Permanent Collection of Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, New York
Donated by Kipling Gallery
This sculpture is plays on the theme of migration, as in the migration of spirits to represent the passing on of the ancient Inuit people, their cultural and spiritual practices. The passengers on this boat are people, birds, animals and spirits. At one end of the boat a mother and child are being protected by wings of a bird spirit (raven). The wings seem to form the bow of the boat so that the oarsman can cut through the water with greater ease. I am also making a statement that this world is a crossroad, where we as people are in a collision course with nature and the spirits of our collective past—each of us pushing, crying, shouting to be heard
