Additional Images

Provenance:

These graphics Acquired directly from the artist by the vendor in 1983 during his travels to Holman Island. Here, he was under the tour guidance of Wallace Goose, Nanogak’s husband.

These original drawings were not initially meant for sale. Rather, their purpose was intended to accompany the story of Anikniyak in Nanogak’s 1986 publication More Tales from the Igloo.

Note:

A married couple who had no children lived together with the husband’s younger brother, who did not have a wife. The younger brother wished the couple would have a little girl that he could adopt. The woman later gave birth to a boy but the couple decided to dress the boy as a girl so as to please the uncle. Their plan worked until one day, while hunting with his uncle, the little boy had to relieve himself and it was revealed that he was not the little girl the uncle had cared for. Angered, the uncle trapped the boy in a sealskin float and set him adrift.
Eventually the float came to a distant shore where it was found and opened by a group of girls. Upon hearing the boy's story, the girls took great pity on him, cleaned him, and brought him home where their parents adopted the boy. His adopted parents named him “Anikniak”. Anikniak grew to be a great hunter, even learning to fly using eagle skins. One day while flying, he recognized his uncle kayaking. Anikniak swooped down and picked up his uncle. He flew higher and higher until all the earth became blue and released his uncle who fell down and down.

A more detailed account of the story can be found in Agnes Nanogak, More Tales from the Igloo, Hurtig, 1986