Nunali (Town)

Description

Pudlo Pudlat had vivid memories of traditional life on the land and also witnessed, with keen interest, changes in modern Inuit life. He selects and combines images from his experience and imagination to create some of the most enigmatic Cape Dorset works. Pudlo’s 1976 print “Aeroplane” was reproduced as a 1978 Canadian postage stamp, and Pudlo has executed a number of important commissions, including a suite of three banners installed in the lobby of the Dept of Northern Affairs in Ottawa.Born in 1916 to Pudlo and Quppa near the small south Baffin camp of Kamajuk, Pudlo spent his childhood in traditional Inuit camps on southern Baffin Island and on Coates and Southampton Islands in northern Hudson’s Bay. As a young man, Pudlo married his first wife Meetik, at Cape Dorset and, while still married to her, took her sister, Ouivirok in marriage as well. Both wives died while Pudlo was still a relatively young man, as did four of the five children from these two marriages. Pudlo continued to live in small coastal camps and in the late 1940’s took his third wife, Inukjuakjuk in marriage. They lived at Kamajuk where Pudlo’s older brother, Simiumie was camp leader. In the late 1950’s Pudlo moved to Cape Dorset to secure medical attention, because he had suffered a serious arm injury while hunting, and Inukjuakjuk was ill. When they recovered they moved to a nearby camp, Qeatuk, and it was there that Pudlo and Inukjuakjuk began carving and drawing.”I did some carvings when we were at Qeatuk. I started drawing when Saumik [James Houston] asked me to.When I started drawing Saumik liked my drawings right away, and I guess even today there are people who like my drawings”.Since 1961, Pudlo has been represented in 15 Cape Dorset print collections.