Kenojuak Ashevak

First Nations artist Kenojuak Ashevak is known for her imaginative interpretation of birds, which are often realized as symmetrical designs. This mirror-image depiction also includes hybrid sea creatures along the bottom. Ashevak’s imagery emerged as she worked: “I just took these things out of my thoughts and out of my imagination.” Kalaaleq multidisciplinary artist Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory acknowledges Ashevak’s importance in her poem “I am the light of happiness,” excerpted here:

Qinnuajuaq and her owls and birds burst into the international scene
When Canadians needed someone from the land,
with indigeneity to give a non-verbal Canadian identity.
Not only did she give us this identity,
She gave us a whole new world to gaze upon.

*Qinnuajuaq is an alternative spelling for Kenojuak