Isuma at Small Arms

In April 1961, the Cold War is heating up in Berlin and nuclear bombers are being deployed from bases in Arctic Canada. In Kapuivik, north Baffin Island, Noah Piugattuk and his family live and hunt by dog team as his ancestors did when he was born in 1900. When the white man known as Boss arrives at Piugattuk’s hunting camp, what appears as a chance meeting opens up the prospect of momentous change. Boss is a govern- ment agent assigned to get Piugattuk to move his family to a settlement and send his children to school. But Kapuivik is Piugattuk’s homeland.

ᓄᐊᐱᐅᒑᑦᑑᑉᐅᓪᓗᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᖓ One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk is presented in conjunction with Isuma’s exhibition commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada, on view at the Canadian Pavilion, 58th Venice Biennale, until Nov 24. The complete film is on iTunes at isuma.tv/movies.

Qaggiq: Gathering Place, a related exhibition of work by Isuma co-curated by asinnajaq and Barbara Fisher, is on view Sept 18–Nov 30 at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto. For more information, please visit artmuseum.utoronto.ca.