Inuit Artistry Comes to the Chan Centre | The Tyee
I’m no where close (I missed Elisape at the Winnipeg Folk Festival too! *sobs*) but if anyone in Vancouver has the opportunity?
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Jessie Oonark (Inuit, 1906–1985)
palianshow.wordpress.com/2024/03/02/jessie-oonark
#bornonthisday Jessie Oonark, OC RCA
( ᔨᐊᓯ ᐅᓈᖅ; 2 March 1906 – 7 March 1985)
was a prolific and influential Inuit artist of the Utkuhihalingmiut Utkuhiksalingmiut whose wall hangings, prints and drawings are in major collections including the National Gallery of Canada. via Wikipedia
#JessieOonark #ᔨᐊᓯᐅᓈᖅ #Inuit #inuitartist #Utkuhihalingmiut #Utkuhiksalingmiut #hangings #prints #drawings #NationalGallery #Canada #canadianart #indigenous #artherstory #artbywomen #womensart #palianshow #art #womenartists #femaleartist #artist
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Being white-passing is so fucking embarrassing at times any time I mention my indigenous identity I feel like those millennial/gen X women that calls themselves a Cherokee princess for being like 1/80 Native American
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Amarok: The Wolf That Guards the Balance
In Inuit mythology, Amarok (sometimes spelled Amaroq) is a great wolf—vast, solitary, intelligent—who walks the Arctic night as a force of correction rather than chaos.
Amarok does not hunt in packs. He hunts alone. And importantly, he does not hunt indiscriminately.
He hunts those who forget.
Not a Villain, but a Warning
In traditional stories, Amarok targets hunters who wander out unprepared, hunt recklessly, or take more than they need. Those who act with arrogance, isolation, or disrespect toward the land are the ones who draw his attention.
This makes Amarok unusual when compared to many mythic predators. He is not evil. He is not malicious. He does not delight in destruction.
He exists to restore balance.
By killing careless hunters, Amarok protects animal populations from overhunting. He reinforces an unspoken rule: survival requires humility, patience, and respect—for the land, for animals, and for one’s own limits.
[[MORE]]What’s striking about Amarok is what he isn’t. He isn’t a cursed human, like the European werewolf. He isn’t nature as something to be conquered or feared. He is nature as something responsive.
In Inuit worldview, the land is not passive. It observes. It reacts. It remembers.
Amarok embodies that idea. He is the land’s way of saying: pay attention.
The Danger of the Lone Wolf
Amarok himself is solitary, yet he punishes humans who isolate themselves foolishly. The lesson isn’t that solitude is wrong—it’s that isolation without wisdom, preparation, or community is dangerous.
Strength without awareness becomes recklessness. Independence without respect becomes hubris.
Amarok appears where that line is crossed.
A Modern Reading
Seen through a modern or psychological lens, Amarok can be understood as the moment consequences arrive after prolonged disregard—when systems pushed too far finally push back.
Ecologically, he mirrors what happens when balance is ignored. Emotionally, he reflects what happens when we disconnect from our bodies, our limits, or each other. Socially, he warns against believing we can exist without accountability to the whole.
He is not punishment for being human. He is correction for forgetting how to be human well.
Why Amarok Still Matters
In a world that rewards excess, speed, and domination, Amarok offers a different value system:
- Take only what you need
- Respect the systems that sustain you
- Do not mistake entitlement for strength
- Remember that survival is relational, not solitary
Amarok does not ask for worship. He demands awareness.
And perhaps that’s why he endures—not as a monster lurking in the dark, but as a reminder that balance is not optional. It is enforced, one way or another.
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Spoiler alert … probably no longer necessary: Greenland.
Most of the images featuring buildings and large groups of people offer scenes from Nuuk.
As a place located at the edge of everything, the world’s northernmost island is a draw for adventurers looking for challenging environments and close contact with remote largely untouched wilderness. The fifth image after the introductory map is of the Qaleraliq Glacier Camp domo tents set up for those seeking a pristine experience of the fjord and glacier.
Colonialism’s Advance…
Every place has its colonial past, and Greenland’s begins with Erik the Red. The reconstruction of Þjóðhildarkirkja (Thjóðhild Jörundsdóttir’s church) at Qassiarsuk is featured in the tenth image, the chapel Erik’s wife had built for their settlement, the first church in the Americas. The Vinland Map, the final image, survives as a record of an early attempt by the Norse to settle the New World.
The colonization of Greenland did not end with Erik the Red, of course. After being incorporated into the Kingdom of Norway in 1261, Greenland fell under the control of Denmark in 1814 with the signing of the Treaty of Kiel. Norway briefly claimed and occupied ‘Eirik Raudes Land’ (Eastern Greenland) from 1931 through 1933 until the Court of International Justice ruled in favor of Denmark. In response to World War II, the United States then temporarily placed Greenland under its protection for the period spanning 1941-45, when it established airbases there. The 1951 Agreement Between the U.S. and the Kingdom of Denmark Pursuant to the North Atlantic Treaty extended the right of the United States to operate military bases in Greenland on behalf of NATO. The radomes of the Pituffik Space Base, found in the thirteenth image, represent the presence of the military installation of the United States farthest above the Arctic Circle.
Colonialism’s Retreat?
American colonialism has never truly been checked by an outside force, nor has a limitation been placed upon late capitalist corporate expansionism justified by white Christian Manifest Destiny. Yet a trip-wire may wait at the landmass closest to the North Pole. The fourth and sixth images show Greenland’s response to the ‘Donroe Doctrine.’
Around 89% of the Greenlandic population is Inuit. The Inuit goddess Sedna, Mistress of the Sea, resides in the spirit world beneath the sea and is the subject of the mural in the eighth image. The last image before the Vinland Map is of an Inughuit of northwestern Greenland somewhere outside of Qaanaaq preparing to hitch his dogsled.
Changing Times
Climate change has made Greenland more green.
For better or for worse.
While historic Winter Storm Fern is affecting some 200 million or so Americans in the first month of 2026, this was the weather in southern New England as the storm raged:
And this was the weather in southern Greenland:
At a time when the United States (along with some other places) is mistreating and deporting immigrants, some may hope Greenland could use a few more.
For anyone curious what life in Greenland is like:
Interested in Greenland? Here’s What it’s Like to Live There by Amanda Canning (National Geographic)
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“Contract Workers”
2025, Acrylic on Canvas, 45” x 48”.
CW / descriptions of the assault and murder of an Inuk woman, please proceed with caution
In September of 2022, my cousin was assaulted and murdered in Ottawa by her housemate who she had been living with due to difficulty with getting safe housing.
I have been in a cycle of grief ever since, I miss her so dearly but it is a rarity for families to know what happen to their loved ones. I made this to, in someway, bring some awareness to this issue and to reckon with her passing too soon.
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