Reception in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Inuit
Printmaking at Cape Dorset

Rideau Hall, Friday, October 16, 2009

How wonderful to be able to offer you the same kind of hospitality that you extended to us when we visited Cape Dorset in April 2006 during my first official visit to Nunavut.

As luck would have it, our plane was grounded because of a storm. In the end, it proved to be a stroke of good luck, because it allowed my husband Jean-Daniel Lafond and I to engage with more artists in Cape Dorset and to see more of their work. We purchased and brought back wonderful prints, including a magnificent piece featuring Sedna, the goddess of the seas.

I must admit, the way in which you see the world strikes a personal chord with me.

I have found that your art is not so very different from the art of the Haitian people—as you know I was born in Haiti—and from the art of other peoples in the South. It is as though these oral-tradition civilizations are mirrored through their creative expression.

For one thing, there is similarity in the legends, the imagery, in the way that both tell of animals and the elements of nature speaking with human beings, at times blending one into the other.

At a time when the world’s peoples have never been as interdependent, when we are called upon to redefine the ties that bind us around the globe, your works remind us that all forms of life are interconnected, from the infinitely large to the infinitely small.

Your works remind us, at their essence, that the “fend for yourself” mentality leads nowhere and that the interests of some must take into consideration the needs of others.

While printmaking has allowed the Cape Dorset community to make a name for itself, in addition to being an indispensable source of income, I believe that for the rest of us, it has opened a window on the heritage and wisdom of the Inuit people.

A people who have lived here for thousands of years, whose knowledge and ingenuity have allowed it to stand the test of time.

A people whose roots run deep in this country we all share.

We are delighted by the success of the Cape Dorset master printmakers, and we sincerely hope that their unique and rich art will continue for generations, for the benefit of all humanity.

And it is my intention to open the doors of this residence to all forms of Aboriginal artistic expression.

Thank you.