First Inuktitut Heritage Minute celebrates Kenojuak Ashevak, the artist behind iconic ‘Enchanted Owl’

It may only be a Heritage Minute, but it covers the legendary and pioneering lifetime of Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak, whose story is now immortalized in the latest Historica Canada vignette.

Created for the first time in the series with Inuktitut narration (along with the requisite French and English versions), the one-minute TV spot launches to the public Thursday in Ashevak’s adopted town of Cape Dorset, Nunavut, where it was also filmed.

“She was a role model to a lot of artists,” her grandson Johnnybou, who portrays his own grandfather in the piece, told CBC News. “Just makes me proud and honoured.”

Almost all the cast members are related to Ashevak, the one exception being Iqaluit actor Miali Buscemi, who plays the artist as a young woman throughout the film.

Ashevak’s sister portrays her in her elderly years in the film.

The National Film Board also produced a 1963 documentary about her.

WATCH: The first Inuktitut-language Heritage Minute

Ashevak, who died at age 85 in 2013 of cancer, was born Oct. 3, 1927 on the southern coast of Baffin Island. She lived her early years in a traditional way: hunting on the land, living in igloos and skin tents.

In the 1950s she married Johnniebo Ashevak, who also did sculpture and drawings. Their work caught the eye of James Houston, an Ontario artist appointed as a federal arts and crafts officer in Cape Dorset. He encouraged them to produce and sell their work.

Their work continued to evolve through the 1960s and in 1966, they moved into the Cape Dorset area so their children could go to school and they were also able to work within a community of artists.

Johnniebo died in 1972.

Kenojuak’s works became highly sought after for their modern interpretations of traditional Inuit art. She became the leading figure of the highly-regarded West Baffin Co-operative print shop and also a carver. Her co-operative colleagues included other well-known artists like Mayoreak Ashoona, Napatchie Pootagook and Pitaloosie Saila

Enchanted Owl

Her most recognizable prints include “Rabbit Eating Seaweed” (1959) and 1960’s “Enchanted Owl” — both of which make appearances in the Heritage Minute as animations that come to life.

A copy of the Rabbit Eating Seaweed print sold for a record-breaking $59,000 at an auction last year.

In fact, the National Gallery of Canada owns more than 50 of her works, including the iconic Enchanted Owl.

The piece features a black and white stylized owl with fanciful feathers, almost peacock like, and coming off the page as if prancing. It was featured in a Canada Post stamp and has been used countless times in projects linked to Inuit art.

In describing her work to the CBC soon after her death, Christine Lalonde, a curator of indigenous art at the National Gallery, noted that Ashevak pushed the boundaries of traditional depictions of animals — making them a little distorted and over-emphasizing certain parts but always maintaining a certain harmony to the image.

Travel and honours

Ashevak travelled the world with her art, from creating a mural for the Canadian pavilion at Expo ‘70 in Osaka, Japan to an exhibition of Inuit prints in Rotterdam in1980 where she met the Dutch Queen. In 2004, she held court in Germany to celebrate the creation of Nunavut with a set of cultural activities.

Many who knew her said she was very modest about her work. Okpik Pitseolak, an artist from Cape Dorset who was also a friend, said at the time of Kenuojak’s death, Ashevak always said she was grateful to have been bestowed her talent.

Among her many honours, Ashevak was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1967 and then in 1982, she was promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada. In 1996 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards and was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2001. She also landed a Governor General’s Award for Visual Arts in 2008 and was appointed to the Order of Nunavut in 2012.