Mayoreak or Mayureak Ashoona
Woman Sings of Animals

1994
lithograph on paper
21 x 25 in.
2009.12
Gift of the Sharon  K. Patten '66 Estate

Woman Sings of Animals is a beautiful representation of traditional Inuit lithography and represents the importance of animals in Inuit mythology. A female figure is depicted at the center of the piece while two ravens protectively sit on her shoulders. The raven is a creation figure in Inuit mythology, a trickster whose form goes back and forth between human and animal. Ashoona’s piece highlights the importance of such stories and myths in Inuit culture through her representation of ravens upon a woman’s shoulders. Animals play a critical role to Inuit culture living within the Canadian arctic tundra which is reflected by their appearance in such myths and stories. While these stories are told within an oral tradition, the traditional practice of lithography combined with Western artistic methods allowed for the longstanding graphic tradition of Inuit storytelling to be represented visually and distributed widely. In the 1970s there was a rise in interest to preserve Inuktitut, a principal Inuit language, which resulted in a migration of Inuit peoples to Cape Dorset. Kinngait, or Cape Dorset, quickly became the capital of Inuit art for drawing, printmaking, and carving. Mayoreak Ashoona is one of the original artists that migrated to Kinngait and has maintained the rich cultural tradition of Inuit graphic arts.

Sarah Swan-Kloos ‘21
Lasting Legacy 2021

Drawing from the Northern Canadian ecosystem, Mayoreak Ashoona’s print illustrates how Inuit culture is intimately bound to the natural environment. In attempts to preserve inuktitut, the integrity of Inuit identity, in the mid-1970s families moved to outpost camps such as Camp Dorset in the Canadian Arctic. The camps served as a way to return to traditional ways of life independent from qallunaatitut, the way of a white person. The appearance of outpost camps demonstrated an effort to oppose the white man’s savior complex that was enforcing a “civilized life” upon the Inuit. Ashoona, who lived in Camp Dorset for a majority of her life, relied on carving as a channel through which she could express her cultural identity and receive a source of income. Following the introduction of Western artistic methods and concepts, Inuit artists began to modify their longstanding graphic tradition by applying foreign techniques while continuing to use traditional materials such as litho stone, ivory, and musk ox horn. The reverence for animals in Inuit traditions is apparent as the woman featured in the center of the print is amongst the animals. The raven peering above the woman’s arms is a central figure in Inuit myth. The raven shapes the world of the Inuit, possessing the spirit of a human and an animal and disrupting social norms as a genderless trickster. Nature, and the few creatures that live within the Canadian Arctic, play a critical role in Inuit religion and oral traditions. Not only do animals coexist in the company of humans, but they are spiritual forces present in every aspect of Inuit culture.

Shivani Vyas ‘17
Lasting Legacy 2017