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“Flying Shaman” (2017) SOLD

Artist: ​Inuk Master Sculptor Mattiusi Iyaituk (1950 – cont.), Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec, of Ivujivik, Nunavik

Materials: Weathered whale vertebra, argellate stone and caribou antler (species Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus)

Dimensions: 35.0″ D x 22.75″ W x 15.5″ H

Mattiusi Iyaituk is another master Inuk sculptor. In 2017, John Houston visited his home in Ivujivik, Nunavik, as part of filming “Atautsikut / Leaving None Behind.” The film gathered testimony from Nunavimmiut (Nunavik’s Inuit and Cree) about their founding of co-operatives to break the colonialist monopoly of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Mattiusi was being filmed as he created a sculpture speaking to the co-op theme. When the clouds of stone dust cleared, the parts of Flying Shaman came together – but what exactly did a shaman have to do with the founding of the co-ops? Mattiusi made the connection in this way: “Before the coming of the Qallunaat (Settlers), in the time of the shaman, Inuit lived free. And now, through our co-operatives, we are able to live free once more!”

“Flying Shaman” (2017) has been acquired by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), a purchase through the Louis Couture & Louis Têtu Fund and the Dr. Gurjinder P. Sall Fund.