Sedna Packing Doll

Packing dolls are a traditional Inuit craft practice. The name derives from the way the animal carries its young in its parka. This piece is hand embroidered and sewn. This is a stuffed doll and is huggable.

Felt and wool
41 x 19 x 28
Reg #3007

Maudie Rachel Ohitook is known as Muati Okittuq by Inuit people among her community, Talurjuat (or Taloyoak in English and formerly known as Spence Bay until 1992) located in Netsilik area in Nunavut Territory. She was born at Thom bay, on the eastern Boothia Peninsula, and moved to Talurjuat in 1965 where she began carving three years later. At this time, she was one of the few people who started carving. Maudie’s husband, James Okittuq is also a well-known carver.

Her most productive years have been since 1980 while she has developed a powerful personal style with swaying soft lines, detailed parts and expressive figures sometimes autobiographical. She enjoys working in whalebone and stone. Her favourite themes are female topics often related to Inuit cosmology such as woman and child changed into birds, female shaman giving birth, humans faces grimacing or winking, healing practices, and as well as the story of Nuliajuk (known as Sedna by non-Inuit people, and Uinigumasuittuq, Takanaaluk or Tallijajuq by other Inuit) who is one of the most frequent theme in Maudie’s work.