pushing south to the treeline by about 1850. They spent spring and summer inland, where they intercepted caribou travelling north in the spring, and camped in summer on the calving grounds."[25]

These inland Inuit also lived along the banks of the Kazan River,[27] Little Dubawnt Lake (renamed Kamilikuak),[27] and north of Thlewiaza("Big River")[28]

The Ihalmiut were successful inland hunters. However, they experienced years of famine "when caribou wintered primarily in the southern forest, rather than on the tundra, or when they were unable to cache sufficient food supplies in the fall."[29]

In the early 1990s the Caribou Inuit began trading with Canadians of European descent.[29] They maintained trap lines for white fox along their caribou hunting trails. They continued to depend on the Qamanirjuaq caribou. "But after years of hardship in the late 1940s and 1950s, many people started moving into communities. Government encouraged them to do so to allow their children to attend school, and to have access to medical care at nursing stations."[29]

Ihalmiut were Caribou Inuit, inland-dwelling people in the Barren Lands region whose subsistence centered on hunting caribou.[27]Caribou meat was dried for the winter months.

His sculpture

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His work reflected the relationship between the Ihalmiut and caribou, their source of food, clothing, shelter and tools. He often used antler branches for his sculptures.[1]

"Anowtalik combined images of humans with heads of caribou. He was also well-known for his playful carvings from caribou antler of groups of human figures suspended from antler branches."

— Gerald Kuehl 2002

Luke Anowtalik went on to become well-known for his distinctive carvings of antler and bone that are now in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada.[30] Luke and Mary Anautalik were frequently featured in the Inuit Art Quarterly.[31]

Mary Ayaq Anautalik is also a well-known Inuit sculptor.[1]

He died in August, 2006 in Arviat,Nunavut.

Angakkuq

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"During a workshop in Arviat in 2003, Anautalik, who according to his sister and his wife had been an angakkuq, was carefully manipulating a small insect in his hands. This scene greatly intrigued the Inuit who were watching it. Today shamanism has gone underground and Inuit have adopted Christianity, but qupirruit are still present in Inuit discourses."[32]: 145 

From an Inuit perspective, Qupirriut, are small animals and insects, that can be helping spirits to the angakkuq or shaman when they are used in amulets, predictions and dreams. : 144  Bumblebees or spiders, for example, are all related and connected and are associated with vitality. They can change size and shape, and live in either the land or sea, transforming into other animals and insects. While they may provide life and rejuvenation if respected, they may also be dangerous. They die in winter but are return to life in spring.[32]

Notes

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Citations

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Kuehl, Gerald (2002), "Luke Anowtalik", Portraits of the North, retrieved 2 November 2014
  2. ^ Hessel, Ingo (Winter 1990), "Arviat Stone Sculpture: Born of the Struggle with an Uncompromising Medium", Inuit Art Quarterly: 4–15
  3. ^ a b INAC 1997.
  4. ^ a b Hessel 1990. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHessel1990 (help)
  5. ^ ELCA 2013.
  6. ^ Kuehl 2002. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFKuehl2002 (help)
  7. ^ Hartter 1984.
  8. ^ "Sad life of Inuit mom stirs daughter's outrage", Times Colonist, Victoria, British Columbia, 5 November 2006, retrieved 2 November 2014
  9. ^ Harper 1955.
  10. ^ a b Harper, Francis (21 October 1955), Hall, E. Raymond (ed.), Caribou of Keewatin, Kansas: Museum of Natural Science via Gutenberg Press, p. 164
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference CFN_2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ a b c d Damas 2002.
  13. ^ a b Nunatsiaq 2002.
  14. ^ Tester & Kulchyski 1994, p. 220. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFTesterKulchyski1994 (help)
  15. ^ Tester & Kulchyski 1994, p. 237. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFTesterKulchyski1994 (help)
  16. ^ Marcus 1995, p. 129.
  17. ^ a b Mowat 2001.
  18. ^ Laugrand, Oosten & Serkoak 2006, p. 4/34.
  19. ^ ITK nd.
  20. ^ Serkoak 1985.
  21. ^ a b Laugrand, Oosten & Serkoak 2006.
  22. ^ Issenman 1997.
  23. ^ INAC nd.
  24. ^ NU 2010.
  25. ^ a b BQCMB 2002, p. 27.
  26. ^ Nunavut nd.
  27. ^ a b c Mowat 2004.
  28. ^ Layman 2004.
  29. ^ a b c BQCMB 2002, p. 28.
  30. ^ Luke Anowtalik, Inuit, Arviat, Nunavut Territory, Canada (1932-2006), Vancouver, BC, retrieved 2 November 2014
  31. ^ Inuit Art Quarterly 1991, p. 12.
  32. ^ a b Laugrand & Oosten 2014.

References

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Further reading

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External

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Article from The Canadian Encyclopedia

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Oceanflynn/sandbox/Luke-Anowtalik.
  • "Luke Anowtalik - The Canadian Encyclopedia". {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)


Category:1932 births Category:2006 deaths Category:Canadian Inuit people Category:Inuit sculptors Category:Artists from Nunavut Category:People from Kivalliq Region

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