Recherche dans la collection - Aivillik women [2nd children, from the "Era" Natives]

Historically, all Inuit women received tattoos as a rite of passage. They were most often on the face and hands but could also be on the arms, legs, and/or chest. During the early 1900's camera's were becoming more accessible and more people were travelling more to the arctic. These visitors often photographed Inuit women and subsequently, their tattoos. Sometimes the photographers traced already existing tattoos or painted the women's faces with designs of other regions. Sometimes it appears they tried to cover the tattoos with make-up (rouge) or erase them during the printing process in the darkroom. As a result, the tattoo designs shown here may not be representative of the woman or her region.

Slide no.: 3357

Slides made from photographs in the holdings of the National Photography Collection and copied from material in other repositories. Slides are located in the staff Art & Photography library, thus are not available for consultation. Please refer to original material, where available.

For other images of Nivisanaaq (also called "Shoofly"), see Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development fonds); Geological Survey of Canada collection; Geraldine and Douglas Moodie fonds at the Glenbow Museum; and George Comer Collection at the Mystic Seaport Museum., The beaded parka worn by Nivisanaaq ("Shoofly") in the photograph is held at the American Museum of Natural History, part of Captain Comer's collection, catalogue no. 60/5758.

Album p. 27