OONARK, JESSIE

Jessie (Una) Oonark, OC, RCA (1906–1985) was born near the Haningayok (Back River), Nunavut and was named after her paternal grandfather, Una. Oonark lived the first fifty years of her life in Utkusiksalingmiut camps throughout the region. She pursued traditional tasks, such as processing and sewing caribou and sealskin to produce clothing. The aesthetic qualities of this work would later influence her depiction of Inuit life in drawings and tapestries.

In the 1950s, Oonark and her family settled in Qamani'tuaq (Baker Lake), NU, due to a decline in both caribou populations as well as the market for arctic fox furs. Oonark first began making drawings in the late 1950s. Her works quickly caught the attention of members of both the Qamani'tuaq and Kinngait (Cape Dorset) art communities. A few short years after beginning her drawing career, several of Oonark’s drawings were included in the Cape Dorset Annual Print Collections of 1960 and 1961, notable, as she did not reside in Kinngait.

(Inuit Art Foundation, 2018)