Inuit stage first southern festival

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When the Inuit Art Foundation and the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation got together to toss about potential fund-raising ideas, what emerged was the first-ever Inuit national cultural festival in Canada.

"It's the first Inuit festival outside of the North, but even any festival in the North wouldn't have included Inuit from the Northwest Territories, Quebec and Labrador," said Marybelle Mitchell, the executive director of the Inuit Art Foundation.

Housed in the Museum of Civilization, just across the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill, the Feb. 18-19 festival was given the name Qaggiq. Meaning "an open-igloo festivity; a place to gather for games and celebration," it was appropriate that the first exhibit, upon descending the escalator into the Grand Hall, was an open-air (Styrofoam) igloo with an Inuit woman kneeling outside, looking out on the world.

Qaggiq, in many ways, was a chance to celebrate and demonstrate various aspects of Inuit culture in the national capital, where there's an estimated Inuit population as high as 800.

These included Gayle Gruben, a resident of nearby Nepean and a participant in the celebrated Inuit Fashion Show that displayed nearly 100 pieces of clothing, with a focus on practical clothing for colder climates.

Artist Allotoo Ipellie, a Baffin Island writer now living in Ottawa, read from his new book: Arctic Dreams and Nightmares, as well as from other works.

"One of the main purposes was to do that, to expose artists of the Arctic, and in Ottawa where we have all these Inuit organizations and a number of Inuit residents," says Ipellie, whose uncles and cousins are also artists.

Artists were not the only Inuits showcasing their talents at the show, which involved 29 private and seven public-governmental sponsors and partnership of 19

Inuit organizations. Among them were Takijualuk Drama Group, the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation and the Arctic Society.

There were demonstrations of Inuit games, hands-on demonstrations of the tools and techniques of sculptures, printmaking and fibre art, and entertainment by such well known singers as Charlie Adams. In introducing one of his songs, Adams talked about the importance, for him, of learning something every day and looking forward to waking up each and every morning.

There was an informal visit to the second-floor Inuit and Indian Art Gallery and a more formal tour of the gallery, to visit the exhibition Isumavut, Artistic Expression of Nine Women from Cape Dorset, with curator Odette Leroux.

But nothing brought together a larger audience than the Saturday afternoon fashion show. The models, male and female, ranged form the shy and self-conscious to those possessing professional modelling skills. The clothes themselves, available for purchase, ranged from a simple bomber jacket and catchy track suit in black with white polar bears down the legs, to leggings and wonderful children's and adult variations of fur-lined winter coats.

"This is an excuse to show that our designers are capable of, to promote their careers, and to protect their individual talents as part of the development of the industry of the north," said fashion show host Martha Flaherty.

It's a natural talent for many Inuits, as many of them share the opinion that northern stores often don't supply good quality clothing.

"It's not warm enough or not comfortable enough," said designer Lucie Kaludjak

of Rankin Inlet, who makes the clothes for all her children, including their Boston Bruin and Montreal Canadian hockey jackets.

"The response has been tremendous," said Marybelle Mitchell.. "We have about 200 participants to show off their culture and to pull together, and that's really important."

Yet Mitchell was as pleased with the participation of the Inuit organizations and community as she was with public interest from afar.

"There are people here from San Francisco, Virginia, Washington and Winnipeg," she said. "They couldn't afford to go to the North, but this s like coming half-way."