Admiring Sedna (Sea Goddess) by Victoria Mamnguqsualuk, Inuit

Admiring Sedna (Sea Goddess), c. 1990
by Victoria Mamnguqsualuk (1930-2016), Inuit
Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake), Nunavut, Canada
colored pencil and crayon on arches paper
22.5" high x 30" wide, paper size

Sedna is the Inuit goddess of the sea and marine life, ruling over the ocean's creatures from her underwater kingdom. Once human, she became a goddess after her father, in a tragic accident, cut off her fingers when she clung to his kayak in the sea. Her fingers became the seals, whales, and walruses who revered her as their creator. Most importantly, Sedna controls the supply of marine animals, and the people must appease her through offerings or have a shaman comb her hair to appease her in order to ensure a successful hunt. In this drawing, the people and sea creatures are admiring Sedna, in hopes she will bestow them with bounty.

Inuit artist Victoria Mamnguqsualuk (1930-2016) learned many tales from her grandmother of animals and mythological creatures and brought them to life in ink, crayon, colored pencil, and tapestries. She learned many tales from her grandmother of animals who both helped and hindered Inuit existence. Alongside her mother, renowned Baker Lake artist Jessie Oonark, Mamnguqsualuk used her skills to create storied tapestries and expanded her artistic repertoire to include drawing and carving.

For the first thirty years of her life, Mamnguqsualuk led a hunting lifestyle as a result of her people’s seasonal migration on the land of Back River, Northwest Territories. She moved to Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake), Nunavut, in 1963 due to widespread famine and disease. Here, she became a major artist of the Sanavik Co-operative, showing eight of her prints in the first Baker Lake Print Collection in 1970.

Mamnguqsualuk’s style features confident and diverse lines that create a landscape in motion—one filled with people, animals, and beings from the spirit world. There are no empty arctic vistas in her work. Her early drawings convey how communities must work together to survive, which requires a careful caretaking relationship with animals and spirits.

Mamnguqsualuk's works have appeared in nearly 100 exhibitions in Canada, the United States and internationally. Her art can be found in numerous permanent collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery, National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Museum of Civilization.