Nunatsiavut, the Inuit region of Canada that achieved self-government in 2005, produces art that is distinct within the world of Canadian and circumpolar Inuit art. The world's most southerly population of Inuit, the coastal people of Nunatsiavut have always lived both above and below the tree line, and Inuit artists and craftspeople from Nunatsiavut have had access to a diverse range of Arctic and Subarctic flora and fauna, from which they have produced a stunningly diverse range of work.

Artists from the territory have traditionally used stone and woods for carving; fur, hide, and sealskin for wearable art; and saltwater seagrass for basketry, as well as wool, metal, cloth, beads, and paper. In recent decades, they have produced work in a variety of contemporary art media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, video, and ceramics, while also working with traditional materials in new and unexpected ways.

SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut is the first major publication on the art of the Labrador Inuit. Designed to accompany a major touring exhibition organized by The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery of St. John's, the book features more than 80 reproductions of work by 45 different artists, profiles of the featured artists, and a major essay on the art of Nunatsiavut by Heather Igloliorte.

SakKijâjuk—"to be visible" in the Nunatsiavut dialect of Inuktitut — provides an opportunity for readers, collectors, art historians, and art aficionados from the South and the North to come into intimate contact with the distinctive, innovative, and always breathtaking work of the contemporary Inuit artists and craftspeople of Nunatsiavut.

Thanks to Goose Lane Editions for permission to publish these selections from the book. 

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FANNY BROOMFIELD

Grass Basket with Purple, 2004

grass, embroidery thread

17.8 x 34.3 x 26 cm

The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador Collection

Photo:  Ned Pratt Photography

**

RHODA VOISEY

Skin and Hide Gauntlet Mittens, ca. 1998    

mixed media

33 x 17.8 x 3.8 cm

The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery Collection

Photo:  Ned Pratt Photography

**

MARK IGLOLIORTE

Diamond Komatik Box, 2015

oil mounted on board

139.6 x 109.4 cm

Collection of the artist

Photo: Ned Pratt Photography

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GILBERT HAY

Amaguilu, Alailu & Akkikilu (Wolves,

Indians & Ptarmigans),1995

steatite

25.4 x 16 x 17.8 cm

The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery,

Memorial University Collection

Photo:  Ned Pratt Photography

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SHIRLEY MOORHOUSE

Goose Reflecting, 2010

mixed media on wool

76.7 x 99.1 cm

Collection of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada

Photo:  Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada

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Six photographs of art works from SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut by Heather Igloliorte from the following pages: 21, 55, 73, 88, and 120. 

Excerpted from SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut. Copyright © 2017 by Goose Lane Editions and The Rooms Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador. Reprinted by permission of Goose Lane Editions.