–Elizabeth Hutchinson with a special thank you to Charlotte Basch

While drawing with pen and pencil on paper was a relatively new practice for Inupiaq people in the late nineteenth century, these drawings demonstrate an appreciation of centuries-old Inupiaq aesthetic values.  These values comprise, among other things, an understanding of the significance of specific types of objects, a mastery of the technical skills necessary to produce types of objects, and the knowledge of cultural histories that inform the decoration of objects whether through legible representation or more abstractly.  In this section, Sarah Diver presents an introduction to several types of Inupiaq material culture that are carefully-depicted in the drawings in this exhibition, demonstrating the artists’ understanding of and respect for each one.  As Christopher Green explains in his contribution to this website, we might also see the act of drawing itself as a material tradition to which these artists pay homage.  The people of the Bering Strait region have a graphic art tradition that stretches back thousands of years, and the narrative and decorative aspects of these drawings have a strong relationship to that tradition, which itself evolved in response to availability of new materials and introduction of new social practices as a result of intercultural contact.

In addition to making reference to specific material culture traditions, as in many indigenous cultures, aesthetic values also include an attitude toward the act of making, including giving careful attention to the processes of gathering and preparing materials and the mindful execution of a task of representation or embellishment.  This latter skill might be described as a kind of cultural literacy.  As Barbara Bodenhorn has explained, for the Iñupiaq people of the North Slope who have ties to the Seward Peninsula Inupiat, “reading” entails more than the interpretation of marks on a page.  Rather, it “encompass[es]. . .the ability to perceive, interpret and communicate signs from a number of media” including both oral and visual ones.  (Bodenhorn 1997, 118).*  From this perspective, we might see the drawings in this exhibition as a model of the  integration of perception and expression necessary for the demonstration of literacy in Inupiaq culture.  As the notes on the individual drawings will demonstrate, the drawings formal inventiveness is linked to their manifestation of an understanding of the social practices and relationships being depicted.

Photograph of Clara Forslund sewing a parka for Gladys Knight Harris, Kotzebue, Alaska, August 8, 1949.  Courtesy Autry National Center of the American West

Photograph of Clara Forslund sewing a parka for Gladys Knight Harris, Kotzebue, Alaska, August 8, 1949. Courtesy Autry National Center of the American West

Atigi (Parkas)

Aqlitiiq (Dance Mittens)

Qilaun (Hand Drums)

Wolf Tail Belts

Feather Headdresses

Gaming Balls

Drill Bows

Video Games

 

*note:  Bodenhorn does not suggest this kind of integrated learning is unique to Iñupiaq peoples.

sources for this page:

Barbara Bodenhorn, “‘People Who Are Like Our Books’: Reading and Teaching on the North Slope of Alaska,” Arctic Anthropology, Power, Resistance, and Security: Papers in Honor of Richard G. Condon, Steven L. McNabb, Aleksandr I. Pika, William W. Richards, Nikolai Galgauge, Nina Ankalina, Vera Rakhtilkon, Boris Mymykhtikak, and Nikolai Avanum, 34, no. 1 (1997): 117 – 134