- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Wooden doll in female costume of parka, leggings and boots. [MJD 19/08/2009]
- Long description
- Wooden doll in female costume of parka, leggings and boots. The doll is wearing two parkas, closely fitting one on top of the other. Both parkas have large hoods, short arms, square front panels and long tail panels. The parka closest to the body is decorated with white, red and blue beads. The collar of the inner parka is bound with a strip of textile. The leggings are constructed from strips of white and brown skin. The face of the doll is drawn onto the wood. [MJD 19/08/2009]
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1918
- Date collected
- By 1918
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1918
- Materials and processes
- Material Wood Plant, Material Caribou Skin Deer Animal, Material Textile, Material Bead, Material Animal Sinew, Process Stitched, Process Beadwork, Process Drawn, Process Carved
- Dimensions
- Length: max 185 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1918.25.14
- Research and responses
This object was looked at in the display case by Carole Charette and Bernard Houde (Faculty of Fine Arts and Communications, MacEwan University, Alberta, Canada). The visit took place July 27 2015. [NC 27/07/2015]
Historically, through the playful act of making clothes for their dolls, Inuit children would learn the essential skill of making garments suitable for arctic climates. Creating this clothing in miniature was excellent practice for girls who would be expected to make the full-size garments in adulthood. This involved learning the making process from start to finish, including scraping and tanning animal hides, spinning thread and weaving it into cloth, and using animal sinew to sew boots. As well as teaching survival skills, creating doll clothing was, and still is, a way for Inuit makers to explore the traditional motifs used within their communities: “The Northern Slavey women are well-known for beading flower motifs and precision beadwork. Northern Tuchone women are known for beading wolf and raven symbols with bold use of colour and fringing. Tlingit women are known for their button blankets with symbols of the beaver, frog, eagle and killer whale.”
Just like many dolls cross-culturally, Inuit dolls have also been used to teach girls how to care for babies. A series of interviews carried out in 2000 by students at the Nunavut Arctic College with Inuit Elders reveals the nuances of these childcare practices. One Elder, Uqsuralik, recounts that boys would carry babies on their backs for their mothers so that they would become strong and successful at catching beluga whales. Another Elder, Naqi, explained that parents always took care to not allow girls that were too young to carry babies on their backs as they feared this could result in future lung problems, so using dolls was a more favourable option. There are examples of Inuit dolls wearing an amauti containing a baby doll, replicating the garments and childcare practices of Inuit women in miniature. Children would also carry their dolls around in their hoods, mimicking their mothers’ behaviour.
Learning about childcare and making clothing wasn’t the only type of doll play that Inuit children would engage in. There are several examples of Inuit dolls representing men sitting in wooden fishing kayaks and others holding miniature weapons. Playing with “male dolls” wasn’t just limited to just boys though. Inuit elder Naqi told her interviewer how girls in her area would put their dolls in the basin, imitating their parents during the summer boating season. It is true that Inuit men would traditionally be in charge of hunting, while Inuit women would be in charge of the household. However, Inuit women have always been free to learn traditionally male skills and there are recorded cases of many women trapping foxes and hunting seals and small game. Conversely, men who spent time away from their home base for extended periods would have been expected to know how to sew and cook. These more egalitarian attitudes within traditional Inuit culture are reflected in Inuit doll play. Girls on Sivuqaq (St. Lawrence Island) were observed trapping small mammals such as mice, lemmings, and arctic squirrels that they would skin to make clothing for their dolls. Similarly, some older examples of packing dolls representing Inuit men were made with storage pouches that allowed children to carry consumables like loose leaf tea when camps were on the move.
The purpose of Inuit dolls as teaching aids for children transformed over time as colonial influences and materialism began to impact Inuit societies and their way of life. In the Sewing our traditions exhibition book, one Inuit maker named Irene describes how she learned to make dolls from her mother in the 1950s. They were made for tourists and Christmas presents, making them multi-purpose dolls that were teaching aids, for play, and for sale. Many other women interviewed for this exhibition have similar stories. Inuit peoples have had to adapt to a consumerist society that, while celebrating their indigenous crafts as beautiful works of art, simultaneously commodifies their material heritage. This will have certainly changed how Inuit children view dolls. In the past, girls learning how to make dolls’ animal hide clothing was an essential skill needed to survive in cold climates. Now, for many Inuit makers, selling dolls is important for economic survival in a capitalist landscape.
Sources:
Ekho, N. and Ottokie, U. (2000). Interviewing Inuit Elders, Volume 3: Childrearing Practices, Nunavut Arctic College. Available at: http://traditional-knowledge.ca/english/pdf/Childrearing-Practices-E.pdf
Guemple, L. (1986). Men and Women, Husbands and Wives: The Role of Gender in Traditional Inuit Society. Études/Inuit/Studies, 10(1/2), pp.9–24. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42869538
Peel Art Gallery, Museum + Archives. (2020). Behind-the-scenes: Inuit Dolls. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvA0AyFHMiQ
Yukon Arts Centre. (2010). Sewing Our Traditions: Dolls of Canada’s North, Yukon Arts Centre Public Art Gallery, Intergraphics Ltd.
Search terms: Toy and Game, Clothing, Model, Figure, Doll Figure