Honouring the legacy of indigenous peoples and the traditions documented by Susan Ross through her art.
For more than four decades, Susan Ross spent summers in Northern Ontario reserves and Inuit communities in Nunavut, where she drew thousands of sketches, mainly portraits of children, youth, and Elders. She travelled with her close friend and author Sheila Burnford. The Reconciliation Through Art travelling exhibit honours the legacy of indigenous peoples and the traditions documented by Susan Ross through her art.
★ TORONTO September 30th – at the Heliconian Hall (35 Hazelton Ave) 7-9:30pm
★ YELLOWKNIFE October 16th – at the Northern United Place (5403 Franklin Ave) 7-10pm
★ CALGARY October 19th – at the Cardel Theatre (180 Quarry Park Blvd) 7-10pm
★ WINNIPEG October 21st – at The Winnipeg Art Gallery (300 Memorial Blvd) 7-9:30pm
Reconciliation Through Art project includes screenings of A Tale of Two Qallunaat and Silent Cries – Kiajunik Tuhanak and a Susan Ross visual art exhibit.
For nearly four decades, Susan Ross spent summers in Northern Ontario reserves and Inuit communities in Nunavut, where she drew thousands of sketches, mainly portraits of children, youth, and Elders. She travelled there along with her close friend and author Sheila Burnford. These sketches are now in the permanent collection of the Thunder Bay Museum. The Reconciliation Through Art travelling exhibit will connect community members, Elders, and descendants to Susan’s art. It will give new audiences an introduction to the process of Truth and Reconciliation and increase appreciation of Canada’s Indigenous peoples.
In 2024, Friends of the Finnish Labour Temple, received a new Horizons for Seniors grant and in partnership with the Thunder Bay Museum, several sketchbooks were created for individual communities and these where shared with Elders in care homes in Ottawa and Iqaluit and with community organizations in Thunder Bay. The response was remarkable, and much interest was generated which sparked the idea to expand this project across Northern Ontario and throughout Nunavut.
This project supports the social participation and inclusion of Elders, through the planning of events and opportunities to speak their indigenous languages and to promote language revitalization among young people. An exhibit catalogue will be created listing the communities where Susan produced the sketches, selected sketches, etchings and paintings along with excerpts from Sheila Burnford’s two books “Without Reserve” and “One Woman’s Arctic,” and explanatory notes and biographies. Bringing the displays, electronic media and reproduced sketchbooks will honour the legacy of indigenous peoples and the traditions documented by Susan Ross and her art. The general public will benefit from the results of this project by creating a dynamic and meaningful exhibit that builds Susan Ross’s artistic material and past work in interpreting her story, bringing it to the communities that she (and Sheila) documented, allowing for meaningful community engagement and cross-collaboration.
The exhibit content – in the form of portable displays, digital media, and sketchbooks – will be accessible in both English and French. Indigenous language interpreters will be available during film screenings and the launch of each exhibit to engage Inuktut, Ojibwe and Cree speaking Elders and to promote language revitalization through performance and ceremony. Digital video will have Closed captioning available in both English and French. Inukitut language versions of both films will be screened in Inuktut speaking communities.
This project has been a labour of love that began in 2015 by Kelly Saxberg and a team of artists and historians who launched a series of film projects based on Sheila Burnford’s books and Susan Ross’s Sketches. In 2022, she partnered with Navalik Tologanak to document the interaction of youth and Elders in Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet) Nunavut, as they interacted with Sheila’s photos, film footage and Susan’s sketches from 1970-71 and 1995. Elders gathered to name people appearing in Sheila’s film footage that portrayed hunting on the land, an archeological dig, children playing and wildlife. Elders then went through the 40 page recreated sketchbook, and Sheila Burnford’s film footage recognizing most people. Since few Inuit had access to cameras or film in that era, people were excited to recognize so many of their ancestors and their way of life. Many of the children in the sketches are now Elders. They are almost all residential school survivors. Susan and Sheila visited in the summer, when the children had returned. This makes the sketches even more precious and the sharing of them, a powerful truth and reconciliation project.
The films:
A Tale of Two Qallunaat (2025) was co-directed and produced by Thunder Bay Filmmaker Kelly Saxberg and journalist Navalik Tologanak from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. It is a 48 minute film about two intrepid women artists from Thunder Bay, Ontario. Narrated by Martha Flaherty, it tells the tale of two Qallunaat women who travelled to Pond Inlet in the early 1970s and left a unique legacy of stories, film footage and sketches. Inuk Elder, Navalik Tologanak brought Sheila Burnford’s non-fiction book “One Woman’s Arctic”, her film footage and hundreds of Susan Ross sketches to share with Elders and youth. The faces and stories of the people documented by the two artists more than 50 years ago were shared in the spirit of reconciliation. Inspired by Susan’s uncle, Robert Flaherty and his film Nanook of the North, the two intrepid women left a lasting legacy of their art and love of the north. The film also explores the family connection between Robert Flaherty’s Inuk granddaughter Martha Flaherty, the film’s narrator, and his niece Susan Ross. Martha shares the tragic story of Inuit relocation from Inukjuak and Pond Inlet to the extremes of the high Arctic . Completed in 2025 in English and Inuktitut, it has already won 5 awards and been selected to 11 festivals, screening in Norway, Iceland, USA, Belgium, Finland, and Canada.
In 2024, the 17 minute film “Silent Cries – Kiajunik Tuhanak” was produced by Navalik Tologanak from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut and Cinematographer / editor Kelly Saxberg. Directed by Navalik Tologanak, it documents the private meeting between Pope Francis and Inuit survivors on their land in July 2022. As a respected Elder, Navalik shares her experience as a residential school survivor and weaves her personal story into the narrative to bring an intimate perspective to an historic event. Finished with Inuktitut, Innuinaqtun and English versions, it has won 7 awards, been nominated for 6 more and selected to 27 festivals. It screened at Isaruit Inuit Art in Inuktitut in Ottawa and at the Canadian Embassy in Havana Cuba.
Biographies:
Navalik Tologanak is a proud Inuinnaq from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut who celebrates her heritage and traditions. She is a residential school survivor. Sent away to Inuvik and Yellowknife for 12 years, she lost traditional skills and her language. She fought hard to relearn Inuinnaqtun and graduated from the Indigenous Languages Program from the University of Victoria in 2019 at the age of 65. She began her journalism career in 1995, writing for Nunavut news. She’s been photographing and documenting events in her community in Inuinnaqtun for 30 years. She would like to continue telling those stories using digital media to make a series of short films. Navalik is the Inuinnaqtun narrator for the Inuktut version Kiayunik Tuhanak.
Navalik dedicates much of her time to community service. She was a board member of the NWT Status of Women Council and for the Pauktuutit Inuit Women’s Association of Canada. She was an Inuit/ Inuk board member for 13 years with the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. She saw the great need for healing programs, and to reach out to those who were lost, or violated through abuse and loss of language. She was one of the Inuit representatives as a committee member for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation steering committee.
In 2011 Navalik Tologanak attended filmmaking workshop in Iqaluit she made her first short film and dedicated it to the memory of her son Julian (Tolok). She met Kelly Saxberg there and they have built a good working relationship and friendship. She has worked as cultural advisor, researcher and production assistant on international film projects shot in her region. In January 2022, Navalik joined Kelly Saxberg to work on the documentary film project “A Tale of Two Qallunaat” as production manager, researcher, co-director and producer and narrator. A Tale of Two Qallunaat is a 48 min documentary about the legacy of two women artists from Thunder Bay who travelled to the Arctic in the early 1970s and what happens when elders and youth in today’s Pond Inlet encounter that unique record of the past. The first shoot took place in June 2022 in Iqaluit and Pond Inlet. They also organized two events where they brought a reproduction of Susan Ross’s sketchbooks and Sheila Burnford’s film footage to share and leave with the community. They returned in August, to do a few more days of filming and connect with Philippa Ootoowak who works with the Pond Inlet Archives.
In 2023, Navalik completed Silent Cries: Kiayunik Tuhanak in English, Inuinnaqtun and Inuktitut.
Kelly Saxberg is a francophone award-winning filmmaker and educator best known for her body of work featuring Ontario history and remarkable women. With a career spanning 40 years she has made more than 100 films. In 2025, she produced and co-directed with Navalik Tologanak the 48 minute documentary A Tale of Two Qallunaat. It won a Golden Sheaf award for best research at the Yorkton film festival in 2026. In 2024 she co-directed Mr. Noah and the Second Flood which garnered multiple awards, most recently the top prize at the CTV best in Shorts. She is producer, co-director, cinematographer of Sniper / Tireur d’élite nominated for Best historical documentary at Yorkton. She produced and filmed Silent Cries – Kiayunik Tuhanak, nominated for best biographical documentary at Yorkton. In 2019, she was the cinematographer and co-producer of Journey to Our Homeland. Nominated for 3 Golden Sheaf awards, it won the Research award. In 2019, her bilingual docu-drama Where the Poppies Grow – The Lakehead at War was nominated for a Golden Sheaf Award for Best Historical Documentary. In 2017, she completed Long Walk Home: The Incredible Journey of Sheila Burnford, a 34-minute documentary. She is currently completing the 6 part series The View From Up Here as Producer / Editor. Kelly was the writer/ director/ editor of Under The Red Star, a docu-drama shot on 16mm film. Citoyens du Monde is a 6-hour series she wrote and directed for TFO. The Gemini nominated Letters From Karelia won her best Director and Best Documentary at the Manitoba Motion Picture Industry Awards. Her other films include Seeking Bimaadiziiwin, Dorothea Mitchell: A Reel Pioneer, Le Printemps des voyageurs: La Genèse, the award-winning Banana Split, and the NFB production Rosies of the North.
