Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Coppermine (Aug 27/01) - Things have changed since June Klengenberg first picked up a sewing needle.

Required to learn the art when she got married, Klengenberg (through translator Bessie Sitatak) said canvas kamiks were the first object she tried her hand at all those years ago.

Kerry June Klengenberg displays some of the fabulous sewing she has become famous for. - McCluskey/NNSL photo

"I started with kamiks and then I got into fur mukluks," said Klengenberg, last week during the Nunavut Arts Festival in Cambridge Bay.

Klengenberg was one of some 50 artists invited to attend the annual event. The Coppermine resident brought along several samples of the fine stitching she has become well known for to sell to appreciative buyers.

"I sewed everything," she said.

"Even for spring and summertime, I used to make all the waterproof kamiks," she said.

While she originally began her craft as a way to clothe her husband and children, Klengenberg now uses her skills to support her grandchildren. She said it's often hard to make ends meet as an artisan in Kugluktuk, "but I do like to pass my time sewing."

And, just as the reasons behind her work have changed, so has the manner in which she acquires her material. Whereas Klengenberg may formerly have gone out and personally harvested the 60 hikhiks (squirrels) it takes to make a woman's parka, she is no longer able to go out hunting.

This forces her to rely on local harvesters to provide her with skins.

Klengenberg said she misses hunting and travelling on the land and thinks of it often as she stitches garments.

"Sewing is what I like to do most these days," said Klengenberg.

"I often think about all the places I've been to hunt and where I've been out on the land. I miss that when I think about it. I like to reflect on it."