Profile: Krista Ulujuk Zawadski
Photo courtesy of Krista Ulujuk Zawadski
Originally from Igluligaarjuk (Chesterfield Inlet) and now calling Rankin Inlet, NU, home, Krista Ulujuk Zawadski is a PhD student in Cultural Mediations at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. Previously, she completed a BA in Anthropology from Carleton University and an MA in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia. Krista has worked for several years as a full-time curator for the Government of Nunavut, and remains in the position part-time while she completes the coursework for her Doctorate. Much of her role involves the curation of the Inuit art displays at the Iqaluit Airport, as well as the management of Nunavut’s vast collection at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
“Our collection at the WAG includes over 7,300 works of art, so I work a lot in collaboration with the Collections Manager taking care of the collection and updating obsolete data,” says Krista. “There’s a lot of art that’s been labeled ‘unidentified artist’, but we have worked through hundreds of pieces and identified many of them, some of which had the artist’s name written on the bottom! One of our goals is to continue to identify these ‘unidentified artists.’”
When she’s in Ottawa, Krista also works across the river in Gatineau, where the Canadian Museum of Nature stores a collection of more than 148,000 Inuit archaeological and ethnographic artifacts and cultural belongings. Currently, her role is mainly collections management, but she hopes that in the future there will be more capacity to exhibit the pieces in her care. In addition to being employed with the Canadian Museum of Nature through separate funding, the Inuit Futures Project has made it possible for her to work with the Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG), under Director Sandra Dyck. Currently, Krista plans on exhibiting her PhD research project in the gallery space in 2021.
Krista giving a tour of Breaking Ground: Freda Diesing, Helen Kalvak, Janet Kigusiuq, Rita Letendre (2019) to Nunavut Sivuniksavut students and the Ottawa public at the National Arts Centre, September 2019. The show was a collaboration between CUAG and the NAC, co-curated by Krista Zawadski and Danielle Printup. Photo courtesy of Krista Zawadski.
“One of the biggest impacts that the project has had on me is being able to expand my network through the gallery,” she says of her experience as an Inuit Futures ilinniaqtuk, “I’ve met friends, artists and other curators. Recently, I co-curated a show titled Breaking Ground with another Indigenous curator, Danielle Printup, at the National Arts Centre here in Ottawa through their partnership with CUAG. It has opened up doors for me right from the get-go.”
Krista was recently recognized by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) with the 2019 Inuit Cultural Repatriation Award for demonstrating leadership in Inuit rights and cultural heritage through her work with various museum holdings.
Exhibition review of Insurgence/Resurgence at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Inuit Art Quarterly, Spring 2018.
Exhibition highlight of Nivinngajuliaat from Baker Lake, curated by Krista Ulujuk Zawadski, in Inuit Art Quarterly, Fall 2018.