Agguaq Collective: Behind the Scenes with Krista Ulujuk Zawadski
Inuit Futures alumni Krista Ulujuk Zawadski is a PhD candidate in Cultural Mediations at Carleton University. In addition to editing her dissertation, Krista is a faculty member at Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning and is a member of the Agguaq Collective.
The Agguaq Collective is a group of Inuit women - Mishael Gordon, Lori Randall, Avery Keenainak, Winifred Nungak, Rose Tina Alivaktuk, Brenda Putulik, Melissa Attagutsiak and Krista - from across Nunavut and Nunavik who visit museum collections to study Inuit clothing and piqutiit (belongings). By studying ancestral clothing patterns, the Collective compares and recreates these patterns to what Inuit seamstresses and artists make today. The purpose of this Collective is to be inspired by ancestral clothing and create new garments to “strengthen our knowledge that we already have about those garments.”
Throughout this study, they realized that many patterns have remained very similar, for example they saw an amauti in the McCord-Stewart Museum in Montreal from Panniqtuuq made in the 1860s. Members of the group from the region said some patterns haven't changed much in the past 150 years.
Their original impact statement when beginning the Agguaq Collective was divided up into three phases: Phase One was doing the research and work in collections, Phase Two was creating garments inspired by the visits, and Phase Three was for outreach and presentations. Now two years into the project, the Collective is now in between Phase Two and Three, they've started to make garments, and in June 2024 the group presented their work at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association conference in Bodø, Norway. For Krista, “It was the best presentation I've ever been a part of. I didn't realize how much fun it would be.”
Aqquaq at the AMNH, 2023. Photo courtesy of Lori Tagoona Randall.
Agguaq making session, Iqaluit, 2024. Photo courtesy of Krista Ulujuk Zawadsk.
The group has visited collections at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Manitoba Museum, the McCord-Stewart Stewart Museum, Avataq Cultural Institute, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo.
The Agguaq Collective has refined their process in the collection, they come prepared with drafting paper, notebooks, pencils, cameras, and measuring tapes. Each member has their own method of measurements and tracing to get the pattern ready to use back home. They are working on a larger group project.
Agguaq at NAISA, Bodø, 2024. Photo courtesy of Taqralik Partridge.
The group meets for sewing retreats and regular video call check-ins where they show each other current projects and discuss sewing issues like, “I'm having trouble with this piece here. Is the curve too much? Or does it have to be more straight? Or why is it not fitting?”
Krista reflected that the “collective has gone beyond just sewing. It's a real collective of women caring about each other.”
The future goals for the Agguaq Collective are strategic planning, grant writing and continuing to present their work.