Inuit Art Foundation

Tools, Training, and Quarrying

Over the years, in fact, since the beginning of commercial carving activity in the early 1950s, Inuit have talked about the problems they have getting stone and tools. A survey of a hundred artists conducted by the Inuit Art Foundation (IAF) in the spring of 2006 made it clear that the topic remains uppermost in their minds. The majority of respondents, 78 per cent, indicated that they had great difficulty accessing art materials. More than three-quarters of these artists were carvers. Seventy-five per cent of respondents said access to materials (including stone, ivory, and fabric), and tools was their greatest need. In addition, the survey revealed that more than half of the artists worked outdoors. Very few respondents said that there was someone in their community helping them with their art, and a large majority said that they would like more training (IAQ 2007:22–25).

Stone

Artist and IAF President Mattiusi Iyaituk, of Ivujivik, says that “before you can even begin to think of making art in Nunavik, you have to have money to cover your expenses and you have to have the skill to be able to travel overland” (Iyaituk 1998:3). These are prerequisites that many younger Inuit are not developing, since they no longer need to rely on hunting to obtain food, and, says Iyaituk, many find it just too daunting to quarry stone for carving. To quote Johnny Aculiak, of Inukjuak:

It is not an easy job trying to quarry stone from off the land. Every year we have to find a shabby boat to take us to the stone. The boat might have no proper pump to drain water. We drain the water from the boat by hand because it leaks, and when we get to the quarry site, we have to take the rock out of the ground without proper quarrying tools (Kudluk 1997:27).

His sentiments are echoed by Simon Tookoome, from Baker Lake, who says that Inuit need help to get stone and would like to see gasoline and big drills provided (Haqpi 1993:7).

In the Fall 1993 issue of Inuit Art Quarterly, it was reported that stone supply was a major problem for Inuit carvers. In several communities, the situation was described as critical, and the need for practical assistance as urgent. Carvers in Taloyoak, Gjoa Haven, and Pelly Bay were, for instance, using one quarry that was increasingly difficult to mine. As Joseph Suqsluk of Gjoa Haven told us: “The stone on the top is all gone. We need to get the stone underneath. We know it’s there” (IAQ 1993:27).

Good quarrying equipment is essential, but seldom available. It is getting more and more difficult to get stone without sophisticated equipment. Also, there is a need for a quarry management plan. Allowing people to mine stone just anywhere is not only dangerous, but also wastes the resource.

Artists are frustrated by what they see as a lack of action to improve matters, and the lack of awareness of the problem on the part of buyers. Aculiak says: “I want the people who buy carvings to know what it takes to produce the things they are buying. I want them to know that the price they pay is small for the amount of energy spent in trying to produce it” (Kudluk 1997:27). Jimmy Arnamissak complained he had been told that White people think the Inuit land is a land of soapstone, whereas the reality is that it is very difficult to access the stone (Kunnuk 1997:28).

I myself always ask non-Inuit to imagine what they would do if they had to dig up stone in Toronto or Ottawa. Where would they start? How would they start? As sculptor Stanley Felix of Tuktoyaktuk said, it seems that people are deaf: “They can’t see our needs, but it is so clear to us. We’re not going to work if there is no good stone” (Brown 1997:24).

Lots of overhead costs

An article in IAQ by Brent Reaney (reprinted from Northern News Service [Reaney 2005:40]) included the most comprehensive breakdown of expenses incurred by artists that I have seen. One of his informants, Qiatsuq Qiatsuq, of Cape Dorset, estimated that about one-third of Cape Dorset’s economy is based on carving, but only about 30 to 40 per cent of artists are able to make a living from it.

Ironically, since Inuit carvers use stone that has no intrinsic commercial value, it is presumed that they have low overheads. However, as Qiatsuq told Reaney, “there are a lot of overhead costs dealers and collectors don’t see.” A set of power tools costs more than $2,000 and electricity bills can be as high as $600 a month. At the time the article was published, carvingstone cost about $2.10 per pound in Iqaluit, and one carver, Peliktoak, said he needed approximately $150-worth of stone — which had to be paid for up front — before starting to work on a piece.

In some places, stone can be bought from the co-op; in others, artists have to subsidize trips to quarries, which are often quite a distance from where they live. Supplies are needed for overnight stays, and some form of transportation (gas-powered snow machines or boats) is needed to bring stone back to the villages. The selling price assigned to an Inuit sculpture does not, many carvers say, reflect the capital and operating costs incurred just to obtain materials. Nor does it reflect the labour — usually family labour — required.

A lack of equipment and expertise

The main problem in obtaining stone remains the scarcity of necessary equipment, combined with a lack of expertise in mining. Artists are not quarriers, but they are forced to take on the role. Response to the problem has been largely ineffectual. It was reported in the very first issue of IAQ (IAQ 1986:10) that Canadian Arctic Producers and the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) were helping cooperatives to obtain carvingstone through the use of S-Mite, a non-explosive demolition powder. This approach does not appear to have been hugely successful, due to logistics.

The Labrador Inuit Development Corporation’s assistance to artists in its region included setting up a studio. While this was heralded as a progressive move, the studio was closed in short order because locals complained about dust.

In the Northwest Territories, arts advisor Theresie Tungilik reported that, instead of helping artists to quarry stone, the government imported soft stone from across the border in Montana. Carvers, who typically express a preference for local stone, did not like working with the imported stone. Buyers didn’t like it either: aside from its texture, its colour (pink!) was a deterrent.

Challenges vary from community to community but, in general, Inuit want help locating sites, mining the stone (which includes obtaining efficient mining equipment and receiving instruction on safe quarrying), and transporting it to their communities. In many areas, artists travel long distances from their communities to obtain stone, which makes carving expensive work (given the cost of gas and food in the North). It is not only difficult for untrained and ill-equipped artists (using the most elementary hand tools) to get the stone they need to earn a living, but also dangerous. At present, quarrying is done on an ad hoc basis and the lack of management over a site means that unsafe conditions are allowed to develop and resources can be prematurely depleted.

Small-scale disasters are common in makeshift quarries all over the Arctic. Inuit have been telling us for some time now that people are getting hurt in atrocious working conditions. Jutani Parr, a talented young artist, was killed in the Cape Dorset quarry site in 1997 in an accident that should not have happened. Jutani’s father, Nuna Parr, had been buried in rubble at the same site for several hours in 1989 (IAQ 1999:56).

IAF's efforts to help

In 1992, IAF organized a quarrying session for artists from Kimmirut, Cape Dorset, Broughton Island, and Pangnirtung, providing on-site experience in mines in Ontario and Quebec, where they were able to assess the latest technology relevant to their own needs. Also important, they received hands-on instruction in safety practices. A follow-up was held at a quarry site near Kimmirut.

In the summer of 2003, IAF helped organize a quarrying workshop in Clyde River, which had been awarded a gas-powered drill and accessories worth about $10,000 in a competition announced in the Summer issue of IAQ (2003:36). Geologist and quarrier Will Kelly worked with carvers, instructing them on how to open up a quarry and keep it going. They first quarried white marble, extracting 15,000 pounds in five days. Such initiatives are small steps, but Kelly is convinced that, with the right equipment and a minimum of instruction, a few people can mine enough stone in a week to supply the needs of a small village for several months.

Faced with the obstacles involved in obtaining carvingstone, some artists have begun to explore the use of alternative materials. At the insistence of its board of directors, IAF has organized several workshops that encourage experimentation with new materials. Focussing on alternative materials serves not only to alleviate the access to stone problem, but also to inspire new work.

Artists appreciate having a variety of materials because it expands the possibilities of what they can produce. In Arviat, the locally available hard stone makes it impossible to carve detail. In recent years, however, a few artists in this community have taken to using antler and bone, with which they are able to produce more detailed work (Olson 2003:31).

In spite of some market resistance to the use of materials other than so called “soapstone,” Iyaituk says it’s important to learn how to work with different materials, even if they aren’t indigenous to the North. In his opinion, doing so “can give people ideas. In the North, we have soapstone, but we also have granite and I don’t think anyone has really worked with wood before, although we can find that. Using different materials frees artists to start thinking about different things” (IAQ 1994:17).

Alex Alikashuak, a Whale Cove artist who thrives on working with new materials, reported that he uses aged walrus bone, antler, marble, and a range of stone, including a rusty brown Russian variety that he was introduced to in Finland while participating in an international carving demonstration. He says: “My preference is to experiment with whatever materials the planet has to offer” (Fox 2001:13).

Alikashuak was fortunate enough to be working in Winnipeg, where various materials and tools are readily available. It is not so easy to find new materials in northern communities. In 1997, a geologist working for the Canadian government “discovered” a high-quality alabaster deposit near Holman Island. His find received an unusual amount of mainstream press, but Inuit were not too excited about it. Presumably, some of them had known the stone was there, but were unclear as to what to do with it. And the big question was: what would dealers and collectors do with it? The market has shown resistance to artists working with new materials, although this tendency is changing as an Inuit avant-garde produces ever more wonderful work in a variety of media.

Power tools have their place

Over the years, Inuit have been introduced to different tools. Although there has been a mixed reaction from the public, Inuit are delighted to have better equipment, including power tools that allow them to work with harder stone. As Iyaituk said: “It seems everyone else in the world is allowed to find an easier way — but not Inuit.” He continued: “I don’t think that it’s very wise to say that Inuit artists should not use power tools because, in the first place, we started off with tools that were not our tools... It bothers me that some people resist the idea of Inuit using new tools and new materials. You cannot stop an artist from using what he wants to use” (IAQ 1994:17). Ironically, there is a market preference for hard, dark green serpentine, which is difficult to carve by hand.

Training

IAF’s 2006 survey of artists revealed that, although most of the artists (82 per cent) expressed a desire for more training and professional development materials, only 28 per cent said they had received some kind of formal training.

In spite of demand, not much training is available to Inuit living in the North. For several years, Arctic College’s Nunatta Campus has been running programs that focus on different media. Jewellery-making workshops, with some sessions delivered in the villages, have been particularly well received. Most of the jewellery produced is bought by northern residents; it is the most successful instance to date of production for internal distribution.

Apart from occasional workshops organized by government agencies and cooperatives, very few other opportunities for training exist. A small number of Inuit have attended southern art schools and some have benefited from mentoring.

Since its establishment in 1987, IAF has provided a wide range of training and development opportunities for artists and northern cultural workers. These include workshops on the business of art, quarrying techniques, and the use of power tools. Currently, IAF offers a 10-day Cultural Industries Certificate Program, which is designed to provide northern cultural workers with information on marketing, writing grant proposals, and managing a small business.

Just less than half of the artists who took part in the 2006 survey said they had attended a workshop organized by the foundation. All those who did so found it to be a beneficial experience. Some said they learned specific techniques and how to use different tools, as well as how to market and promote their work, while others said the workshop gave them new ideas or just generally improved their art practice.

Through the use of multilingual posters and brochures, IAF also provides artists with information about safe carving and quarrying practices. The foundation has also hired Inuit artists and teachers to give instruction on specific techniques and artforms, including printmaking and carving.

Working environment

In an enduring IAQ article, well known art dealer Av Isaacs noted glaring differences between the situation for southern and northern artists. While those in the South have studio space, there is, he said, “always an acute shortage of space in the North. Artists work outside to carve, but drawing takes place in crowded working quarters” (Isaacs 1990/91:55).

The lack of adequate studio space in the North is an ongoing concern. Only 16 per cent of the artists surveyed by IAF in 2006 said they work in a studio. More than half of the respondents reported carving outdoors, which can sometimes involve working in a makeshift shed.

Working outdoors can be challenging in a climate where the temperature often dips below freezing. And a carver with a heated shelter needs a ventilation system to reduce the amount of stone dust inhaled. At a meeting convened by IAF in Ottawa in January 2007, northern cultural workers emphasized the need to improve artists’ poor working conditions by, among other initiatives, providing them with safe workplaces (IAQ 2007:29).

Nothing has changed

Given the continuing need for many to make a living from carving, the struggle to get stone is uppermost in artists’ minds (Iyaituk 1998:3). The problem is, if anything, more acute. In 1998, Iyaituk speculated that the reason younger people are not taking up carving, in spite of talent, is that they have so much trouble obtaining stone. That is still the case. In his area, the west coast of Hudson Bay, stone is quarried during winter, which involves navigating across snow-covered tundra. It needs, he said, three people with snowmobiles (and money to pay for gas and food to last for a week) to get enough stone to work on for a while. “It takes,” he said, “more time than you would think to get just a few hundred pounds of stone” (ibid.).

Marybelle Mitchell, editor-in-chief of Inuit Art Quarterly

May 2011

 

 

References

Brown, Tracy

1997 (Spring) “Stanley Felix: ‘What We Need Right away is Assistance to Get Better Stone’”

Fox, Matthew

2001 (Fall) “Cultural Ambassador Alex Alikashuak”

Haqpi, Michael

1993 (Summer) “Simon Tookoome: ‘Carvings are Not Just Carvings… They Tell a Story’”

Isaacs, Av

1990/91 (Fall/Winter) “Different Rules for Different Artists: The Working Environment”

Iyaituk, Mattiusi (Guest editor)

1999 (Spring) “Critical Connections”

1998 (Fall) “All It Takes is Knowledge, Money, and Time”

Kudluk, Henry

1997 (Winter) “Johnny Aculiak: ‘It Seems to Me that Our Culture Will Die off One Day if We Do Not Keep Carving’”

Kunnuk, Simeonie

1997 (Spring) “Jimmy Arnamissak: ‘Leaving Something that People Remember You by’”

Larose, Adrian

2007 (Winter) “Sharing Skills in Dorset”

Mitchell, Marybelle

1997 (Spring) “Inuit Carvers and Geologists Have a Common Interest: Rock”

1992 (Summer/Fall) “Quarrying Problems and Carving Factories”

Olson, Michael

2003 (Spring/Summer) “Bonework from Arviat”

Reaney, Brent

2005 (Summer) “Carving out a Living”

Inuit Art Quarterly

2008 (Fall) “Repulse Bay Carvers Get Help to Quarry Stone”

2007 (Spring) “The Artists’ Perspective: Survey Shows Materials are Greatest Need”

2003 (Winter) “Quarrying Workshop Held in Clyde River”

1999 (Spring) “Jutanie Parr, 1977–1998”

1996 (Spring) “The Contemporary Living Art: Mattiusi Iyaituk”

1994 (Summer) “Beyond Boundaries;” “Beyond Boundaries: The Artists: Mattiusi Iyaituk”

1993 (Fall) “Natar Ungalaq Talks about His Art and His Goals;” “Stone Supply an Urgent Problem for Inuit Carvers;” “Urgent Problems Discussed by Artists”

1991 (Spring) “Arctic College 1991–92 Arts and Crafts Program;” “Inuit Artists at Banff”

1986 (Spring) “Vignettes”

 

Selected references from Inuit Art Quarterly (IAQ)

Editorials

•  1992, Quarrying Problems & Carving Factories, vol. 7, no. 3(summer/fall):3, by Marybelle Mitchell 464.18 Kb
•  1997, Inuit Carvers and Geologists Have a Common Interest: Rock, vol. 12, no. 1(spring):3, by Marybelle Mitchell 514.52 Kb
•  1998, All it Takes is Knowledge, Money, & Time, vol. 13, no. 3(fall):3, by Mattiusi Iyaituk 293.02 Kb
•  1999, Critical Connections, vol. 14, no. 1(spring):3, by Marybelle Mitchell 537.48 Kb

Features

•  2001, Cultural Ambassador Alex Alikashuak, vol. 13, no. 3(fall):10, by Matthew Fox 2.88 Mb
•  2003, Bonework from Arviat, vol. 18, no. 2(spring/summer):30, by Michael Olson 902.99 Kb
•  2007, The Artists' Perspective: Survey Shows Materials are Greatest Need, vol. 22, no. 1(spring):22 3.49 Mb
•  2007, Sharing Skills in Dorset, vol 22., no. 4(winter):28-29, by Adrian Larose 1.49 Mb

Interviews

•  1990/91, "The Working Environment" in Different Rules for Different Artists, vol. 5, no. 4(fall/winter):55, by Av Isaacs 5.81 Mb
•  1993, Simon Tookoome: "Carvings are not just carvings... they tell a story", vol. 8, no. 2(summer):6, by Michael Haqpi 2.17 Mb
•  1993, Natar Ungalaq talks about his art and his goals, vol. 8, no. 3(fall):16 6.45 Mb
•  1993, Urgent Problems Discussed by Artists, vol. 8, no. 3(fall):24 9.96 Mb
•  1994, The Artists Speak: Beyound Boundaries, vol. 9, no. 2(summer):16 1.70 Mb
•  1996, The Contemporary Living Art: Mattisui Iyaituk, vol. 11, no. 1(spring):4 1.47 Mb
•  1997, Johnny Aculiak: "It seems to me that our culture will die off one day if we do not keep carving", vol. 12, no. 4(winter):24 3.08 Mb

News Items

•  1991, Arctic College 1991-92 Arts & Crafts program, vol. 6, no. 2(spring):53 1.14 Mb
•  1991, Inuit Artists at Banff, vol. 6, no. 2(spring):50 497.08 Kb
•  1999, Jutanie Parr 1977-1998, vol. 14, no. 1(spring):56 863.82 Kb
•  2003, Quarrying Workshop Held in Clyde River, vol. 18, no. 4(winter):36 1019.40 Kb
•  2005, Carving Out a Living, vol. 20, no. 2(summer):40, by Brent Reaney 1.39 Mb