Pitseolak Ashoona

Pitseolak Ashoona (Template:Circa – May 28, 1983<ref name=NGC/>) was a Canadian Inuk artist admired for her prolific body of work. She was also a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Biography

Pitseolak was born to Timungiak and Oootochie on Nottingham Island in the Northwest Territories, now Nunavut. Her name means "sea pigeon" in Inuktitut.<ref name=NGC>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> She grew up in the traditional life of her people, with food dependent on hunting and gathering. Her culture relied on angakuit.

In 1922 (or 1923), Pitseolak married Ashoona, a hunter, in the Foxe Peninsula of Baffin Island.<ref name=CWAHI>Template:Cite web</ref> They had 17 children, though only six (Namoonie, Qaqaq, Kumwartok, Kiugak, Napachie, and Ottochie) lived with Pitseolak until adulthood. Some died in childhood, and others were adopted out according to custom, and raised by other Inuit families.<ref name=Lalonde>Template:Cite web</ref>

After her husband died at the age of 40 from a viral sickness, Pitseolak raised four of the children, Kumwartok, Qaqaq, Kiawak or Kiugak, and daughter Napachie Pootoogook, herself.Template:Citation needed Years of hardship followed the death of Ashoona, which occurred sometime in the early to mid 1940s. He died in the early years of the Second World War, a time of decline in the market for furs.<ref name=Lalonde/>

Over time the loss of Ashoona led Pitseolak to become an artist. Making prints eased her loneliness and she described her art as what made her "the happiest since he died". Pitseolak's artwork later enabled her to support her family. Though her art arose from painful circumstances, it expressed mostly positive memories and experiences. As Christine Lalonde notes in Pitseolak Ashoona: Life & Work: "scenes of deprivation and suffering almost never appear in her drawings, though certain images convey sadness and longing" about the passing of Ashoona.<ref name=Lalonde/>

Pitseolak is recognized as one of the first Inuit artists to create autobiographical works. Her art contained images of traditional Inuit life and contributed to the establishment of a modern Inuit art form, one that transmitted traditional knowledge and values while at the same time achieving worldwide popular and commercial success.<ref name=Lalonde/>

Pitseolak died on May 28, 1983, in Cape Dorset now Kinngait. She was survived by a large family of artists, including:

• Napatchie Pootoogook, daughter, graphic artist<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Annie Pootoogook, (1969–2016), artist; granddaughter<ref name=":2" />
• Qaqaq Ashoona ("Kaka") (1928–1996), elder son and sculptor<ref name=Routledge>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
  • Ohitok, sculptor – grandson
• Kiugak Ashoona (1933–2014), son and sculptor<ref name="Routledge2">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
  • Shuvinai Ashoona, (born 1961) artist, granddaughter<ref name=":2" />
• Kumwartok Ashoona, son and sculptor<ref name=Routledge/>

Artistic career

Pitseolak Ashoona was one of the first artists in the 1960s to make drawings for the print studio in Cape Dorset. She was a self-taught artist, who worked out solutions to artistic problems through what Lalonde described as "a self directed-program of repetitious drawing".<ref name=Lalonde/>

Initially Pitseolak worked sewing and embroidering goods for sale as part of the arts and crafts program. It was initiated by the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources as a way for Inuit to earn money. It was introduced by James Archibald Houston and Alma Houston at Cape Dorset in 1956.<ref name=Lalonde/> Upon seeing the work of her cousin Kiakshuk (1886–1966), who was part of the Cape Dorset graphic studio, Pitseolak decided to take up drawing. Her early work was well received and she soon became one of the most popular artists among those creating images for the Cape Dorset print collection.<ref name=Lalonde/>

First working with graphite pencil, Pitseolak would later move on to coloured pencil and felt-tip pens. Lalonde said these became her favoured medium because their "rich and vibrant colours" best expressed "the joyfulness that characterizes her work".<ref name=Lalonde/>

Pitseolak's cousin, Kiakshuk, and Houston both inspired her to try her hand at drawing. She also worked on copper plates, but did not enjoy this technique.

In the last two decades of her life, from 1960 onwards, she produced a collection of more than 7,000 images, 233 of which were created as prints in her Cape Dorset Collection.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> She said these illustrated life pre-contact, "the things we did long ago before there were many white men."<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref name=":1" />

Her artwork focuses on both daily life and legends, or Taleelayu. Pitseolak was inspired by other artists in her community who started before her, saying: "I don't know who did the first print, but Kiakshuk, Niviaksiak, Oshawetok and Tudlik were all drawing at the beginning. I liked the first prints ... because they were truly Eskimo."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Pitseolak was accepted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1974 and was awarded the Order of Canada in 1977 for her work.

Pitseolak found prints to be the most challenging, as she said in Dorothy Harley Eber's book Pitseolak: Pictures of My Life; "To make prints is not easy. You must think first and this is hard to do. But I am happy doing the prints."<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Though not active as a printmaker, Pitseolak experimented with drawing directly on copper plates and, to a lesser degree, lithographic stones.<ref name=Lalonde/>

In 1973 she narrated her story in the National Film Board's animated documentary Pictures out of My Life, directed by Bozenna Heczko and based on interviews from Eber's book.<ref name=Eber2>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref name=NFB>Template:Cite web</ref> Pitseolak was also featured on a stamp, issued on March 8, 1993, and designed by Heather J. Cooper, in commemoration of International Women's Day.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Pitseolak's work has been featured in exhibitions at Canadian museums, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Canadian museum of civilizations, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 1975 she had a retrospective at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., organized by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.<ref name=":0" />

Legacy

In 2020, Ashoona was one of eight finalists for the person to be depicted on $5 polymer bills in Canada.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Further reading

• Lalonde, Christine. Pitseolak Ashoona: Life & Work. Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2015. Template:ISBN