Juna's Seal

My name is Juna Audlakiak ᔪᓇ ᐊᐅᓪᓚᕿᐊᖅ. I am from Qikiqtarjuaq which means Big Island, which is north of Iqaluit on Davis Strait. I want to thank the jewellery and metalwork program for accepting me for their classes. I’ve learned all different things from them, not just working on rock, but working on paper, like drawing. And I have been learning about minerals.

I learned a lot about minerals from working on the cylinder. I’m very happy that Linda came by. She taught us about the minerals of Nunavut, but I’d like to learn more about it. And I can’t wait to go prospecting in the summertime! I’m encouraging more people to come to this studio to learn more about jewellery. I encourage them to come here, because we’re only about four people now in the first year program, I want to make this school full of students. There’s a lot of possibility for making jewellery from the land, with gemstones like amber, sapphires.

What else. My seal shows a dog with a qamutiq ᖃᒧᑎᖅ, which is a dog sled, and a man riding on it, there is snow in front of them. Making it, I was thinking about going hunting with a dog team, they used to go like that back then, nowadays we are using snowmobiles. This was Inuit culture, the dogs were very helpful for us. We can ride on a qamutiq and dogs can pull the qamutiq. Depending on the dogs, how many, more dogs can carry more of what you can catch on the land, like seals or caribou. And if you have to move, they are very useful. When I was making that cylinder, I was thinking of mushing with my dogs. I had to give away my four dogs to come to school here. I hope if I go back home from this jewellery shop to go mushing again.

On the cylinder, I have the technique to do drawings. I can in the future try to make some more in different styles or with different art on it, like kayak or oomiaq (a seal skin boat). My seals tell the story of Inuit culture.