Heather Angnatok is a multi talented artist from Nain, Nunatsiavut, NL, who has spent nearly forty years working in a wide variety of artistic practises that encompass everything from sewing to ceramics that she sells by word of mouth. Her range of materials is equally as extensive, including moosehide, leather, deer hide, fish leather, sheepskin, duffle, stroud, quilted lining, commander cloth and sealskin, as well as various types of fur and antler, silver and wood.
Angnatok grew up watching her grandmother sew traditional clothing; her grandmother first taught Angnatok how to crochet a toque at age eight. By age seventeen Angnatok had progressed to sewing traditional clothing. Two years later, her aunt taught her how to bead and work with duffle. Now, Angnatok produces atigik (pullover parkas), beaded moccasin sealskin boots, mitts, beaded slippers and traditional outfits like akulik, a type of woman’s jacket with an extended tail.
In 2013, Angnatok started working with traditional plants, using Labrador tea, fireweed, black spruce gum and her own hand picked berries in a variety of creams, soaps, salves, lip balms and teabags. During the last two years, she branched into jewellery, and tried making her first ceramics this year. “I love it,” she says, “but getting my own equipment as supplies will be difficult and expensive.” [1] In the last year, her work was exhibited in Nunatsiavut: Our Beautiful Land at La Guilde and showcased at the Northern Lights Conference & Trade Show in Ottawa. “I hope to continue working on more pieces where eventually I hope to show in a gallery,” she says [2].