Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (July 26/02) - The Great Northern Arts Festival brings artists and their buyers together, which helps put food on the artist's table.

But it does so much more in promoting the legacy of legends and culture that was nearly lost through European influence.

Derrald Pokiak Taylor of Tuktoyaktuk carves the stories of his ancestors into stone and bone. He's inspired by the fact that once he tells the story in his art, the story is told and retold.

"When I finish a piece it may leave here, but the legend lives on everytime someone sees the work," Taylor said.

William Gruben says as well as preserving the legends, the carvings he makes help tell the world about the people of the North.

"We want to educate other people with our legends and stories to help them understand who we are and how we think," Gruben said.

While now the artists are proud to share their culture, Gruben said it was not always that way with his generation, who felt like they had to hide their language and culture when they entered residential schools.

"It carried over to us thinking that it was a shameful aspect of our history that we should try to forget," Gruben said. "Our generation is only now starting to realize the importance of our history, our legends and our stories to create a sense of pride in who we are."

Driving force

"I think that's what drives a lot of us artists in carving some of these stories, so that the younger folk can ask us questions about what it is our parents used to believe in, prior to southern culture coming up here," he said.

Karen Wright-Fraser is originally from Inuvik but now calls Yellowknife home.

Over the past year, she's been working with the Gwich'in Cultural Institute to replicate ancient Gwich'in clothing.

Her clothing is her art and her inspiration for her work comes from her dedication to restore a part of her people's culture that was almost lost.

"We've lost so much of our traditional clothing," Wright-Fraser said. "For the young people, that is so important. We already lost our language and we're slowly trying to capture that back, but the clothing is just as important."

"It makes you feel like you are part of something important and helps you realize where you came from -- it helps to build your self-esteem."

Grandma's legend

As Esa Qilliaq from Clyde River carves a dancing walrus from a legend his grandmother retold to him. He says the best art comes from good stone and a good legend.

"You go with the stone you have and the stories you know and what other people have told you," he said.

"Sometimes the artwork sells just from story. It might not be a perfect, glossy piece, but it will be something with a great story that's important to many people."

Tuk carver Eli Nasogaluak draws his inspiration from his interaction from other carvers and classic artist, but more importantly, from the culture of his people and the impact of change on that culture.

"I try to speak to how the impact of the other cultures have changed our lives," Nasogaluak said. "I've seen a lot of changes in my lifetime. Coming from Tuktoyaktuk -- a small town without any power or running water -- to today, an age with computers and things."

"There have been so many vast changes in a short period of time and the impact of those changes have had a great effect on our culture."

"I try to show what it feels like to be caught in-between," he said. "I try to portray that feeling, that sense of loss -- the loss of identity, of who you really are."