Nunavut Communities

(formerly Eskimo Point) stone sculpture is the least naturalistic of all Inuit sculpture, having minimal detail. The hard local steatite lends itself to this style which is often used for family or maternal scenes. Birds, animals and hunting scenes are carved from antler.

the only inland community in Canada's Artic, is renowned for large, heavy, dynamic carvings of hunters and animals made from heavy Keewatin stone. Animal human transformations are also common.

sculptors use whalebone or stone (light, dark green or black.)

is the centre of whalebone carving in the Artic. Light green stone from northern Baffin Island is also used. Pieces can be realistic portrayals of animals, humans and hunting scenes or can be whimsical and humorous (e.g.. dancing and waving walruses, whale vertebrae carved with Janus faces.)

artists carve in walrus ivory, soap stone, whalebone and rare white limestone unique to Coral Harbour.

artists stylistically dominate the art of the Central Artic. They combine stone, whalebone, ivory and musk-ox horn. Hard dark green and black stone replaces earlier imported translucent green stone.

sculptures can be as powerful as those of Igloolik, or soft edged like those of Clyde River and Pond Inlet.

stone is dull grey and is unpolished. Light green stone is imported from Baffin Island. Both mythological characters and the hunt are portrayed realistically.

(formerly Frobisher Bay), as the administrative centre for the eastern Northwest Territories, attracts artists from all over the Baffin Region. Animals are often depicted flamboyantly realistically, but in heroic or unusual poses.

is best known for small composite depictions of traditional camplife. Pieces combine stone with wood, copper, whalebone and antler. Igloos with detachable tops are examples of these descriptive forms.

sculpture is usually black stone but can be whalebone, and depicts animals, humans and shamanic or mythological subjects.

produces ivory miniatures as well as some in antler and stone.

as a regional centre, produces a wide range of sculpture, from rough, simple and abstract to very naturalistic, in the hard gray to black Keewatin stone or in ivory.

miniatures of animals or genre scenes, in ivory, stone and antler are reminiscent of those made for whalers in the Historic Period.

carvings are detailed and polished representations of Artic wildlife made from the prized argillite stone which can be light green to black and can have a striped grain.

sculpture is noted for its mix of the profoundly spiritual with the amusing. Stone has replaced whalebone as the main carving material.