What Did Ookpik Dolls Have to Do With Kuujjuaq’s Co-op Movement?
Inuit Art Foundation | October 26, 2021
Categories: news
What Did Ookpik Dolls Have to Do With Kuujjuaq’s Co-op Movement?
Iqqaumaviit? Remembering the Inuit Behind the Co-ops
In 1961 Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, QC, opened the Fort Chimo Eskimo Co-operative. The community saw the success of the Kangiqsualujjuaq Co-operative, established in 1959, and followed suit. The Kuujjuaq co-operative made it possible for its members to obtain loans from the federal government, which paid for expensive tools and hunting equipment. With the waning trade relationship with the Hudson’s Bay trading post that had been established in 1811 up-river from present-day Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, QC, Inuit artists were taking their economic fate into their own hands. In an effort to help the Fort Chimo Eskimo Co-operative grow, Jeannie Snowball sewed her signature ookpik doll, which would eventually become an Canadian icon and put Kuujjuaq and the co-operative on the map for an international audience.
