Love of land inspires art
'I just picture the time when we were out'
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 22, 2014
UQSUQTUUQ/GJOA HAVEN
As a young girl, Georgina Porter watched her mother sew wall hangings, although she never did pursue the art herself.
Georgina Porter receives her certificate of appreciation as the most outstanding student of the Nattilik Heritage Centre Doll-making and Wall-hanging Workshop 2014 from heritage society president Jacob Keanik. |
"It runs in the family. I watched her sew them, but I didn't know how to make them back then. I never asked her questions " said Porter.
But, last year, the Nattilik Heritage Centre ran a doll making and wall hanging workshop.
The centre put out the word that anyone interested in learning these arts could participate. In particular, Porter wanted to learn about wall hangings. Three elders led the workshop.
"I wanted to know how they do it, how they put it together … the background, the detailing, embroidering. I knew I had that skill. I knew it when I was a young girl."
As a child, Porter would always draw. This is a step in the creation of wall hangings – drawing out the scene that will be shown on the hanging.
"It feels like I had that skill."
Porter did sew before the course, but she wanted to learn how to bring the sewing and the drawing together.
"I picture scenes, first. I get these ideas because I've been going out camping a lot, growing up, going out on the land with an elderly granny."
Porter's grandmother also sewed but, in her case, it was caribou clothing.
"I used to watch my mum and my granny sew a lot. And it just made me want to try…"
She tells stories through her wall hangings.
"Mainly, what I've seen out on the land. It's about being out on the land."
The family lived in town, but every year – spring and summer – they would spend a lot of time outside town, camping.
"When I want to make a wall hanging, I picture those (memories)."
She likes showing people as much as she likes showing animals in her art, depicting them being and moving out on the land.
One hanging can take about two days, if she's left undisturbed. She laughs because as a mother to seven children, five in her care, she has busy days.
"I have to take care of my kids. But if I had no one bothering me I would just keep going."
Porter has created about a dozen wall hangings. She would sew more, but it's a matter of finding buyers, she said. The potential to sell her wall hangings will increase dramatically when traffic through Gjoa Haven increases – an expected benefit of being the community nearest the discovery of the sunken Franklin ship HMS Erebus.
Porter has found a way of expressing herself, the images she has of the land and the activities on the land, and she has no intention of stopping. She loves doing it. And the workshop left her feeling that she was right – she can do it.
Porter loves making wall hangings because she loves being out on the land, she said.
"I just picture the time when we were out."
