A Conversation with Ningiukulu Teevee
Ningingiukulu Teevee. Printmaker: Niveaksie Quvianaqtuliaq. # Your Story, 2022. Lithograph on BFK Rives White paper. 48.2 x 38.0 cm. Art in Practice Collection of Cholakis Dental Group. Photo: Lianed Marcoleta
Ningiukulu (pronounced Ning-e-u-kul-u) is best known for her colourful graphic prints that connect Inuit storytelling with contemporary art. The award-winning artist’s work has been exhibited internationally; a smaller version of this show was presented at Canada House in London, England, in 2024, and her interpretation of the well-known legend The Owl and the Raven is currently being projected onto the sails of the Sydney Opera House.
All the works in Stories of the Arctic are from Cholakis Dental Group’s Inuit Art in Practice collection, the largest corporate collection of Teevee’s work in the world.
Below are some snippets of their conversation from February 2026. We hope you enjoy and come check out the new show when it opens May 6 at 7pm!
Kinngait, February 2026
Darlene Coward Wight: Ningiukulu, would you please tell me how you got started making drawings?
Ningiukulu Teevee: My father, Joanasie Salomonie, had paper and I would see him drawing. He would get mad at me because I used to borrow his paper. Comic books were available and I drew in school, but I never thought I was good. Jimmy Manning, the co-op buyer at that time, went on the local radio asking people to pick up paper and pencils and draw. I did that and they liked my drawings. Sometimes I received $12. Sometimes it might be $50. None of my drawings made it to the printers until 2004.
At first I was drawing fish, owls, and other animals. Bill Ritchie was here after Jimmy. I showed him a Raven drawing, and he liked it. I said, “I’m so sorry that my lines are not straight.” He said, “Straight is boring.” I’ll never forget that!
So I just kept working and bringing drawings to the co-op. Right from the beginning “The Owl and The Raven” was a favourite story. I began drawing shamans as shape shifters. Later on I was doing stories about Sedna [the sea goddess from Inuit legends]. It was exciting when I started seeing my drawings being made into prints. That was when Pitseolak Niviaqsi and Qavavau Manomie were cutting the stone. They printed some of my early ones.
DW: Do the printmakers involve you in the printmaking process?
NT: Some of the time, mostly about colour. They ask which colours I like.
DW: Do they make changes to your drawings?
NT: They don’t change anything. I just help by saying which colour is the best.
Niveaksie and Salomonie, Printmakers in Kinngait
DW: Do you think that your work has changed over the years?
NT: Early on I only drew with pencil and ink. I was afraid I might ruin it by using colour. Later on I became more confident in what I like. For the printmakers to make a change in colour for my lithographs, I need an explanation.
Ningiukulu Teevee. Cosmic Owl, 2021. Lithograph on Somerset Cream paper. Art in Practice Collection of Cholakis Dental Group.
DW: You knew Annie Pootoogook‘s work well. Her drawings were very different from a lot of other people’s work. She liked showing life the way it is now; not in the past. What did you think about her work?
NT: I really loved her work. She showed the changes that were happening, and we grew up right in the middle of it. Change is always happening and it can be quite scary.
DW: How is it changing now?
NT: For me, I’ve never been alone before. I always had to support my family but it just seems much harder now. My husband, Simionie, was a big part of my work because I did a lot of my work at home. I would ask him, does it need more? What does it need?
Ningiukulu Teevee, Simeonie Teevee at 2023 Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award at WAG-Qaumajuq
DW: Your work has become so well known that you must feel that you’re supported. Lots of people now know and want your work.
NT: Yes, changes are sometimes good, sometimes not so good. But you sometimes get stronger when you make change happen.
DW: How do you see your work going from now on?
NT: Sometimes I’m strapped for ideas. Or I have an idea that I think is crazy, but decide that maybe it could work. I had this idea that I could learn a new skill, like batik or tie dye, or sculpture. To create material things. Maybe I should…
DW: Do you think that you might like to do something really large?
NT: I don’t think I’m that brave!
DW: Would you tell me about your trip to Australia last December and how that project came about.
NT: People in Australia asked if I wanted to do an animation piece for the Sydney Opera House. I agreed, and they selected from drawings that I had done before.
My husband became seriously ill at that time and I wasn’t sure if I could do the travel. He told me to just move on. That whatever happens, just keep going. So I decided to make the trip. And it helped me mentally to be physically in a different place for a little while.
Audrey [Hurd] and I overnighted in Ottawa and flew to Vancouver the next day. Then I panicked as I couldn’t imagine being stuck in the same seat for the next 12 or 14 hours. I told Audrey, I don’t think I can do this. But we made it! We flew into tomorrow!
We were in this very nice hotel on the sixth floor. I looked out the window and the trees were there—so tall! I don’t remember it day by day, but it was warm and I wondered how they could have springtime in November?
They turned my story of the Owl and Raven into a very interesting animation that will be shown on the outside sails every night for a year. In that story, I explore how Raven’s restless spirit and Owl’s calm wisdom reflect human nature and the lessons found in our traditions. For me, this work connects Inuit storytelling with contemporary art.
Ningiukulu Teevee stands in front of her animated illustrations of “The Owl and the Raven,” projected on the sails of the Sydney Opera House.
Join us for the free opening celebration, May 6 t 7pm as part of WAG Wednesday Nights.
