Jessie Oonark

Jessie Oonark, ( ᔨᐊᓯ ᐅᓈᖅ; 2 March 1906 – 7 March 1985) was a prolific and influential Inuk artist of the Utkuhiksalingmiut Utkuhiksalingmiut whose wall hangings, prints and drawings are in major collections including the National Gallery of Canada.

She was born in 1906 in the Chantrey Inlet (Tariunnuaq) area, near the estuary of the Back River in the Keewatin District of the Northwest Territories (now Nunavut)—the traditional lands of the Utkuhiksalingmiut Utkukhalingmiut, Utkukhalingmiut (the people of the place where there is soapstone).

Her artwork portrays aspects of the traditional hunter-nomadic life that she lived for over five decades, moving from fishing the camp near the mouth of Back River on Chantrey Inlet in the Honoraru area to their caribou hunting camp in the Garry Lake area, living in winter snow houses (igloos) and caribou skin tents in the summer.

Oonark learned early how to prepare skins and sew caribou skin clothing.

They subsisted mainly on trout (lake trout and Arctic char), whitefish, and barren-ground caribou.

The knife used by women, the ulu, their traditional skin clothing, the kamik, the amauti were recurring themes in her work.

Oonark has had a major museum retrospective with accompanying scholarly monograph.

Despite a late start – she was 54 years old when her work was first published – she was an active and prolific artist over the next 19 years, creating a body of work that won critical acclaim and made her one of Canada's best known Inuit artists.

She was a fluent speaker of Utkuhiksalik, a sub dialect of Natsilingmiutut spoken by Netsilik (Natsilik) within the Western Canadian Inuit dialect continuum.

Just as it was true for the art of other first-generation Inuit artists from that area—Luke Anguhadluk and Marion Tuu'luq—Utkuhiksalingmiut oral history and legends were strongly reflected in Jessie's artwork.

In later years, in Baker Lake, they became a small minority, and fewer people could speak the language.

Jessie Oonark's parents were Qiliikvuq and Aghlquarq (Aglaguaq).

Aglaguaq and his brothers hunted muskox.

Oonark's spent most of her time the in Chantrey Inlet where fish were abundant.

The Utkukhalingmiut had many taboos, one of which was the drawing of images.

According to Marie Bouchard— a researcher, art historian, and community worker who lived in Baker Lake for many years— "Oonark's grandmother repeatedly warned her that images could come to life in the dark of night."

Oonark's mother married Qiqniikpak after the death of Oonark's father.

Oonark lived with her mother.

The Danish explorer, Knud Rasmussen, crossed the Canadian Arctic by dogsled and visited the Jessie Oonark's camp when she was just a teenager during his Fifth Thule Expedition.

Utkuhikhalingmiut represented the first white contact.

Their first daughter, Janet Kigusiuq, was born at Putuqsuqniq in the Back River area in 1926.

She had eleven more children including Joshuan Nuilaliq, Mamnguqsualuq, Victoria Mamnguqsualuq, Miriam Nanuqluq, Mary Yuusipik, Peggy Gabluunaq, Nancy Pukingnaq (born 1940–), William Noah, Isumataq, Qaqurialuq, Amarouk, and Makitgag.

In the 1940s, Oonark was assigned a disc number by the Canadian federal government— E2-384.

In the 1940s, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) conducted a census of Inuit populations.

They assigned the infamous identification numbering system using discs.

These disc numbers were dropped during "Operation Surname" in the 1960s.

In the 1980s, Mame Jackson taped Jessie Oonark's description of the encountered broadcast on CBC radio.

Oonark was married at a young age to Qabluunaq, (Kabloona, Kabloonak) the son of Naatak and Nanuqluq from Gjoa Haven.

Natak joined them in their hunting camp.

Although Kabloona was "a good hunter and a respected fur trader", the family was often hungry.

Their oldest daughter remembers the periods of hunger.

Oonark's mother-in-law, Naatak, would boil a caribou skin into a "broth" in an attempt to appease the hunger.

Even in 2007, Baker Lake Inuit kept animal bones for marrow patek.

""My grandmother, Natak, was always cooking something.

She used to cook caribou skins.

She would take hair off the skin and cook it.

We would drink the broth.

My grandmother used to even cook wolf meat.

That was how we survived.""

- Janet Kigusiuq to Marie Bouchard