The Hunter, the Crown, and the Cameras: Joseph Idlout and the Image of Sangussaqtauliqtilluta (McGill-Queen's/Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation Studies in Art History)

Joseph Idlout was one of the most widely recognized Inuit figures of his time, famous for his role in the film Land of the Long Day and for a still photograph of him and his family that appeared on the Canadian two-dollar bill.These as well as other films and photographs were made by qallunaat filmmaker Doug Wilkinson.Idlout and Wilkinson had a complex connection forged with cameras: Wilkinson taught Idlout to photograph; Idlout and members of his camp were active collaborators in Wilkinson’s films, never solely the product of southern imagination.Idlout crafted a powerful visual record of Inuit life within a relationship that, while built on mutual dependence and respect, remained deeply inequitable.Through photographs and Inuit memory, The Hunter, the Crown, and the Cameras traces the entangled histories of Inuit and settlers in the Qikiqtani region during the 1950s and into the 1960s.Idlout’s work serves as a guide to a period of cultural encounter and the role of photography and fi