Cambridge Bay exhibit to showcase the evolution of parkas

Mary Avalakdeftly threadsa needle with caribou sinew and makes a coupleof stitches ina caribou-skin parka.

Picking up an ulu,she trims the edge.

"That's to make it nice and straight," she says, setting the tool down and smiling.

Avalakis one of the elders in Cambridge Bay, working on a new exhibit for the Kitikmeot Heritage Society called "Patterns of Change."

Pamela Gross, executive director of the non-profit organization, says the exhibit is about the evolution of Inuinnaitparkas from pre-contact to today.

Inuinnaitare people from the Nunavut communities of Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk and Gjoa Haven, and the N.W.T. community ofUlukhaktok.

Gross says the exhibit will demonstrate how women were traditionally seamstresses, and how they still are today.

"We're excited to showcase that," she says.

The exhibit will include five parkas, includingthe one Avalakhelped sew, which is adrum-dance parkamade entirely from caribou. It includes mitts and kamiks, or boots.

The exhibit will also include a "Mother Hubbard' style parka, which Gross says she doesn't see now as often as when she was growing up in Cambridge Bay. That's a longer style of parkawith a "sunburst hood" a hood thatincorporates both wolverine and wolf into the trim.

Different regions of Nunavut havedifferent styles of parkas. Gross says delta braiding, for example, comesfrom theMackenzie Delta. Various pieces of material are sewn onto the bottom of the parka in different designs.

Interest in sewing continues

A sewing program will also run in the community in 2019, in conjunction with the parka project. Gross says interest is high in the community to learn techniques likemakingdelta braids and sunburst hoods.

The Patterns of Change exhibit, which will also have iPadwith a photo documentary,is scheduled to go on display in the heritage society's museum in January.

It replaces the current exhibitabout the Perry River seasonal camp,which Gross says has been on the floorsince 2002. Gross says it needs to go into storage in order to protect the artifacts from light exposure.