Demonstration of Power

Description

These are the comments that accompanied Lipa Pitsiulak’s prints that were included in the 1979 collection…. part of which obviously relates to this particular print. *Those people in the igloo are happy. From time to time, Inuit would make use of the old customs, not every day. The games and dances of the Inuit are revealed through our drawings. These men are using the real old traditions of the Inuit: drum dancing in one image, a shaman tied up with cord in another, as a test of his powers. As these images depict, our ancestors loved to play and compete. They too, must have wanted to have happiness in their lives. It is good for our traditional customs to be revealed. Also, I would be happy to see some of the ways of the shaman better understood, because parts of their story should be told.*I have been living in Pangnirtung since 1967. I originally came from Iglootalik in Cumberland Sound where we lived in a permanent hunting camp. When I first started working at the print shop I wasn’t very good at it. Now, since I’ve been printing for a while, I’m getting better at it. I’m very slow still. When we do stone cuts, after we have applied ink on the stone and put the printing paper down, we use a spoon to spread the ink.Last year I was living off the land just outside of Pangnirtung for a year. Now I am in charge of the printers here in our shop”. [1975]