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This body of work is a human story, one that follows the Ayaawx (the Tsʹmsyen word for ancestral law), which has, at its centre, respect. Respect not as an obligation or a duty, but as a spiritual energy that clears the way, purifies, and restores balance after conflict.            

This book, though some may categorize it as a memoir, is more accurately an inquiry, one that brings human conflict into the transformational presence and energy of the supernatural and nature.

I present three distinct threads. One: my story, which includes silence, the experiential interweaving of past and present, and the layering of natural and supernatural and inner and outer dimensions. Two: paintings and poems that express the essence of experience that cannot be defined. And three: my philosophical reflections on Krishnamurti’s writings on inquiry, which influenced my insights.

This web of threads is my adaptation of a delivery style used by many wisdom speakers in the Feast Hall and in ceremony, one that can open the listener to profound learn­ing, transformative learning. In Feast Hall style, the speakers do not provide bridges between thoughts; instead, they leave space for the listener to make the connections from one concept to the next.

It is my intention in using this writing style to invite you into the gift of the Ayaawx; into the power of our Feast Halls; and into relationship with yourself, with others, and with the supernatural.–Excerpted from Singing to the Darkness by Patricia June Vickers. © by Patricia June Vickers. Published by HARP Publishing The People’s Press. harppublishing.ca

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At Home: Talks with Canadian Artists About Place and Practice
Lezli Rubin-Kunda
Goose Lane Editions / Regal Projects

Can you go home again? Or do you carry home with you wherever you go?

Is home where the heart is? Or the art?

These are the sorts of questions pondered by Lezli Rubin-Kunda, and which she discussed with 31 artists from across Canada. At Home, co-published by Fredericton’s Goose Lane Editions, chronicles Rubin-Kunda’s journey as she returns to the country where she was born and raised after more than 30 years living in Israel.

The related tensions of post-colonialism in Canada and Rubin-Kunda’s ambivalence towards narratives of home and belonging in the face of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict permeate this book, and the author does not shy away from the apparent paradox of seeking home in contested territories.

Structured into thematic groups of interviews, Rubin-Kunda acts as a garrulous tour guide, bringing us along on her journey and regaling us with stories of her life and art practice. Completed over two trips to Canada in 2012-13, the interviews vary widely in length and depth, with some comprising chapters in themselves and others being brief descriptions of single works or series that fill less than a page.

Where the interviews are in depth and engaged with the thoughts of the artist—such as in the excellent sections on Montreal artist Francs Morrelli, on Saskatoon’s Amelie Atkins and Halifax’s Lorraine Field and Susan Fiendel—the reader learns about an artist and their work. The discussion of notions of home serves as an interesting entry point into what are very divergent approaches. The imbalances between the treatment of the artists are jarring, however, as if the author felt that the visit had to be acknowledged, despite having relatively little to say about the artist in question. In a book stretched over 13 chapters with a foreword and afterword, some of the sections, frankly, feel like filler.

Where Rubin-Kunda seems most comfortable is in discussions of practices that are performative, and which align with her own art practice. Rubin-Kunda’s conversation with Edmonton-based artist Tanya Harnett, a member of Carry the Kettle First Nation in Saskatchewan, and her articulation of her sense of home as based in culture, history and biology is particularly engaging and thoughtful. As Rubin-Kunda records Hartnett saying, “I think the land has a memory that would transfer into one’s bones.”

As the only Indigenous artist interviewed, Harnett’s chapter stands out in a book about place. Canada’s history of colonization is addressed by many of the artists, and the author’s thoughts are rarely far from it, but more Indigenous voices would have made the book stronger.

At Home: Talks with Canadian Artists About Place and Practice is a book that doesn’t fit easily into familiar categories. Not a travel book, but not solely an art book either. In the end, Rubin-Kunda is very present in every discussion, which is both a strength and a weakness. When she is present as part of a discussion, as she is with Harnett, Frank and Atkins in particular, the book works well.

Where it is weak is best summed up by the way she begins the afterword: “When I reflect at the end of this journey on the question I set out with—what is the relationship between art practice and a sense of home—I am reminded of an early work of mine.” As a reader, at the end of this long journey to visit Canadian artists with the author, that is not exactly what I want to hear.

Later, she writes, “When I started, I yearned for a sense of belonging to a place I could call home. The closer I got, however, the more the unity of the inquiry unravelled into many disparate threads. The beauty and the interest lay in the uniqueness of each artist’s path, and not in any thematic commonalities. Every artist, it seemed, was a world unto his or herself.” Indeed.

And it is when Rubin-Kunda shows us those worlds that At Home succeeds.

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Gift ideas for the art lovers on your list, from our Book Lovers’ Holiday Gift Guide!

 

 

Art

Christmas with Maud Lewis
Lance Woolaver and Bob Brooks
Goose Lane Editions

Maud Lewis has become one of Canada’s favourite folk artists, and her buoyant winter pictures are among her most beloved. Full of Christmas spirit and joy, this delightful hardcover edition is the perfect holiday gift!

 

IKWE Honouring Women: An Indigenous Art Colouring Book for Adults and Children  
Jackie Traverse
Roseway Publishing

IKWE is a new colouring book by Anishinaabe artist Jackie Traverse. The stunning images celebrate the spiritual and ceremonial aspects of women and their important role as water protectors.

 

Ned Pratt: One Wave
Goose Lane Editions

The first ever book on Ned Pratt’s photography, this beautifully designed edition charts a decade of Pratt’s breathtaking vision, presenting Newfoundland’s landscapes as you’ve never seen them before.

 

Photographer’s Guide to Prince Edward Island 
John Sylvester and Stephen DesRoches
Acorn Press

For anyone interested in photography or just looking for the most beautiful sites on PEI, this new book by an award-winning photographer team is the perfect gift.

 

The Creative City of Saint John
Edited by Gwendolyn Davies, Peter LaRocque, and Christl Verduyn
Formac Publishing

An extensively illustrated account of a wide range of creators and creative work–writing, painting, natural history scholarship, filmmaking–which are part of Saint John’s colourful history.

 

The Lost City: Ian MacEachern’s Photographs of Saint John
John Leroux
Goose Lane Editions

Architectural and social historian John Leroux presents 75 black-and-white photographs drawn from MacEachern’s exceptional archive, documenting a lost city and the effect of urban renewal on its neighbourhoods and residents.

 

Music

Play it Like you Sing it 
Barry W. Shears
Bradan Press

The Gaelic bagpipe traditions of Nova Socita in a groundbreaking 2-volume collection of history, culture, images, and 249 dance tunes. A must-have for pipers and fiddlers!

 

Put Your Hand in my Hand: The Spiritual and Musical Connections of Catherine and Gene MacLellan
Harvey Sawlor
Nimbus Publishing

Biographer Harvey Sawlor paints an intimate portrait of one of Canada’s most beloved singer-songwriters.

 

Poetry

150+: Canada’s History in Poetry 
Edited by Judy Gaudet
Acorn Press

This collection of poems tells the story of 150 years as a country, recreating historical events through the vivid, concrete, human element of our poets’ responses to them.

Aubade
Edited by E. Alex Pierce
Boularderie Island Press

A unique anthology featuring over 20 NS writers who explore the aubade—the passing of night and return of day where lovers part, reflect or regret. Their comings and goings often observed from the shadows.

 

Jeopardy 
Richard Lemm
Acorn Press

Award-winning author and poet Lemm masterfully blends his narrative poetic style with wit and wisdom in this new collection of poetry.

 

Ràithean airson Sireadh / Seasons for Seeking
Lewis MacKinnon
Bradan Press

MacKinnon’s fourth Gaelic-English bilingual poetry collection features translations of the Sufi mystic poet Rumi and original poems celebrating Nova Scotia’s Celtic seasons. Paperback or audio with Persian & Celtic music.

The Lost Words 
Robert MacFarlane
House of Anansi

From bestselling Landmarks author Robert MacFarlane and acclaimed artist and author Jackie Morris, a beautiful collection of poems and illustrations to help readers rediscover the magic of the world.

 

 

See more gift ideas in our Book Lovers’ Holiday Gift Guide! View it online here or pick it up at your local bookstore or library.

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100 Things You Don’t Know About Atlantic Canada (for Kids)
Sarah Sawler
Nimbus Publishing
(Ages 8-12)

(Disclaimer: I wish to gratefully acknowledge Woozles’ inclusion in this book. The opinions expressed in this review are nonetheless honest assessments.)

Readers who call Atlantic Canada home along with those who have never been to this part of our beautiful country will find much to intrigue them in these pages. Sarah Sawler, herself a native of Nova Scotia, has gathered an impressive array of informative tidbits about all four Atlantic provinces. These span a period of hundreds of years. Sawler regales us with little-known facts of history and contemporary nuggets of surprising truths.

Each of the 100 items also features a sidebar in which Sawler provides a suggestion for how you can “Learn More” or offers ideas for additional “Fun Stuff.” These include myriad parks, museums and other wonderful places children and families can visit, and an assortment of activities to delve more deeply into the various topics she touches on.

This fascinating compendium of Atlantic Canadian fun facts is enlightening for all ages but with a tone that displays a distinctly child-oriented sensibility. Sawler has kept her audience of young readers firmly in mind, not only in terms of which details she has selected for this book, but also in the easy, conversational style she has employed. She successfully manages to include an abundance of background information, when needed, to help put things into perspective and to give younger readers a clearer picture of a particular time in history.

The book showcases all four Atlantic provinces in equal measure and tantalizes readers with everything from shipwrecks and UFOs to pirates and peace pavilions. Sports, art, literature, natural disasters…they all appear here. The author highlights some of the quirkier aspects of modern life in the region, including an outhouse museum, a whirligig festical and a robot-lending library. This is a wonderful resource and a source of great entertainment for the entire family.

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The Frame-Up
Wendy McLeod MacKnight
HarperCollins/Greenwillow Books
(Ages 8-12)

Sargent Singer has mixed feelings as he boards a plane bound for New Brunswick to spend the entire summer with his father, the curator of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. While he can’t imagine spending all those weeks with his father, maybe they will forge a connection through their shared love of art. But his father is under a lot of pressure and is frequently preoccupied and distracted.

Things take an unexpected turn when Sargent makes an amazing discovery: the people in the paintings in the gallery are alive! He befriends Mona Dunn, a 13-year-old girl from one of the paintings. As their friendship grows, these two lonely young people try to help one another find solace in their respective life situations. But there are strange things afoot at the gallery and soon the two youngsters find themselves in the midst of a major art heist that could yield tragic results for the people in the paintings, as well as for Sargent’s father and the Beaverbrook.

This New Brunswick author brings middle-grade readers an action-packed tale with an intriguing premise. The narrative is told alternately from the points of view of Sargent and Mona, enabling readers to get a thorough glimpse into Mona’s world within the paintings: the social and political structure of their world, the relationships they have with each other and what it means to be a figure in a painting who sees what goes on in the outside world but can never actively participate in it.

McLeod MacKnight sensitively depicts Sargent’s troubled relationship with his father and his apprehension about making new friends at the art camp he attends. The mystery element of the story is also well-developed and well-paced in this compelling and meticulously-crafted tale of friendship, family and secrets.

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Art by Alan Syliboy

 

Renowned Mi’kmaw artist Alan Syliboy has three books due this season from Nimbus Publishing: a board book, Mi’kmaw Animals, in both Mi’kmaw and English; a new Mi’kmaw and English edition of The Thundermaker; and Humpback Whale Journal. Alan Syliboy’s luminous illustrations draw on the petroglyph tradition, which, in combination with his own vibrant colour palette and strong design sense, result in works that dance with story and meaning. Prince Edward Island’s poet laureate, Deirdre Kessler, spoke with Syliboy about the art of story and the story of art.

Deirdre Kessler: Why do you consider it important to have your books published in both Mi’kmaw and English?

Alan Syliboy: One way to support the language initiative with children is to put books in their hands, to bring them our stories and culture through books. This is an opportunity to change things with young people. Sometimes I am recognized on the street by Grade Two children! They have read or their teachers have read them The Thundermaker.

 

Deirdre Kessler: You have spoken in other interviews, such as one with Cheryl Bell in BILLIE magazine, about the influence of petroglyphs on your work and also how you recognize differences among Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Mi’kmaw petroglyphs. What are some of these differences?

Alan Syliboy: All these neighbouring tribes use the double-curve design in their petroglyphs. All these tribes are close relations—we’re from the same stock, the same roots, but in Mi’kmaw rock art there are more spirals, the curl is more prominent. When I had my first real art lessons, years and years ago, with Shirley Bear, Shirley introduced me to Marion Robertson’s book, Rock Drawings of the Micmac Indians [published by the Nova Scotia Museum, 1973]. Petroglyphs became the way I learned about my own culture. I don’t have a copy of the book any longer and it’s out of print now, but I have the book in my hard drive.

Deirdre Kessler: What other artistic traditions inform your work?

Alan Syliboy: I keep away from other traditions. I like Miró and Klee and Kandinsky, but I don’t spend time studying them. I want to stay in my lane—I want to go down my own road. I’m not trying to incorporate other traditions.

Deirdre Kessler: How are art and storytelling connected in your work?

Alan Syliboy: Storytelling is not my focus. I am concerned with making a good picture. I developed the skill part many years ago when I was not working with colour. I worked only with pencil and charcoal for many years. When I finally got a studio and turned from black and white to colour, I had established my ability with design and how to balance a page. I was prepared for colour. It was easy to add colour, and it’s one of my strengths: I’m a colourist. I experimented with contrast and colour for years in the studio.

Deirdre Kessler: Your work is known nationally and internationally as well as in our Atlantic region. What is the significance of your work in our region?

Alan Syliboy: When I started as an artist there were no well-established Mi’kmaw artists in the region. When Shirley Bear and I got together and found the petroglyph book, we then both had purpose. We wanted to do what was important to our culture. We educated ourselves and in the process we educated Mi’kmaw people. Very little was known about our culture. The Mi’kmaw culture is now accepted and Mi’kmaw design now thrives.

Deirdre Kessler: What was your response to the recent matter of the removal of the statue of Edward Cornwallis from a south-end square Halifax?

Alan Syliboy: The removal of the statue symbolizes a process of incredible advances in being Mi’kmaq. Momentum dragged the Cornwallis question along with it for years. When I was in school, we Mi’kmaq were invisible. Now we are visible. The obvious question around Cornwallis had to be answered. That’s a reality that can’t be ignored any more. It’s just the start. We have more texture now; we are more dimensional now to the dominant culture. We now interact with the dominant culture.

Deirdre Kessler: Do you have any last words? Is there anything I haven’t asked that you’d like to speak to?

Alan Syliboy: I feel it’s a good idea to have books in both languages in the hands of children. I feel secure in the future that we Mi’kmaw will be seen as real, multi-dimensional human beings. That’s what I’m happy about: the new generation of Mi’maw learning about our own culture.

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“Cutting ice” is an Inuit phrase denoting that something has importance. The art of Annie Pootoogook certainly falls into this category.

A third-generation Inuit artist from Kinngait (Cape Dorset), whose grandmother was the famed printmaker Pitseolak Ashoona, Pootoogook has been at the forefront of a remarkable renaissance of Inuit art that has taken place over the past 20 years, marking its emergence from being the subject of ethnographic curiosity to being recognized as being on the cutting edge of contemporary art practices globally.

Annie Pootoogook was not the first Inuit artist to portray both the light and the dark side of contemporary Inuit life in her work, but she was the first to gain international recognition as a contemporary artist and the first to, as Inuit curator Heather Igloliorte wrote in 2016, break through the “ethnic art glass ceiling” that had kept Inuit artists from being taken seriously as, simply, artists.

Annie Pootoogook: Cutting Ice, co-published by the McMichael gallery and New Brunswick’s Goose Lane Editions, ably documents Pootoogook’s all-too-short career. The artist first came to national attention when she won the Sobey Art Award, Canada’s preeminent award for contemporary art, in 2006. Sadly, she was also the focus of national attention in 2016 when her body was recovered from the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, where she had been living, often on the streets, struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.

Between those events, she exhibited in major exhibitions across the world. In so doing she opened the door to contemporaries such as Kinngait and indeed all of Nunavut, including her cousins Shuvinai Ashoona, Itee Pootoogook and Siassie Kenneally, as well as other Inuit artists like Tim Pitsiulak.

This book, which accompanies a major retrospective exhibition at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinberg, Ontario, is the most definitive publication to date on this important Canadian artist. The author, Nancy Campbell, is one of the most highly regarded curators of Inuit Art in the world. Her deep knowledge and appreciation of Inuit artists, their culture and their land, shines through in every page. The book serves as a memorial to Pootoogook, as an important introduction to her remarkable art and as a much-needed history of the art milieu from which Pootoogook rose with such brief splendour.

Divided into four sections, each bracketed by numerous illustrations of Potoogook’s drawings, the book provides a readable, engaging portrait of an artist and her community. The first section is a history of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative, the sales and production centre in Kinngait (Cape Dorset) that has supported so many of the artists from the community and, as Campbell makes clear in her history, can take credit for the emergence of Inuit art onto the world stage.

The second section, Dear Annie…, looks at the life and art of Annie Pootoogook. Annie became famous after winning the Sobey, but she had already been making art for many years and was on the road to recognition as a contemporary artist. Her evolution is traced in Campbell’s text, which is clear and informative, written from the standpoint of a curator who knew Annie in Kinngait and in Toronto, and who had worked with her over many years.

The third section, compiled by Stephanie Gagné with the consultation of Campbell, introduces the reader to some of Annie’s contemporaries from Kinngait, artists who are (or were) also pushing the boundaries of what was considered Inuit Art. Short biographic sections and examples of their work paint a picture of a vibrant arts community.

Finally, the book wraps up with another short essay by Campbell, looking at the legacy of Annie Pootoogook and the impact her career has had and is still having on the perception of Inuit art in Canada and beyond.

Annie Pootoogook: Cutting Ice, even from the pdf galleys, is visually striking—a beautiful book rich in imagery. Presented in English and Inuktitut, the texts flow well across the pages and the images are large and well reproduced. Truly a significant publication, this book deserves a much longer life than is normal for the typical exhibition catalogue—which this is surely not. Annie Pootoogook left this world too soon—but with this book on her life and art, her revolutionary importance and her convention-shattering impact continue to resonate.

Annie Pootoogook: Cutting Ice
Nancy Campbell
Goose Lane Editions / The McMichael Canadian Art Collection

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Short Fiction:

Ben Tucker’s Truck
Azzo Rezori
Boulder Publications

Retired CBC Newfoundland journalist Azzo Rezori calls himself a professional observer, and that skill is apparent here not only in the everyday detail, but the inner selves of his characters as they tackle religion, romance, family and death.

 

Too Unspeakable for Words
Rosalind Gill
Breakwater Books

The pride of Corner Brook, Newfoundland explores a clash of values—old v. new—in her debut collection and shows herslef, as Russell Wangersky puts it, “to be a master of character.”

 

Long Fiction:

Catch My Drift
Genevieve Scott
Goose Lane Editions

In Catch My Drift, from New Brunswick’s Goose Lane Editions, Genevieve Scott combines the tight, evocative prose of a short story with the scope of an epic family novel. The result is an astute investigation of the evolution of a family.

 

Marry, Bang, Kill
Andrew Battershill
Goose Lane Editions

Another gem from Goose Lane in New Brunswick is Andrew Battershill’s Marry, Bang, Kill. It’s another soft-hearted tough guy joint, but the sharp writing and the audaciousness of the protagonist’s situation make it so much more: a literary page turner.

 

Catching the Light
Susan Sinnott
Nimbus Publishing

Susan Sinnott’s debut novel won Newfoundland and Labrador’s Percy Janes First Novel Award in 2014, before being published. Previous winners include Sharon Bala (The Boat People) and Joel Thomas Hynes (Down to the Dirt). This story of two characters and perspectives, polar opposites, is lyrical and rooted in small-town life.

 

Hysteria
Elisabeth di Mariaffi
HarperCollins

There are spectral aspects in this genre buster from St. John’s’ Elisabeth di Mariaffi, but the real terror comes from the most human of characters, a controlling husband who drugs his geographically isolated wife, who is suffering deeply from earlier trauma. This and other sinister characters work because of di Mariaffi’s precision with dialogue, setting and pace.

 

Art:

Mary Pratt: Still Light
Ray Cronin
Gaspereau Press

In a sense this is a no-nonsense look (from expert curator and frequent Atlantic Books Today curator Ray Cronin) at the life and work of renowned Newfoundland artist Mary Pratt, with a sampling of seven of her diverse works in the middle. In another sense, Gaspereau has created a work of art all its own.

 

Sixty Over Twenty
Andrew Steeves
Gaspereau Press

Let’s pause and appreciate physical books and the artisans who still take the time to make them beautiful. Andrew Steeves, a co-founder of Gaspereau, chronicles 60 books published over a 20-year period, and “the influence that using traditional book-arts tools has had on his thinking about culture, design and manufacturing.”

 

Global Politics:

Pay No Heed to the Rockets
Marcello di Cintio
Goose Lane Editions

Neil Postman once observed that, given our limited locus of control, international news is a useless distraction, especially given the shallow analysis of a 41-second news segment. Fortunately, as regards Palestine, New Brunswick’s Goose Lane has brought us the work of Marcello di Cintio and his observant travels through the rich cultural heritage of an ancient land.

From Black Horses to White Steeds
Edited by Laurie Brinklow and Ryan Gibson
Island Studies Press

“Think global, act local.” Scottish planner Patrick Geddes (1915-1932) is credited with the phrase that urges us to make local decisions in the context of an interconnected, vulnerable planet. From Black Horses to White Steeds is filled with inspiring examples of local—especially rural and island—initiatives making a more liveable planet.

Folklore:

Jack Fitzgerald’s Treasury of Newfoundland Stories Volume III
Jack Fitzgerald
Breakwater Books

Jack Fitzgerald is of course a Newfoundland treasure himself, a folklorist first class and an excellent teller of the tale. In his latest, he’s onto high-seas adventure and spy stuff, including the story of a Nazi weather station in Labrador and the Newfoundland inspiration for Treasure Island.

History:

Unchained Man
Maura Hanrahan
Boulder Publications

Memorial University Environmental Policy Institute adjunct professor and multi-award-winning author Maura Hanrahan has written a gripping true-life account of two men—including the celebrated Robert Bartlett—in 1914, on a perilous 700-mile trek across the ice from Alaska to Siberia to save the crew and passengers of the Karluk, crushed and sunk under pack ice. The unsung Inuit and their teachings made the rescue possible.

The Diary of One Now Dead
Tom Drodge
Flanker Press

During the Battle of the Atlantic six men boarded the B-26 Marauder Time’s A Wastin’ in Greenland, en route to Goose Bay, Labrador. The Marauder hit rough weather and crashed in Saglek; all six men died. Drodge brings an account of the tragedy via the diary of the pilot. The title comes from the Ellis Coles song about the events.

 

The Accidental Farmer
Joan Watson with Murray Creed
Nimbus Publishing

The establishment of the original Ross Farm in 1816 in Nova Scotia is a story representative of settlers of the time, the many Atlantic crossings, the volatility of the region and its peoples and the essential labour of survival. Watson and Creed bring the history to life as part of Nimbus’s Stories of Our Past series.

Caplin Skull
MT Dohaney
Pottersfield Press

Dohaney mixes oral history, anecdote and documentary to enliven a place—a fictional one, but yet one as real as any—and time, just before Newfoundland joins Canada. Written with humour, vibrancy and poignancy, Caplin Skull is a love song to a very real people.

 

Alexander Graham Bell: Spirit of Innovation
Jennifer Groundwater
Formac Publishing

Alexander Graham Bell remains a fascinating figure who maintained a home in Cape Breton for years of his life, and who with his wife mobilized the Baddeck community to assist victims after the Halifax Explosion. Groundwater’s account includes more than 50 visuals such as blueprints, artefacts and photos.

Humour:

Half the Lies You Tell Are Not True
Dave Paddon with illustrations by Duncan Major
Running the Goat Books & Broadsides

Labrador-born Dave Paddon, aka Newfoundland and Labrador’s Robert Service, presents tall tales, wrapped in incantation, inside foolishness, but perhaps there is a key. That key is hilarity for the old, the young and the goofy at heart.

Bluenoser’s Book of Slang
Vernon Oickle
MacIntyre Purcell

It’s said that language is not merely a component of culture. It is culture. Our localized use of words—dialectical dictums, idiomatic colloquialisms and vernacular tongue twisters—give us more delightful details on a given culture’s internal logic than any anthropological study. Paging Dr Oickle, whose delightful guide to the Bluenose lingo entertains and enlightens.

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Last week, the Canadian Museums Association (CMA) honours the achievements of museum professionals at its 2018 national conference in Vancouver, BC. A total of 22 awards were presented during a special awards ceremony, held at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel, on Thursday April 12. Among the award recipients in the Outstanding Achievement category was Heather Igloliorte’s SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut, jointly published by Goose Lane Editions and the Rooms Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador, winning the award in the education category. SakKijâjuk is available in English, French, and Inuktitut.

Chaired by David Silcox, these awards recognize exceptional museum projects. This year, 12 Awards of Outstanding Achievement were presented.

The Canadian Museums Association is the national organization for the advancement of Canada’s museum community. The CMA works for the recognition, growth and stability of the sector. Canada’s 2,600 museums and related institutions preserve our collective memory, shape our national identity and promote tolerance and understanding.

For countless generations, the artists and craftspeople of Nunatsiavut, an Inuit region of Labrador, have produced work that is distinctive within the world of Canadian and circumpolar Inuit art. Yet for decades, the Labrador Inuit were excluded from this canon. SakKijâjuk—”to be visible” in the Nunatsiavut dialect of Inuktitut—is the first major publication on the distinctive and innovative work of the contemporary artists and craftspeople of this region.

The coastal people of Nunatsiavut have always lived above and below the tree line. As a result, Inuit artists and craftspeople of the region have had access to a diverse range of Arctic and Subarctic flora and fauna from which they have produced a stunningly diverse range of work.

In this magnificent book and the accompanying exhibition, writer-curator Heather Igloliorte seeks to cast a light on the artistic practice of Nunatsiavut, bringing together for the first time the work of 47 Nunatsiavummiut artists and artisans. Igloliorte (Inuit, Nunatsiavut Territory of Labrador) is an assistant professor and Research Chair in Indigenous Art History and Community Engagement at Concordia University in Montreal. Her research interests centre on Inuit and other Native North American visual and material culture, circumpolar art studies, performance and media art, the global exhibition of Indigenous arts and culture, and issues of colonization, sovereignty, resistance and resilience. In this collection, innovative drawings, paintings, photographs and sculpture are presented beside more traditional work employing wood, fur, hide, stone and seagrass. The work of Elders and artistic forerunners is presented beside that of a new generation of artists.

Published to coincide with the first-ever national touring exhibition of Inuit art from Nunatsiavut, organized by The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery of St. John’s and scheduled to be shown at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, SakKijâjuk examines the long history of artistic production in Nunatsiavut. Focusing on the post-Confederation era and highlighting many new critical forms of contemporary art and craft production, the volume is divided into four major sections (Elders, Trailblazers, Fire Keepers and the Next Generation), spanning four generations of artistic practice. Featuring more than 80 large-scale reproductions, the book features work from major public and private collections, as well as a number of exciting new works never before seen in print.

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Accessing our creativity in the busy world of today can be a challenge, even more so if you are dealing with an illness or major life transition that affects your quality of life. When that happens, basic requirements of living can be daunting. So, the idea of taking time out to explore creative pursuits can seem not just impossible, but ludicrous even to contemplate. Yet, doing just that can make all the difference.

As Meryl Cook was dealing with her cancer and treatment aftermath, she began to keep a journal alongside hooking rugs. That experience became the basis of her first book, One Loop at a Time. Now Cook has followed that book with a workbook where readers can take time to write about their own healing exploration.

The great thing about this workbook, though, is that Cook makes it easy to start the process. It’s a slim book, which means it’s not at all overwhelming. As Cook herself says, “My writing suggestions and homework are just that—suggestions. You are free to do them or just to think about them.”

That permission is freeing, because when you’re battling a horrible disease, monumental stress, or a cataclysmic transition, sitting down to write about it for hours on end can be counterproductive. But Cook’s creativity workbook shows you how to take it one loop at a time, and as we know from recent scientific studies, even a few minutes of calm mindfulness or reflection can do wonders for our mind and body. In fact, Meryl Cook was inspired to get journalling after taking a class that combined yoga and writing.

Woven into the fabric of both of Cook’s books are her gentle wisdom and mindful prompts for exploring creativity in the spirit of acceptance and self-kindness, something Cook first had to learn how to do for herself. When starting her rug-hooking project, “Let This Be Enough,” Cook realized that she had a tendency to push herself unduly and never really stopped to appreciate her accomplishments. So, that became a journal subject that she explored:

“Then I thought about how having or being feels. I sketched a series of ovals that gradually get larger and came up with the phrase ‘Let this be enough…Let what you’ve accomplished settle and travel out…See where it lands…like a beautiful pebble dropping and radiating out.’”

Inherent in Cook’s approach is recognition of the negative thoughts and then an immediate resolve to find a different way to view things. It’s not a Pollyanna approach, denying the reality of things. Rather, it’s a conscious decision to create a different reality, one that helps you get unstuck and into a place where you see that you have more choices than you previously were able to recognize.

This approach is key for anyone wanting to get unstuck and move into a better place. Using Meryl Cook’s framework in One Loop at a Time: The Creativity Workbook can help you gently shed what holds you back.

One Loop at a Time: The Creativity Workbook
Meryl Cook

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Its origins and sources, its rich cast of characters, and its alternately quotidian and wildly adventurous plot can best be told the same way it has unfolded: layered in fragments and shards and revealing itself in moments of relation, encounter, and exchange.

Pam Hall in Towards an Encyclopedia of Local Knowledge: Excerpts from Chapters I and II

 

Pam Hall, a visual artist, documentary filmmaker and scholar who has lived and worked in Newfoundland for more than 40 years, has produced a stunning book honouring the people of rural Newfoundland and their wide-ranging expertise. Towards an Encyclopedia of Local Knowledge is not only a gorgeous art book; it is also a scholarly work on the nature of knowledge. Her insightful social commentary on our society’s overreliance on scientific knowledge and marginalization of other kinds of knowing distinguishes this as a book about social change.

The Encyclopedia begins with 42 pages of text describing the author’s creative research process and her discerning assessment of the power dynamics of knowledge in our society. Here she lays out a new relationship with knowledge documentation that is deeply respectful and holistic. Her work maintains the integrity of knowledge held by people in a place. Hall challenges mainstream society’s treatment of science as sacred. She examines the power dynamics around knowledge and sets out to change them.

Both the introductory text and the Encyclopedia pages could stand alone. Hall’s writing is as eloquent and compelling as her artwork. When I received this book in the mail, I first looked at the pictures. It includes nearly 150 pages of gorgeous plates, collages of photographs, drawings and typed and handwritten text. Some of the images jump off the page as if three-dimensional. As I relished in the artwork, I got to know the people of Bonne Bay, the Great Northern Peninsula, Fogo Island and Change Islands. All 142 knowledge holders who participated in the project are listed at the beginning of the book, as collaborators who “shared their knowledge in person.” This includes 14 children from Sacred Heart All-Grade School in Conche who became research assistants in the project. Ms Hall’s deep respect for her collaborators is rare among researchers. We meet her collaborators in the Encyclopedia’s pages where they are often referred to by name: “What Lambert Kennedy Knows about how to build a longliner,” “Uncle George Elliott’s technique for making snow shoes,” “Isabella Pilgrim’s moose cutting skills,” “Joe Reid’s jams and jellies” etc.

With “encyclopedia” in the title, I expected something akin to the Britannica volumes I used to write school reports as a child. That is, pockets of general knowledge in alphabetical order with an exhaustive index to make sure you could find the morsel of information you required. But this book has no index and is organized geographically. Chapter I covers Bonne Bay and the Great Northern Peninsula and Chapter II is Fogo Island and Change Islands. With a page about knitting socks next to a page about butchering moose next to a page about building a fishing boat, this Encyclopedia is not organized in a way that allows you to quickly locate information on a specific topic. Here one begins to see the political undercurrent of this work. The knowledge depicted in Hall’s book is deeply imbedded in the people and the places that developed it and this is a radical approach.

The work is based on a definition of knowledge as a process, a verb. This dynamic definition of knowledge, along with a deeply collaborative documentation process, is a most valuable aspect of this work. The process is built upon genuine respect for people and places and the knowledge that emerges from the marriage of the two.

Not only a preservation tool for knowledge in danger of being forgotten, the Encyclopedia pages also depict undeniably modern concepts like how to read the electronics on the bridge of a 60-ft dragger or processing and selling sea cucumbers to China. Other pages describe the marriage of old techniques with new materials like the story of Linda Osmond’s husband Winston, a gardener who likes to try new things. When he grew kohlrabi in his garden Linda made it into pickles:

Just because it is an old recipe doesn’t mean it will not work on new things. A pickle is still a pickle. I might not know about kohlrabi but I know about pickles.

Local knowledge, like scientific knowledge, is not an island in time. It is based on generations of observations that are passed down from grandparents to parents to children, from neighbour to neighbour, from business partner to business partner. Just as scientific knowledge is based on the careful work of past scientists, local knowledge is based on the observations and theories of previous generations and ingenuity.

Clearly the impetus behind many of the Encyclopedia’s pages is to preserve knowledge that is in danger of being lost, as evidenced by the many pages dedicated to wooden-boat-building techniques. But also there are many examples of the resurgence of traditional craft to fill a modern need. On Fogo Island, historic wooden-boat-building techniques are used to create chairs for a luxury inn. Similarly, throughout Newfoundland interest is resurging in traditional low-impact fishing techniques like cod traps and hook-and-line gear to ensure a sustainable harvest as the cod stocks return. At the same time, state-of-the-art fish processing is being developed to provide a profitable high-quality product to get the most from a limited resource.

The value local knowledge brings to our society is unequivocal. Science alone is unlikely to adequately solve today’s environmental problems without the knowledge of the grassroots. In a time of constant worry about climate change, the page about Derek Young’s 30-year daily weather calendar is a tremendous opportunity to study environmental change. What may seem a mundane endeavour becomes a rare and invaluable resource to help understand what the future may hold. As Hall writes:

We have privileged the quantitative, the data-driven, and the statistical forms of knowledge to a dangerous degree—one that erases the qualitative, the embodied, the value-laden, and many individual and cultural ways of knowing that form and inform our embedded relationship within our now endangered ecosystems.

 When society values scientific knowledge above all else, not only does it sideline other types of knowledge, it also sidelines people. I see this over and over again in my work with commercial fishermen who are rarely treated as the experts that they are. Local knowledge is often taken from people and removed from place. Usually it is mapped or listed in a very reductionist way and used by government agencies to make decisions on behalf of the fishing communities.

By proposing that knowledge is most valuable when the connection to people and place is maintained, Pam Hall’s work calls for a different management model, one that involves preserving the integrity of the knowledge and knowledge holders. She envisions deeply democratic, transparent and collaborative decision-making–a change that is sorely needed.

Towards an Encyclopedia of Local Knowledge is a book to be savoured. It is not a quick reference book but the place to go to sense the wide breadth of knowing and the ever-evolving landscape of knowledge. It is a rare presentation that can bring this level of richness and depth to the outside world.

The knowledge captured here is imbedded not only in the places and people of today but in the people and places of old. It recognizes and celebrates the dynamic nature of local knowledge that is continuously forming and reforming as people interact with places and each other.

Even the democracy of visual images and written words cannot convey the totality of the knowledge to the outsider. It can never be more than excerpts. But this remarkable glimpse into the world of rural Newfoundland and the people who shape it gives the outsider a sense of the richness of life in this place. And it inspires us to value our own local knowledge; those things we know how to do, that our mother or grandmother or aunt or father taught us.

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For forty years artist Thaddeus Holownia has been making splendid photographs that have put him at the forefront of Canadian art. For almost as long he has also been making books, primarily on letterpress, through his Anchorage Press.

Holownia works in large format photography, and the majority of his work has been made with an antique instrument called a banquet camera, designed to photograph large groups. The negative size from these cameras varies, but is usually 7 x 17 or 9 x 20 inches. For much of his career Holownia has elected to print his photographs at the same scale–creating horizontal prints, dense with information, that are perfect for photographing the landscape.

This format makes them hard to reproduce in print media, which is what led Holownia to produce books where the images could be printed at their actual size, one per page. This newest book, beautifully designed by Robert Tombs, is somewhat smaller (11 x 13 inches), but is still at a scale where the photographs, which make up the bulk of the book, are reproduced at a scale conducive to close looking. And that is exactly what this book draws one to do–to study these images, to look, and look again, seeing both familiar and strange landscapes in a new light.

The book accompanies a full-career retrospective exhibition. The two essays by curator Sarah Fillmore and poet Peter Sanger are informative and engaging, focusing on Holownia’s treatment of the natural world in his work. Between them, the two writers touch on most aspects of Holownia’s long career, but always leave the final word to the photographs themselves.

The Nature of Nature: The Photographs of Thaddeus Holownia, 1976-2016 is a remarkable artefact–a book designed to make photographs come to life in our hands. Featuring reproductions in colour and black and white, the book is a work of art in it itself.

The Nature of Nature: The Photographs of Thaddeus Holownia, 1976-2016
Sarah Fillmore and Peter Sanger
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and Anchorage Press