6 minute read
Generations of Storytelling
A design by artist Jason Sikoak is featured A design by artist Jason Sikoak is featured on a new silver coin from the Royal Canadian Mint. on a new silver coin from the Royal Canadian Mint.
BY NICOLA RYAN
Full 40 fathoms deep she’s said to dwell. Half woman, half fish; floating in the inky depths of the Arctic Ocean. For thousands of years she’s been known to the people of the Inuit Nunangat, though they usually only whisper her name –Sedna, goddess of the sea.
Inuk artist Jason Sikoak heard the story of Sedna growing up in Rigolet, on the north coast of Labrador, as he watched his uncle carve and create art.
“I started creating artwork when I was really young,” Jason says. “I got into it watching my Uncle Jack Mugford carve and whatnot as he passed the time. When I got older I started creating on my own, pencil and paper starting out.” Jason’s now an art student at Concordia in Montreal, QC, working on a Bachelor of Fine Arts double major in Studio Arts and Art History. His work is featured on a new commemorative silver coin from the Royal Canadian Mint, part of the Mint’s Generations series celebrating Indigenous storytelling and the art of gifting knowledge.
The competition came as a surprise to Jason. “It was in the middle of hardcore [pandemic] lockdown here in Montreal; it was pretty bleak. I opened my email one day and there was this email
from the Royal Canadian Mint –which at first I thought was spam,” he chuckles. “It said they were given my name by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the national Inuit organization. So I opened the email and it was like, you can submit your artwork to be entered into the competition for the Generations series, which features Inuit and Métis First Nations coins all in sterling silver.
“I came up with a design that I thought would represent Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland, best,” he continues. “And the one story I could think of was the story of Sedna. That story is told all across the North, and I figured that’d be good.”
The story Jason knows, and he’s thoughtful to point out that there are many variations and he’s only speaking from his own experience, goes like this: Willful Sedna is cast into the sea by her angry father. When she grabs ahold of his kayak, he chops off her fingers. The severed pieces are transformed into all the animals of the sea, and Sedna controls them from her watery realm. For the Inuit who depend on marine mammals for survival, keeping Sedna happy is the difference between life and death.
“The very quick version is when we do something wrong that displeases her, like act in a way that’s not proper, I guess, she’s upset and her hair becomes very tangled. She captures all the sea mammals in her hair and that’s when hunting is poor and food is scarce. So then someone has to perform a ceremony where they sing to her or comb and braid her hair and make her happy again – thus releasing all the sea animals back for successful hunting – to appease her.”
Inuit mythology is a theme Jason has been exploring in his artwork, and he thinks it’s neat that folks from Greenland to Alaska share the same reverence for Sedna. “Thinking about back in the day, way back, travel between different regions and communities wasn’t unheard of, but it was very rare. So for all of Inuit Nunangat to have slightly different versions of the same story is pretty amazing. Maybe there’s some truth to it,” he adds mysteriously.
Jason’s decision to enter the competition was inspired by his admiration for another Inuk artist. “Years ago, when Nunavut ratified their land claims agreement, the Mint celebrated by minting Germaine Arnaktauyok’s design on the toonie,” he recounts, describing Canada’s first $2 commem-
orative circulation coin, which featured Nunavummiut artist Germaine Arnaktauyok’s design of a stylized Inuk drum dancer on an outline map of Nunavut. “I held one in my hand years ago and was like, ‘Maybe someday my artwork will be here. Hopefully, one day I’ll be good enough.’”
Jason said he submitted his design and promptly forgot about it in the weird time warp of the pandemic, until one day about month later, when he got a call from the Mint. “And the person on the other end of the line said, ‘Congratulations, your design has been accepted!’ I think we talked for another 10 minutes, but I can’t remember much of the conversation after that. I was just blown away.”
Jason’s coin was the first in the Generations series, which celebrates Indigenous storytelling and the passing down of knowledge. “In Labrador, we were colonized very early. A lot of our customs, traditions, traditional storytelling were lost throughout the ages,” he says. “But it seems like this story is one that we’ve always heard. The younger generation, like younger than me – I’m pretty old – are now coming into their own thanks to our land claims, and teaching, and learning from elders and whatnot. So I’m hoping that this is helping in some way.”
The one-ounce sterling silver coin is available on the Mint’s website and there is a limited run of 5,000. “I got one and held it in my hand,” Jason says, and he sounds like maybe he’s still not sure it’s real.
But it sure is real. This past summer, Jason was at the Inuit Studies Conference in Winnipeg, MB. “Just randomly, at the Winnipeg Art Gallery gift shop, I saw a sign saying that Germaine Arnaktauyok is going to be here signing autographs. So I grabbed her book, My Name is Arnaktauyok, and I have a picture of me uglycrying meeting Germaine. It was pretty amazing. And she held my coin in her hand. Like, that whole story for me just came full circle right there.”
Jason dreams of being an artist full time. “Someday I hope to open my own studio. Not just a studio for me, but I could bring in emerging artists as a teaching residency; and bring in other Inuit artists that are in the field of interest of the people that come in; and have it as a working/teaching group with a gallery attached. As for right now, I might jump right into my masters after I’m done this – I know, sucker for punishment. I’m finally living my dream of being in art school, and it’s awesome.”
