{"id":44578,"date":"2023-02-01T20:24:39","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T20:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?post_type=cu_story&p=44578"},"modified":"2025-01-28T16:13:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T21:13:41","slug":"threading-the-needle","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/story\/threading-the-needle\/","title":{"rendered":"Threading the Needle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Threading the Needle\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Cultural Mediations PhD candidate draws national attention for research on Inuit sewing and beading technologies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Alyssa Tremblay<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Technology” is a familiar and perhaps overused word in the 21st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But did you know that technology is far more than just a synonym for computer? In fact, the word “technology” simply refers to using knowledge to create tools and equipment \u2014 no wires or circuit boards required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Krista Ulujuk Zawadski, PhD candidate in Cultural Mediations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So how do we broaden our understanding of technology when the word itself has been so aggressively limited to conversations around 5G networks and smartphones?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This narrow definition is the result of looking solely through a Western lens,” explains Krista Ulujuk Zawadski<\/a>, an Arctic anthropologist, curator and Inuk researcher. “For instance, Inuit technology includes hunting and sewing tools. A sled is a tool, which we can speak about in terms of technology.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A PhD candidate in Cultural Mediations<\/a> at Carleton University, Zawadski\u2019s exceptional doctoral work was recently recognized by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zawadski was one of three Talent Award finalists in the 2022 SSHRC Impact Awards, a prestigious competition that celebrates outstanding leaders, thinkers and researchers in the social sciences and humanities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zawadski\u2019s doctoral research focuses on the sewing and beading legacies that are tied to a particular place in northwestern Hudson Bay, Qatiktalik. Building off her previous work on kakpiit<\/em> (needle cases), as most of her research revolves around sewing in some way, her current project looks at the technology behind the manufacturing of bird bone, ivory and caribou bone needles among Inuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Zawadski preparing bone blanks with bird bones to make into needles. Photo credit: Krista Ulujuk Zawadski.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Part of the research was out of curiosity, as I wanted to know how to make them,” recalls Zawadski, who grew up in Igluligaarjuk, a community on the western shore of the Hudson Bay in Nunavut. “The other part was to gain a better understanding of the life histories of technology, as the needle is definitely one that has a colonial history, in that it was quickly replaced by metal needles.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From her BA in Anthropology at Carleton to her Master of Arts from the University of British Columbia, Zawadski mobilizes Inuit research methodologies across all her studies. She describes this approach as an understanding that research isn\u2019t just about reading books and going to the library \u2014 it\u2019s also about conversations with peers, families and communities.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“A lot of my own knowledge around Inuit technology, cultural material and stories have been learned from my peers \u2014 and not only from Elders, which is a more romanticized version of knowledge transmission. Oftentimes, when I ask people where they learned something, it was from friends, sisters, brothers and cousins. The misconception that it\u2019s always a top-down process means that people in the middle are often overlooked.”<\/p>\n Krista Ulujuk Zawadski, PhD candidate in Cultural Mediations<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

For instance, the pandemic sparked in Zawadski an interest in sewing and traditional garments in her home communities, specifically Inuit copyright practices around pattern sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In my region, we still sew almost daily \u2014 except maybe in the summer, it\u2019s seasonal like that. We use modern materials, as well as caribou skin, polar bear skin and furs. People are always busy sewing for their families; your kids are growing, someone needs hunting clothing, town clothing or traveling clothing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s say, Zawadski supposes, you\u2019re making a parka for your son and you need a new pattern because he doesn\u2019t fit in the old one or he wants a new style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You reach out to people asking for patterns and their responses can vary quite a bit,” she explains. “Some will say ‘I have one, this is my pattern but don\u2019t share it with anyone else.’ Others will say ‘Sure, I have one and it\u2019s sharable with anyone.’ Others still will respond ‘Yes, I have a pattern but I can\u2019t share it unless I ask the owner’ or ‘I can\u2019t share outside of my family.’ You have to negotiate every time whether you can receive it or share it. With sewing patterns, like any technology, there are these important questions being asked around protocol, copyright and intellectual property.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Krista Ulujuk Zawadski holds up beadwork that was replicated from the original by Nivisannaaq, which was beaded at Qatiktalik. Replica beadwork owned by Isuma. Photo credit: Maggie Putulik.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Prior to and early in her doctoral studies at Carleton, Zawadski used to work as a curator for the Government of Nunavut. Through this position, she was introduced to Inuk scholar and art historian Dr. Heather Igloliorte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An alumna of Carleton\u2019s Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture, Igloliorte is a Canada Research Chair and co-director of the Indigenous Futures Research Centre at Concordia University. She\u2019s also the creator of the Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq \/ Pijariuqsarniq Project.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zawadski joined the Project\u2019s mentorship program once she started her PhD and was paired with Sandra Dyck, Director of the Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG). With her mentor\u2019s support, she\u2019s curated two exhibitions for CUAG: Nuvisi: Threading Our Beads at Qatiktalik<\/em><\/a> and At the National Arts Centre: Breaking Ground \/ Diesing \/ Kalvak \/ Kigusiuq \/ Letendre<\/em><\/a> (co-curated with Danielle Printup, CUAG\u2019s Indigenous Cultural Engagement Coordinator).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I first met Krista in the fall of 2018 and had the great pleasure of working with her over several years while she researched and developed her exhibition Nuvisi: Threading Our Beads at Qatiktalik<\/em>,” says Dyck.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“The exhibition so beautifully\u00a0reflected Krista’s intertwined roles of scholar, mother, writer, maker, advocate and curator. I only wish I could be involved in all of Krista’s shows \u2014 I learned so much from her care, knowledge, sensitivity, passion and creativity.”<\/p>\nSandra Dyck, Director of the Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Prior to her curatorial experience at CUAG, Zawadski already had an extensive resume of museology and collections-based research under her belt, having participated in the Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution and the Otsego Institute for Native American Art History at the Fenimore Art Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nuvisi exhibition at the Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG). Nuvisi<\/em> means “to thread something,” or “to thread the needle with thread.” Photo credit: Justin Wonnacott.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


As someone whose motivation as a researcher is fueled by a desire to foster accessibility to museum collections for Inuit peoples, she was disappointed to discover that even she couldn\u2019t surmount the towering walls of colonial gatekeeping around Indigenous cultural materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My academic and professional backgrounds are in anthropology, archeology and museums. I thought it would be easy to navigate these institutions, because that\u2019s precisely what I\u2019m trained in,” says Zawadski. “It was heartbreaking to experience the blatant gatekeeping from some institutions, as I was told I needed to pay huge fees in order to access archival photos of my own ancestors.”<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Whether I went in as a researcher or as an Indigenous person, I faced unnecessary hurdles. I just want to see photos of my ancestors.”<\/p>\n Krista Ulujuk Zawadski, PhD candidate in Cultural Mediations <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Currently, Zawadski is focused on dissertation writing, though she\u2019s looking forward to more curatorial projects in the future \u2014 in addition to her work at CUAG, in 2021 she co-curated the massive-in-scale INUA<\/em> exhibition<\/a> at the WAG-Qaumajuq visual art museum, alongside Igloliorte and Sobey Art Award-shortlisted Inuit artists asinnajaq and Kablusiak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, her post-graduate goal is to continue doing hands-on applied land-based work, “because as an Inuk, that is how we educate each other and our kids.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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