Barnabus Arnasungaaq

According to an Inuit proverb, perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know that they are happy.

This hard black steatite carving of an Inuk (man) is the work of Barnabus Arnasungaaq who lives and carves in Baker Lake (Qamanittuaq), Nunavut Territory, Canada.

Nine Inuit nomadic tribes lived in Baker Lake prior to the arrival of traders and missionaries in 1927. The Hudson Bay Company came in 1926. In 1957 a government school was built - through the 1950s and 1960s Inuit children were brought to the community to further their education. Additional Inuit families came to Baker Lake at that time to be with their children and to take advantage of the health centre built in 1956.

The community's creation was also due a series of famines caused by the "collapse" of caribou herds, which affected the nine nomadic tribes of the area. Many Inuit came to settle in Baker Lake for the stability the community provided.

Born in 1924 in the Kazan River area Barnabus is one of Baker Lake's oldest inhabitants where he and his work have been "an influence in his community and on the art of Keewatin for four decades." Carving programmes began in the community in the early 1960s with Barnabus, according to one observer, as a "major force and contributor to what clearly became the overall style of the tundra artists."

Barnabus' work has been shown in over 100 group and solo shows, in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, France and Canada. His work is in the permanent collections of, for example: the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the McMichael Canadiana Art Collection.

Information mainly from katlilvik.com