A milestone exhibition at Qaumajuq amplified Indigenous identity and celebrated Inuit art.
Dr. Heather Igloliorte was overcome with joy when she first glimpsed the caribou-hide beaded purse made by her grandmother Suzannah’s hands, installed as part of INUA, the inaugural exhibition at Qaumajuq, Winnipeg Art Gallery’s (WAG) reimagined Inuit art centre .
“I burst into tears when I first saw it—it’s beautiful,” says Igloliorte, an Inuk scholar, who notes that her grandmother went by the name Susie.
Inuktitut for “it is bright, it is lit,” Qaumajuq (pronounced kow-may-yourq) is a stunning 40,000-square-foot space that lights up downtown Winnipeg and is dedicated to Indigenous art, culture and traditions.
Igloliorte obtained her grandmother’s purse via X (formerly Twitter); a tweet from a stranger said his grandmother, Grace Arnold, had been given the bag by Susie half a century ago when they were in hospital together.
As one of four Inuit curators of INUA , which closed in 2023, Igloliorte was able to give Susie’s purse—a gorgeous example of traditional beadwork—the spotlight it deserves. It’s also a nod to INUA’s intergenerational theme. “That’s what’s coming through all the work—a respect for where we’re coming from and thinking about where we’re going as a people and our relationship to our ancestors and descendants,” says Igloliorte. The theme is encapsulated in the exhibit’s name, INUA, which means “life force” in Inuktitut and is also an acronym for Inuit Nunangat Ungammuaktut Atautikkut (“Inuit moving forward together”).
Igloliorte, the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Decolonial and Transformational Indigenous Art Practices at the University of Victoria, B.C., and her co-curators (Krista Ulujuk Zawadski, Asinnajaq and Kablusiak) began their preparations for INUA several years ago.
The result was approximately 100 artworks from 91 Inuit artists from across Inuit Nunangat and other circumpolar regions, including Alaska and Greenland and the urban south. Some of these artists included Nunatsiavummiut painter Bronson Jacque and Nunavut fashion designer Martha Kyak.
While the exhibition contained more traditional stone carvings, the sheer scale and wide mix of media—everything from textiles to sound, video and drone photography—expanded how Inuit art is represented in galleries and museums.
“The artwork highlights innovation, but innovation within a long continuity of Indigenous practices,” says Igloliorte. “Inuit have always been artists. It’s not something that started in the 1950s. Inuit art has always been. And so, the artists are working out of that long tradition of being creative and resourceful and making something of what’s available to them. It was important to us, as curators, to show Inuit art as art made by Inuit and not a particular kind of medium or material.”
Inuit art is also critical to tell the story of the Inuit, says Stephen Borys, director and CEO of WAG. “Their land, their relocations, their resettlements, residential schools, the loss of mineral, natural mineral resources, issues of sovereignty, climate change—all of those stories are told through art,” he says. “This is one way that Qaumajuq can broaden and deepen our understanding of the North.”
RBC’s support for Qaumajuq began in 2016 with a $500,000 donation from the RBC Foundation . In support of its commitment to reconciliation, emerging artists and education, RBC also sponsored WAGxRBC , a biweekly series that connects visitors with the artists and curators through virtual meet-ups, panel discussions, storytelling, art-making workshops and more.
Ultimately, Qaumajuq is the result of a 10-year dialogue of how the gallery has presented Inuit art to date. The conversations began in earnest alongside important national events including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) Calls to Action. The WAG’s chosen journey was further guided by its Indigenous Advisory Circle, co-chaired by Igloliorte and Métis scholar Julie Nagam, and its relationship with partners like RBC.
“On our side, it was really a shift in the decolonization of the WAG,” says Borys. “With the largest Inuit art collection in the world, 200 exhibitions, and the publishing of 60 books, you might think we are the voice, or the arbitrators or the ones leading. But in fact, the majority of what we’ve done prior was through a non-Indigenous lens.”
As such, Borys says everyone has ownership of the WAG, “especially the tens of thousands of Indigenous people who have walked by, driven by, biked by our doors and never felt comfortable, never felt welcome, never felt any sense of seeing themselves here or any ownership.”
“Quamajug has changed how we see ourselves as a museum today, it has changed how we think about what a museum should be in a community,” he continues. “It’s possible to engage in a meaningful way with reconciliation and it’s possible to change.”
This article was adapted from “A Chosen Journey”—an annual report that celebrates Indigenous successes and affirms RBC’s commitment to the Indigenous community. Read the 2024 report .