We would like to butcher a full seal in Walker Court. The four of us had been brought together to create Tunirrusiangit, a retrospective exhibition in 2018 of Kenojuak Ashevak's and Tim Pitsiulak's work. We wanted everything to be grand, to be a gift, in order to honour these extraordinary artists.
I am well acquainted with how white institutions abhor non-industrial food practices and, by default, Inuit food systems. Throughout my life, I have watched white people in particular show their distaste for the look, smell, and taste of inussiutit-Inuit cultural food.
The practice [of lighting a qulliq] is soothing and teaches people about the traditional hearth of Inuit households, our source of light and warmth. That's probably what the gallery representatives were thinking of when they asked the question-or prayers or smudging, along the lines of the practices of other Indigenous cultures.
I maintained that it was not my burden to carry, so for me, all I had to do was sharpen my ulu.
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