About Alec Lawson Tuckatuck | Kuujjuaraapik, my Place To Live | Inuit Tradition Muskox Circling Their Young at the Ungava Bay Photo by Inuit Artist: Alec Lawson Tuckatuck When I was five my uncle started taking me out on the land and water. I started hunting and learning the traditional ways of survival. My mother and her brothers and sisters lived on the land their first years before the missionaries and the federal government changed living and schooling arrangements. It was then that the nomadic way of the Inuit were really affected and our traditional ways of living were moved into small houses and were put into a formal school system. It was fortunate for me that I still had the opportunity to learn first hand the traditional methods of living and survival. My uncle, Alec, being the oldest child was traditionally raised by his grandparents (as it was Inuit tradition for the first child to be raised by the grandparents) and my mother being the next oldest was given the traditional role and responsibilities of being the oldest child being raised by her parents, my grandparents. As I am the oldest male child of the next generation I was taught early in the ways of Inuit living and support so that I could be a provider and leader of the family and of the community. It is\was the responsibility of the oldest male child of the next generation to carry out certain duties and to have certain knowledge. Polar Bear / Nanuk Swimming at Long Island Photo by Inuit Artist: Alec Lawson Tuckatuck Same Polar Bear / Nanuk Swimming at Long Island Photo by Inuit Artist: Alec Lawson Tuckatuck Same Polar Bear / Nanuk Swimming at Long Island Photo by Inuit Artist: Alec Lawson Tuckatuck When I began teaching in Kuujjuaq I started giving back to my people as they have always supported me in my journeys. I gave back by teaching physical education and by teaching some of the next generation of Inuit the ways of the land, hunting, and survival. Some did not have the opportunity to go out on the land and learn our traditions as I was taught, so this was important.  I was also then able to provide for my family again through hunting and fishing and pass this knowledge of how important it is to take care of your family and community. My Cousin Betty and her family going camping Photo by Inuit Artist: Alec Lawson Tuckatuck Successful Beluga Hunt Near Long Island! Photo by Andy Ajagutaq As I was teaching full time I would carve soapstone during the evenings in my shack after work and on the weekends when I wasn’t on the land. When I was on the land I began seeing the animals as I once did when I was young with my grandfather and my uncle. I began seeing not only the animals but our people, our traditions, our culture, our land, our Inuit Art and how beautiful and strong it all is and how important it is to pass on, maintain, and preserve our inevitably ever changing culture. I began to realize how fast our traditions and language were being lost and forgotten, as I had lost a lot of my language while in New Brunswick. The more I began to see, the more I needed to create and pass on my knowledge of traditional and contemporary Inuit Art.  I needed to express what we need to keep and remember, what we need to preserve and practice, what is important to our culture and what people need to see of it. Not only do our own people need to appreciate and acknowledge the changes we have/are going through and remember what traditions we have lived.  People outside of our culture need to see it too in order to understand how we lived, how we survived, and continue to survive. Annual Community Picnic Just Outside Kuujjuaraapik Photo by Inuit Artist: Alec Lawson Tuckatuck Although I enjoyed teaching in school, my passion is with my expression through carving soapstone. Since my discovery, I have stopped teaching physical education.  I began to express the importance to preserve, maintain, and educate people of our culture. As we have survived for thousands of years through the cold and challenging conditions, we now have a new challenge that we must accept in order for our language and culture to survive for thousands of more years. Every single one of us are important in how we survive, protect, and preserve our culture. I have accepted this challenge through carving traditional as well as contemporary Inuit Art.