Caribou Hide Mask of Elder
By Mabel Paneak Burris (1942-2018), Iñupiat Culture
caribou hide, fox and seal fur
17.5” high x 10.5” long x 3” deep
Nunamiut regalia and mask maker Mabel (Paneak) Sikiagruk Burris (1942-2018) grew up on the land and lived a subsistence lifestyle near Chandler Lake in the Anaktuvuk Pass of central Alaska.
The Nunamiut, People of the Caribou, consider caribou the foundation of their history and a symbol of their unique inland culture. The Caribou hide masks exist at the intersection of traditional and modern Iñupiat culture. They are made exclusively for sale, as “tourist art” but are firmly rooted in traditional Iñupiat culture. They evoke historic and pre-historic traditions in the way they are made, in the materials used to make them, in the expressive faces they portray, and in the symbolic meaning they convey. At the same time, they represent one of the ways the Iñupiat are adapting to the changes brought to them by southerners over the last hundred years.
