Shaman Placating Sedna

Novoalia Alariaq is an Inuit artist born and still residing in the town of Cape Dorset, in the Nunavut Territory of Canada, north of the Arctic Circle. Sedna is the sea goddess, who is universally embraced by the Arctic peoples in Alaska, Canada, Russia, and Greenland. According to northern cosmology, Sedna is the mother of all marine mammals, as the animals are believed to be born from her fingers. Sedna is known to control the animals as well as the weather, directly influencing human-animal relations in the Arctic environment. When disturbed, she would cause a storm and prevent humans from hunting and accessing marine mammals. On such occasions, the shaman is asked to placate her spirit. This contemporary carving captures the belief that the natural environment and climate are volatile agents with their own personhood; they respond to human activity and link human behaviors with distinct reactions that may be positive or negative.