The Half-Fish

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At the time of his collaboration on his first book Paper Stays Put: A Collection of Inuit Writing, edited by Robin Gedalof and published in 1980, Alootook Ipellie had already established his own distinct style of drawing. While working at Inuit Monthly as a translator, writer, creator of the comic strip Ice Box, designer, photographer and editor, he illustrated and contributed written pieces (including poetry and a story) to the anthology. The curators of the exhibition Alootook Ipellie: Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border write: 

[Paper Stays Put] reflects the complexity and range of the “subjects and styles adopted by Inuit writers,” as Gedalof wrote in the introduction [...] Like his magazine work, Ipellie’s illustrations for Paper Stays Put are precise drawings in black ink that bear witness to his steady hand, confident lines and rich patterns” (Dyck, et al. 7)

The touring exhibition Alootook Ipellie: Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border features five of the illustrations from Paper Stays Put. A viewer familiar with the figure of Nuliajuk, the spirit of the sea, might be captivated by one of these drawings, The Half-Fish. Elder Peter Irniq calls Nuliajuk, “Uinigumasuittuq”, which translates to “one that never wanted to marry” because, in traditional versions of her story, Nuliajuk refuses her father’s orders to choose a partner and instead has babies with a dog. On a kayak trip, her angry father throws her into the sea and when she clings to the side of the kayak, he chops off her fingers. Her fingers become sea mammals. She sinks to the bottom where she now lives, guarded by a dog.

This representation of the story of Nuliajuk (or Sedna, as she is also known) feels both familiar and uncanny, terrifying and inviting. The viewer of the image is privy to quite the scene; a hunter prods the sea spirit who stares at the viewer, sporting an expression of surprise. Harpooning or “catching” Nuliajuk ensures that she will release the sea mammals so that the people may be fed (Oosten 484).

Ipellie’s illustration accompanies a story by a Povungnituk carver, contributed to the anthology by Taivitialuk Alaasuaq. This story “attempts to reconcile the old beliefs with the technology brought North by the white traders” (Gedalof 94). In this version, Nuliajuk is stuck on the shore and is spotted by a hunter. She asks the hunter to help her without touching her, inviting him to instead use the wood he’s harvesting to push her back into the sea. In exchange for this favour, she will reward him. After a lot of effort, the hunter manages to push her back into the water and returns the next day for his reward. The reward comes in the form of a gramophone, sewing machine and gun.

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Ipellie also has his own version of the story in his book Arctic Dreams and Nightmares, published in 1993. His story, titled “Summit with Sedna, Mother of Sea Beasts”, tells of a sexually frustrated Sedna. The shamans meet up and conjure a plan to give her a dream that would satisfy her. The dream ends up featuring the worthy match she never found. While the story featured in Paper Stays Put highlights a tension of the time around technology, this version is more interested in themes of sexuality and gender. Contemporary adaptations like this one ensure and emphasize the enduring relevance of traditional stories.

It is also worth noting that in both of Ipellie’s illustrations of Nuliajuk, she is given the same characteristics; there are, however, some differences. These differences are likely due to her role in both of these stories. In The Half-Fish, she is more of a sympathetic figure in need of assistance, who then bestows gifts to the people. Ipellie shows her with a tail, webbed hands and a braid. In “Summit with Sedna,” she is portrayed as the antagonist, as a villain who must be appeased. The accompanying illustration depicts Sedna with more grotesque facial features, her breasts prominent, webbed hands with eyes on them. In both drawings, Sedna is given braids, indicating that she has had her hair combed (one of the roles of the shaman is to make a journey to the bottom of the sea to comb and braid her hair), and thus has been placated.  

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Representations of Nuliajuk, or Sedna, vary greatly between having the appearance of a sea mammal or that of a mermaid. While some Inuit artists may agree that she is something like a mermaid, others disagree, noting that the figure of the mermaid might have been imported by European mythologies. Instead, they emphasize her role as a creator, as spirit. Either way, her depictions are marked by transformation; in all iterations, her fingers, once chopped off, become sea mammals, and she is often seen with fins or a tail. In Inuit cosmologies, the ability to transform is evidence of the non-rigidity of categories of human/animal, or natural/supernatural (Florence 34-5): “Thus the sea beings represent a timeless and non-social world where the distinction between human beings and animal has collapsed” (Oosten 492).  

Post author: Marie-Anne Redhead

Sources:

Dyck, Sandra, Heather Igloliorte and Christine Lalonde. Exhibition section panel. Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border, 2018.

Florence, Kathryn. Tail/Tale/Tell: The Transformations of Sedna into an Icon of Survivance in the Visual Arts Through the Eyes of Four Contemporary Urban Inuit Artists. 2019. Concordia University, Masters thesis.

Gedalof, Robyn and Alootook Ipellie. Paper Stays Put: A Collection of Inuit Writing. Hurtig, 1980.

Irniq, Peter. “The Story of Nuliajuk.” Canadian Museum of History website (The Canadian History Hall, Origins). Accessed 1 April 2020.

McCall, Sophie, et al., editors. Read, Listen, Tell: Indigenous Stories from Turtle Island. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2017.

Oosten, Jarich, and Laugrand Frédéric. “Representing the ‘Sea Woman’.” Religion and the Arts, vol. 13, no. 4, 2009, pp. 477–495.

Further reading:

Nuliajuk’s Story, Winnipeg Art Gallery.

“The Legend of Nuliajuk (Audio Only, English).” Youtube, uploaded by Taqqut Productions, 11 March 2016.

First image: Alootook Ipellie, Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border, partial installation view. Photo: Karen Asher. Artworks in image, left to right, top to bottom (all by Alootook Ipellie and all ink on paper illustrations published in Paper Stays Put: A Collection of Inuit Writing): Survival in the South by Minnie Aodla Freeman (1980), collection of Annalise and Kur Biedermann, Thayngen, Switzerland; The Half-Fish by Taivitialuk Alaasuaq, collection of E. Gedalof and S. Davies; So You Want to Kill an Eskimo by Anthony Apakark Thrasher, collection of Lynn Jamieson and the late Geoffrey S. Lester; I Make My Living by Carving by Marius Kavotak, collection of Marjorie and Michael P. Kennedy, Vanscoy, Saskatchewan; Ululigarqnaarq by an anonymous author, collection of E. Gedalof and S. Davies.

Second image: Alootook Ipellie, Illustration for The Half-Fish by Taivitialuk Alaasuaq, published in Paper Stays Put: A Collection of Inuit Writing (1980), ink on paper, collection of E. Gedalof and S. Davies; Photo by Justin Wonnacott, courtesy of Carleton University Art Gallery.

Third image: Alootook Ipellie, Illustration for Summit with Sedna, Mother of Sea Beasts, published in Arctic Dreams and Nightmares (1993), ink on paper; Photo from "Alootook Ipellie: Artist, Writer, Dreamer!", April 11, 2013, Zócalo Poets. Accessed April 3, 2020.