The Bite Magazine - Autmn/Winter 2020 - Issue 28

biteexhibition British Museum - Arctic Exhibition - Men and Women Dance Fans with her community and making clothes for her husband, she mediates between hunter and animal. The seamstresses sym- bolically regenerate the prey in their sewn garments to ensure future hunting success. On this same subject, Arctic peoples celebrate the seasons, one of which involves masked dancing and drumming, where an- imals are honoured and thanked for giving up their lives. In the past, Inuit communities would put on elaborate masked dances in the winter accompanied by wooden drums covered with walrus-liver membranes. Some drum handles were elab- orately carved, like the wooden one on display with fox teeth and beaded eyes, to represent the shaman’s spirit helpers. Inupiat, Yupiit and Tunumiit donned wooden masks for cere- monial dances focusing on ritual purification, honouring an- imals, and offering gratitude to various spirits. The shamans played important ceremonial roles, sometimes using spirit masks to ensure a prosperous future. The mask dances and other celebrations were also performed as wintertime enter- tainment. Sakha of north-east Russia marked the beginning of their year with a summer festival asking the gods for favoura- ble weather and plentiful pastures. Simon Tookoome of Back River in Nunavut expressed what it felt like to be hungry based on his experience during the 1950s when the caribou disappeared. “We were left waiting, and many died of hunger. My family survived on fish. I left the ig- loo, and I knelt and prayed. Then five healthy caribou appeared on the ice, and I was able to kill them with little effort. I was so grateful that I shook their hooves as a sign of gratitude because they gave themselves up to my hunger. I melted the snow with my mouth and gave them each a drink. This is the traditional way to show thanks.” Artistic references at the exhibition include Nikolai Leon- tyevich Shakhov’s watercolour painting on cotton linen de- picting life for the people of Siberia’s Ob River Valley under Russian state control. It shows how the state annexed indige- nous lands to collect tax in the form of fur, an integral part of Russia’s economy. Another painting shows the Russian Ortho- dox Church within a fortified area aiming to convert locals and playing a pivotal role in Siberia’s colonisation. Kenojuak Ashevak, a notable Inuit artist from Baffin Island, Nunavut created a piece of art called Bears & Owls in 1968, reflecting the history of printmaking in the Arctic. In 1957, James Houston, a government arts administrator, experiment- ed with different printmaking methods in collaboration with sculptors from Kinngait on Baffin Island. They used the local serpentine, a green stone, to make low-relief printing blocks. Two years later, they produced their first print run which in- cluded Ashevak’s work. This detailed exhibition will open the eyes of anyone who thought the Arctic is a pristine, empty frozen and timeless icy world to a whole different reality. With so much more than what is written here, I have learned a great deal about indige- nous peoples in various regions, their traditions, survival skills, creativity both in art and instruments. Also, the importance of community and the pressing issue with the climate change in the Arctic that could leave it iceless in the next 80 years. The Arctic: Culture and Climate exhibition run until 21 Febru- ary 2021 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Lon- don WC1B 3DG. www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/arctic-culture-and-cli- mate