Pangnirtung Tapestries are characterized by a unique collaboration between artist and weaver. The images used in the tapestries begin as drawings commissioned from local artists. These are interpreted by the weaver, who will select the size, colour and composition of the image as it will be expressed in wool fibre. The weaver may refer back to the artist for confirmation, but will make the critical artistic choices which will determine the final appearance of the tapestry.

Woven Tapestry
Approx. 31.5 x 43.5"

Geela Keenainak of Pangnirtung began the art of weaving in 1981, making small sashes to put on women’s parkas. In the next 21 years, she became a master at the loom, weaving images of animals and landscapes onto large wall hangings.

Elisapee Ishulutaq (Inuktitut: ᐃᓕᓴᐱ ᐃᓱᓗᑕᖅ, 1925 – 2018) recipient of the 2014 Order of Canada, was a renowned artist whose drawings, paintings and sculpture offer recollections of traditional life often contrasted with her experiences and issues of the contemporary world.

Ishulutaq's work was driven by a narrative thread that paired traditional ways of life, before settlements, alongside contemporary social and environmental issues affecting Inuit across the North. She was born in 1925 at Kagiqtuqjuaq, a small seasonal camp in the Northwest Territories and moved to Pangnirtung, NU in the late 1960s where she began her artistic practice. She is among the first artists to make prints with the Pangnirtung Co-operative, now the Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts & Crafts.