Arctic Journeys, Ancient Memories

SCULPTURE BY ABRAHAM ANGHIK RUBEN AT THE SMITHSONIAN
by Rocco Pannese

Born into a nomadic Inuvialuit family, Ruben’s early years were spent among the many small camps that were scattered along the coast, where game and trapping was plentiful. These encampments consisted of ten or so families subsisting on hunting for caribou, moose, muskox, game birds and waterfowl. His father William Ruben, whose Inuinnaqtun name was Esoktak, was a great hunter and trapper, able to supplement his family income in order to buy goods at the Paulatuk [formerly Letty Harbour] trading post in the Northwest Territories run by the Roman Catholic Missions in the 1930s. To the east at Cape Parry, another outpost was managed by the Hudson Bay Company.

I feel that I have found a place for myself within the arts community because I
have come to a time and place in my own life where I am comfortable with who
I am and how I do what I do. I see the full impact and potential in the things that
I do leave no borders in what I feel I can do as an artist

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