Kinngait (formerly Cape Dorset) artist Napachie Pootoogook created over 5000 drawings in 40 years – from the beginning of the Cape Dorset print project in the late 1950s until her death in December 2002. Limited-edition prints were first made from her drawings in 1960, and a total of 50 prints was released in the annual collections over the years.

For the last five years of her life,1998 to 2002, Napachie Pootoogook worked on an autobiographical series of drawings that document her early life growing up in traditional camps on South Baffin Island and her relationship with husband  Eegyvudluk Pootoogook. These are narrative drawings depicting real events as she recalled them and include syllabic text describing the events taking place. Being such personal works, they are particularly sensitive and moving as they deal with many of the tougher elements of society. Pootoogook also illustrated the stories told to her by her artist-mother, Pitseolak Ashoona, and other Sikusilaarmiut (Inuit of South Baffin Island). There are approximately 300 drawings in this series which are owned by the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative.

This publication is the catalogue of an exhibition held at The Winnipeg Art Gallery from June 1 to September 19, 2004. The catalogue of 69 drawings is a beautiful look into the life of an Inuk woman living through the dramatic social, economic, and religious changes that swept the Canadian Arctic in the 1950s.

Curators: Leslie Boyd Ryan and Darlene Coward Wight

Copyright: The Winnipeg Art Gallery/ Le Musée des beaux-arts de Winnipeg, 2004

ISBN: 0-88915-228-4

Softcover, 128 pages