Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory or Laakkuluk, is a Kalaaleq (Greenlandic Inuk) performance artist, spoken word poet, actor, storyteller and writer based in

Iqaluit Iqaluit ( ; , ; ) is the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, its largest community, and its only city. It was known as Frobisher Bay from 1942 to 1987, after the large bay on the coast on which the city is situated. In 1987, its t ...

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...

. She is known for performing ''uaajeerneq'', a Greenlandic mask dance that involves storytelling and centers three elements: fear, humour and sexuality. Bathory describes ''uaajeerneq'' as both a political and cultural act and an idiosyncratic art form.

Biography

Born and raised in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

, Bathory is of

Inuk Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and ...

and British ancestry. Her mother, Karla Williamson, was one of the original recreators of ''uaajeerneq'' in the 1970s Greenlandic folk movement after the dance form was nearly eradicated by colonial missionaries in Greenland in the 18th–20th centuries. Bathory started learning ''uaajeerneq'' when she was thirteen and trained and performed with her mother throughout her teenage years in Saskatoon. She currently resides in Iqaluit, Nunavut with her husband and three children.

Career

Artistic practice

Bathory has been active in the Inuit, Indigenous, and Canadian art scenes since the 1990s and describes ''uaajeerneq'' as the cornerstone of her artistic practice. In an interview in March 2018 she explained: " 'Uaajeerneq''makes me both open and brave to try new things, to dig deeper. I write poetry, tell stories, create theatre, performance art, video, and all of it has some sort of aspect of ''uaajeerneq'' to it." Bathory describes ''uaajeerneq'' as playing with "four main themes: our humility as human beings in the vastness of the universe and our connection to our ancestors, sex, fear, and hilarity", and said that she "

ouches :''Ouches may be the plural of ouch.'' Ouches () is a commune in the Loire department in central France. Population See also *Communes of the Loire department The following is a list of the 323 communes of the Loire department of France. ...

on all these themes in a performance, sometimes all at once, sometimes moving abruptly between them". In 2016, Bathory offered her film ''Timiga Nunalu, Sikulu'' (My Body, The Land and The Ice) as her contribution to #callresponse, a collaborative project by Indigenous women artists including

Christi Belcourt Christi Marlene Belcourt (born September 24, 1966) is a Métis visual artist and author living and working in Canada. She is best known for her acrylic paintings which depict floral patterns inspired by Métis and First Nations historical beadwo ...

(Métis),

Maria Hupfield Maria Hupfield (born 1975) is a Canadian artist, working in Brooklyn, New York. She is an Anishinaabe, specifically an Ojibwe and a member of the Wasauksing First Nation, located in Ontario, Canada. Hupfield works in a variety of media, including v ...

(Anishinaabe),

Ursula Johnson Ursula Johnson (born 1980) is a multidisciplinary Mi’kmaq artist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Her work combines the Mi’kmaq tradition of basket weaving with sculpture, installation, and performance art. In all its manifestations he ...

(Mi'kmaq), and

Tania Willard Tania Willard (born 1977) is an Indigenous Canadian multidisciplinary artist, graphic designer, and curator, known for mixing traditional Indigenous arts practices with contemporary ideas. Willard is from the Secwepemc nation, of the British Co ...

(Secwepemc). In the film, Bathory works to dismantle stereotypes of the "Pocahottie" and speaks back against consistent sexual violence perpetrated against Indigenous women. Selected representations of #callresponse projects were displayed at

grunt gallery The grunt gallery is a Canadian artist-run centre, founded in 1984 and located in Vancouver, British Columbia. They show work by both indigenous and non-indigenous artists. History Established in 1984, and founded by Glenn Alteen, Kempton Dexte ...

in Vancouver, BC in October–December 2016. Bathory frequently collaborates with Inuk throat singer and recording artist

Tanya Tagaq Tanya may refer to: * Tanya (Judaism),an early work of Hasidic philosophy by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi. * Tanya (name), a given name and list of people with the name * Tanya or Lara Saint Paul (born 1946) * List of Mortal Kombat characters#Tany ...

, including an appearance in Tagaq's 2016 music video for "Retribution" and a 2015 co-performance for ''#callresponse''. The pair also performed together in March 2018 as part of the Beyond Worlds series presented by the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. Of her experiences working with Tagaq, Bathory said in 2018: "Once we started performing together, we realized how much we sink and fly through the same realms of consciousness to create performance – her through her voice and me through my mask dancing. It is an incredible experience to perform together: we are unique from one another and heighten one another at the same time."

Qaggiavuut! Society

Along with several other grassroots Inuit performing artists, Bathory is a founding member of the Qaggiavuut! Society for a Nunavut Performing Arts Centre, a community-based organization that supports Inuit artists and is working toward building a community-centered performing arts centre in Iqaluit. Qaggiavuut! Society has been operating as a volunteer organization since 2009, and in January 2016 won the Arctic Inspiration Prize – the first time an arts-based organization has ever won the prize. Beyond its goal of creating a Nunavut performing arts space, the organization also works to expand performing arts training for Inuit artists, to build economic opportunities for artists in the Arctic, to maintain at-risk Inuit performance art forms, and to nurture the creation of new Inuit performing arts work. Bathory began working as a program manager for the Qaggiavuut! Society in 2016.

Awards

In 2021, Bathory won the

Sobey Art Award The Sobey Art Award is Canada's largest prize for young Canadian artists. It is named after Canadian businessperson and art collector Frank H. Sobey, who established The Sobey Art Foundation. It is an annual prize given to an artist 40 and under wh ...

, for which the Jury says her "performance practice courageously defies preconceived notions through embodied lived experience."

Performance works

* ''Tulugak: Inuit Raven Stories,'' with Sylvia Cloutier, 2013 * ''Retribution,'' with

, 2016 * ''Kiviuq Returns,'' with Qaggiavuut! Society for a Nunavut Performing Arts Centre, 2017 * ''Visions and Dreams''—Northern Light, CBC, VTPL, 2003 * ''Hunter's Journey''—Dancing with Spirit TV series,

Bravo Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels *Bravo (band), a Russian rock band * Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984 *Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing company ...

, 2007 * Throat Song, Kajutaijuq, ''The Grizzlies'' (film)

Group exhibitions

* ''The Fifth World,'' Kitchener–Waterloo Art Gallery, 2016 * ''Timiga Nunalu, Sikulu'' (film), for #''callresponse'',

, 2016

Solo exhibitions

* ''Naak silavit qeqqa?'' Art Gallery of Ontario, 2022-2023

Curation

* ''Ilitarivingaa?'' exhibit, Art Gallery of Ontario, 2004 * ''Inuit Art in Motion'' exhibit, with Anna Hudson, Art Gallery of Ontario, 2003

Written works

* "Talluriutiup Tariunga"—''Oceans North Canada'', 2015 * "We are a Nation of Lovers"—''Up Here Magazine'', 2015 * "Dog Children"—''The North-South Project: An Anthology of the Lost'', 2015 * ''From the Moon to the Belly'' postcard project, with

, 2012 * "How Akutaq Came to Be"—''Pith and Wry'', 2011 * "Aqausiit: Can You Hear How Much Love You Evoke In Me?!"—''Native Studies Review'' 20(2), 2011 * "Inuit gender parity and why it was not accepted in the Nunavut legislature"—''Études huit'' 30(1), 2006

References

External links

Qaggiavuut

#callresponse
*
Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory
on th
''Inuit Art Quarterly'' Profiles
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bathory, Laakuluk Williamson 1979 births Living people Actresses from Saskatoon Artists from Saskatoon Inuit actresses Inuit artists Inuit poets Inuit writers Dora Mavor Moore Award winners Canadian women dramatists and playwrights Canadian Inuit women artists Canadian Inuit artists Canadian people of English descent Canadian people of Greenlandic descent Canadian performance artists Canadian spoken word poets Canadian storytellers Canadian voice actresses Writers from Saskatoon 21st-century Canadian actresses 21st-century Canadian poets 21st-century Canadian women artists 21st-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century indigenous artists of the Americas 21st-century indigenous women of the Americas 21st-century indigenous writers of the Americas