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Elders remembered in art Casey Lessard Northern News Services Published Monday, September 26, 2011
Mary-Rousseliere was a Catholic priest who spent most of his career working throughout the North, documenting the Inuit people in pencil, India ink, charcoal, photography and film. "We grew up with a lot of these images," Kublu said, "because a lot of them were published in Eskimo magazine," the diocesan publication he edited from 1953 to 1994. For Kublu, many of the works feature familiar faces as Fr. Mary-Rousseliere used many of her family members from Iglulik as subjects. "He was quite gifted and skillful," said Bishop Reynold Rouleau, head of the Churchill-Hudson Bay diocese, noting Fr. Mary-Rousseliere had no professional training. The diocese has about half of his work, Bishop Rouleau noted, with 32 sketches on display at the legislature. In addition, a glass case holds a copy of the National Geographic magazine that featured his photos of Inuit life. Born in France and fluent in Inuktitut, Mary-Rousseliere documented the names of many Northern communities in Inuktitut. After working in Iglulik, Qamanittuaq/Baker Lake, Naujaa/Repulse Bay, Kugaaruk/Pelly Bay, Ununirusiq/Arctic Bay, and Nanisivik, he moved to Pond Inlet in 1958 and stayed there until his death in a fire at the mission in 1994. Before his death, he wrote many scholarly articles, three books, and won the Northern Science Award for his lifetime contributions to Northern science. The exhibit of Fr. Mary-Rousseliere's art is open to the public and on display until December 1. Serapio Ittusardjuat, originally of Iglulik, reflected on a portrait of his grandfather while at the opening of the exhibit on Sept. 13, and saw many familiar faces on the walls, including his grandparents, great-grandfather and other extended family. "I watched him do this one," he said of his grandfather's portrait.
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