Mary Ningiuk Elijassiapik (1957- )
Inukjuak, Nunavut; also Iqaluit and Montreal
2009
35" x 31"

This wallhanging contains very finely detailed work which illustrates a myriad of activities occuring at lunchtime at a lake. 17 Inuit are shown, some preparing fish for a meal, some fishing or fetching water from the lake for tea, others preparing cooking pots to heat and soften the curls of hardened bannock, and some already hoisting mugs of tea being poured from teapots. Two women, at bottom left in the image, are just arriving at the campsite, one with a baby in her amouti and the other leading her older child by the hand while carrying a caribou skin water bucket in the other hand.

Some of the meticulous detail that is shown includes a kettle on the boil over flames shooting out from a fire pit, a young girl with braids wielding a small ulu to help her mother cut up the fish, a pot with white cooled oil, and a man seated on a rock who is holding up a piece of meat for his son, who is standing on another rock, to eat.

The artist, inspired by her late father Davidee Ningeok's carvings and oil paintings, started making tapestries in 2006. She had done knitting and crochet work since 1975. She likes to tell Inuit legend stories in her artwork and is also motivated to show scenes of traditional Inuit life on the land. A favourite real-life story was about how her grandfather Oomayoualuk was saved by another family. One of her favourite pastimes has been fishing in both summer and winter, but these days she is more occupied with her art, bingo and going to festivals.

Embroidery stitches: chain, stem, incomplete chain, satin, seed, arrowhead-shaped linked chain, and buttonhole.