Painted Wooden Plaques from the MacFarlane Collection: The Earliest Inuvialuit Graphic Art

Authors

  • David Morrison

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic283

Keywords:

Mackenzie Inuit, Inuvialuit, Inuit art, Inuit history, Hudson’s Bay Company, Smithsonian Institution, Roderick MacFarlane, Émile Petitot, Fort Anderson, fur trade

Abstract

In the 1860s, fur trader Roderick MacFarlane amassed a large ethnographic and zoological collection from the western Canadian Arctic, mainly on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution. Among the many items collected are eight hand-sized wooden plaques bearing incised polychrome scenes of traditional Inuvialuit (Mackenzie Inuit) life. The earliest significant examples of Inuvialuit graphic art in existence, these pieces provide a unique perspective on Inuvialuit culture and history at a critical period: during the first generation of sustained European contact.

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Published

2009-12-16