Flight of the Shaman

The community of Baker Lake has existed since 1916. In the 1950's the Inuit suffered great deprivation due to the reduction in the numbers of caribou. At this time, the federal government, wanting to encourage economic independence, sponsored an arts and crafts programme. In 1961-1962, William Larmour, an officer with Northern Affairs collected pencil drawings which convinced him that a graphic programme was feasible. Gabriel Gily, a French artist, came as Arts and Crafts Officer in 1963 to develop the print programme. Roderick McCarthy, who replaced Gily, supervised the programme and in August 1965 the first prints were enthusiastically received by the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council. The first collection, issued in 1970, contained 27 of the early prints. The Sanavick Co-operative was incorporated in 1971. The imagery of the prints is bold and brilliant in colour with an emphasis on shamanistic and supernatural subject matter with the common element of a strong tie to traditional life. The technique is usually stonecut and stencil. The Inuit prints consist of stencils, stonecut engravings and lithographs from the communities of Pangnirtung and Clyde River. The first Cape Dorset prints were in 1959, Povunenituk in 1962, Holman Island in 1965, Baker Lake in 1970, Pangnirtung in 1973 and Clyde River in 1981. Since the late 1940''s Indian and Northern Affairs have supported the development of art from the Canadian Arctic in co-operation with the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council. Catalogues have been published since 1959 and most of the prints are documented in their year of production.

Balshine family collection. Appears in Baker Lake Prints 1971 Catalogue as Print #13.

contemporary art

Horizontal human figure with a bird on his head, four animal figures inside along his upper arm with two standing above, six bird figures inside along his lower arm, and a black caribou inside his body. Accented with brown and red. Names of artist and printmaker in Inuit syllabics in monogram form with Baker Lake stylized bow and arrow in lower left corner. In the lower right corner, there is a small yellow image of a right pointing arrow emerging from a bulge pointing to pencilled syllabic. Pencil inscription across the bottom edge reads 'Flight of the Shaman A/P III/IIIIII 1970 Oonark, Amarook, Martha Noah'. The print is on a horizontally rectangular, off-white paper piece.