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INUVIK
As he explains it, James Wedzin is not really an artist, he is an explorer of the history of his people and art is the means through which he relays what he has learned.

"Our history is more important than anything else, and I'm telling it through art," said Wedzin.

The 38-year-old Tlicho artist was born and raised in Behchoko, where he lives with his wife and three children.

He attended the Canadian North Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik last week as a painter, but in reality Wedzin's art spans many mediums - from carving to jewelry making, to traditional art, to welding, back to canvas.

Wedzin was raised by his grandmother. He remembers watching her do bead work and sewing while he was a child. The care with which she picked her beads, selecting just the right colour, influences how he chooses the hues to put in his paintings and other work.

"It's like her words and her wisdom are travelling through me now," he said.

Growing up in a small, isolated community with more than its share of social issues such as alcoholism wasn't easy, but a natural gift for making art - along with the influence of his grandmother and community elders - got him through, said Wedzin.

"Growing up in Behchoko was really rough - ups and downs - but art was always there," he said.

When he was young, there were no art teachers to guide him on his way.

"Nobody was teaching me how to do art," he said "Now I want to give back to the kids."

He said that many of the youth he sees are struggling with a loss of identity.

In losing cultural heritage, in losing language, people are losing their self-respect and that leads to destructive habits, he said.

He credits his grandmother and other community elders with teaching him about the land and the history of his people.

In recent years, Wedzin has been digging deeper and deeper into his cultural roots, using it to inspire both his work and how he lives his life.

"It's really important how I represent myself and my culture," said Wedzin.

For him, art is as much about the physical piece as it is about the story behind it.

"That person is not interested in my work only, they're interested in what I have to say," he said.

When he first started selling art, Wedzin said he would get a lot of requests for stereotypical Northern images, including paintings of polar bears - an animal never seen near his home in the southern half of the territory.

"I was doing what they want, not what I want," he said. "Now, my attitudes have changed."

Wedzin returned to Behchoko about one year ago after studying art in British Columbia. Since then, he has had a new attitude toward the work he does. He is no longer thinking at all about the money a certain piece will make and is instead focusing on bringing the history of his people out in his work.

"I want to come here with the attitude, 'This is who I am, this is what I do,'" he said.

Once he came to this realization, he said people started to have stronger reactions to his work. More than one buyer has come to tears over the piece they add to their collection, a reaction he said touches him very deeply every time.

One particular comment that sticks with Wedzin was a man who told him, "I am related to your art."

Wedzin is working on a new show, tentatively scheduled to be released next fall. While he is reluctant to disclose exactly what the show will entail, the main purpose will be to present the stories of all native cultures in one exhibit.

"The art is going to present itself, with or without me," he said.

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