WINNIPEG - The Inuit Dolls of the Kivalliq exhibit is currently on display in the Winnipeg Art Gallery and is receiving great feedback, according to curator of Inuit Art, Darlene Wight.

Sanaaq Pee of Coral Harbour created this doll as part of the Dolls of the Kivalliq project currently on display in the Winnipeg Art Gallery. - photo courtesy of Winnipeg Art Gallery

"I've given a couple of tours and people have been absolutely intrigued by the dolls," Wight said. "They obviously reflect quite a lot of traditional culture, the costumes that would have been made traditionally by the ladies."

The Dolls of the Kivalliq project began in Rankin Inlet in 2005, according to Helen AbenReynen, one of the founders of the project.

"Under (Pulaarvik's) umbrella, we received funding from the strategic investment plan in the amount of $40,000 to create a workshop with around 15 artists," she said. Within two years following the initial workshop, communities throughout the Kivalliq region created their own doll projects and more than 250 dolls were created by the end of 2007.

Of those, Wight and the curator of the Burnaby Art Museum chose 65 that would form a travelling art exhibition, which began in Burnaby last year.

Wight said visitors to the Winnipeg gallery have been most impressed by the quality of work involved in making the dolls.

"The sewing is stunning. There are a lot of really beautifully-beaded parkas, especially the female parkas with really intricate beading and stitch work," she said. "People really appreciate the high degree of skill that goes into making something like that."

Wight said the dolls also offer a glimpse into traditional Inuit daily life.

"A lot of the dolls are actually doing things, they might be ice fishing or holding a harpoon or looking after babies so they're really quite interesting from a cultural point of view."

Dollmaker Sanaaq Pee from Coral Harbour made a doll wearing sealskin and snow goggles during the project.

She said she chose to construct her doll to reflect the clothing traditionally worn by Inuit.

"That's how the men used to dress back in 1950s or earlier years," she said.

Wight said the women combined modern and traditional materials to give the dolls their unique look.

"They learned how to use the polymer clays for faces and some of the dolls have hands so they were trying to teach themselves how to use some of these newer materials in conjunction with caribou fur and sealskin and some of the things they would have used traditionally," she said.

Wight said the dolls will be on display in the Winnipeg gallery until Sept. 13 and are scheduled to travel to the Inuit Art museum in Toronto in early October.