Nunatsiavummiut Art for Sustainability
Artists: Eldred Allen, Julia Andersen, Emelia Angnatok, Roberta Baikie-Andersen, Katelyn Jacque, Maura Jacque, Anika Nochasak, Belinda Shiwak, Jacqueline Winters
Art and science are not opposites, but complementary ways of understanding the world. Where research measures and classifies, artistic practice attends to lived experience, memory, and cultural connection. Together, they open new ways of seeing.
The artworks in this exhibition were created through the Sustainable Nunatsiavut Futures (SNF) Arts Collective, an initiative within the broader SNF research project. Developed in partnership with the Nunatsiavut Government, SNF explores how knowledge can be created and shared in ways that respect Inuit culture, priorities, and self-determination. The Arts Collective connects contemporary Inuit artists with researchers working across the Labrador Inuit Settlement Area. Some artists worked in residence at The Rooms, while others stayed in their home communities.
Each artist addresses key issues shaping life in Nunatsiavut today, including climate change, food security, and self-determination. Using photography, textiles, beadwork, sculpture, and mixed media, their work is rooted in relationships with land, water, and intergenerational knowledge. Throughout these methods, a common commitment arises: to connection—between people and land, past and future, art and research.
Rather than offering answers, these works invite reflection on how knowledge is formed, whose voices are heard, and how more just and responsive futures might be imagined.
Co-Curators: Jessica Winters (Co-Lead of the Sustainable Nunatsiavut Futures Arts Collective and Nunatsiavut Artist) and Dr. Melanie Zurba (Co-Lead of the Sustainable Nunatsiavut Futures Arts Collective and an Associate Professor at the School for Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University).
Sustainable Nunatsiavut Futures (SNF) is a project led by the Nunatsiavut Government, Memorial University, and Dalhousie University, and is funded by the Ocean Frontiers Institute. The first cohort of SNF Arts Collective residents was hosted in collaboration with The Rooms.
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Image: Katelyn Jacque. Disoriented (2024). Photo collage. 29.3 x 43.6 cm each (series). Collection of the artist.