Additional Images

Provenance:

Miqsuvik Sewing Shop, Qamani'tuaq, NU, 6 May 1977
The Collection of David Sutherland, Victoria, BC

Note:

Untitled (Spirits and Animals) is from the important lifetime collection of David Sutherland, former Northwest Territories Arts and Crafts Development Officer.

An artist in his own right, and former student of the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr Institute), Sutherland developed a lifelong passion for Inuit art, and was an outspoken advocate and author on all matters Inuit, in addition to his role for over 20 years as Northwest Territories Arts and Crafts Development Officer.

Sutherland and his wife Aiko were popular residents in the various locations in which they were posted, including Inuvik, Churchill, and Yellowknife. Successful in his work, he had to decline promotions to be able to stay in the Arctic, where he continued to develop artists’ facilities into environments of creativity and self-discipline—values not reinforced by all of Sutherland’s predecessors.

Sutherland’s work brought him into intimate contact with important artists who he continued to champion after his retirement from his post in 1986, including Marion Tuu'luq, Janet Kigusiuq, John Pangnark, Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok, John Kavik, Andy Miki, Luke Iksiktaaryuk, Mathew Aqigaaq and countless others. An avid collector, Sutherland also purchased works, primarily from the Miqsuvik Sewing Shop, and other craft stores in the communities in which he served.

Gunther Abrahamson, “David Sutherland (1931-2004),” Inuit Art Quarterly. Vol. 20. No. 1, Spring, 2025, 43.
Marie Bouchard, Marion Tuu’luq (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2002), 100.