Woman's winter outfit, made by Zipporah Innuksuk

Iglulingmiut, AD 1986
From Igloolik, Nunavut, eastern Canadian Arctic

Traditionally, a woman's winter outfit like this example would be similar in many ways to that of a man. However, the woman's upper garment (amauti) is different. It has a capacious hood and a pouch used for carrying a baby or a young child on the back, and broad shoulders. The latter allow the woman to bring her baby round to the breast for nursing without exposing the child to the cold air.

'Women's outer parkas were made with a thinner fur than the men's. They had to be thinner mainly because it is hard to move around when you carry a baby on your back. Different people used different colours and styles, it depends on what you like. I liked thin fur, and a little bit of old fur on the back flap of my amauti, so that the white colour of the belly fur is well contrasting to the dark colours. When you are sewing them together, you really mix colours to make up the pattern. Fur was our only clothing so we made sure it looked its best.'
Rosie Iqallijuq, 1997

Other views: Manellia, a Netsilik woman and her baby. Lithograph after a drawing by Captain John Ross (1835).

J.C.H. King, First peoples, first contacts: (London, The British Museum Press, 1999)

B.K. Issenman, Sinew of survival: the living (Vancouver, UBC Press, 1997)

J.E. Oakes and R. Riewe, Our boots: an Inuit womans art (New York, Thames and Hudson, 1996)