Knud Rasmussen and the Drawings of the Inuit Shaman Anarqaq
Rare cultural insights about Inuit
Hidden in a remote corner of the vast National Museum in Copenhagen is a collection of drawings offering a unique gaze into the spiritual and cultural world of the Inuit people. These rare artworks are the fruit of a 1923 collaboration between explorer and anthropologist Knud Rasmussen and the Inuit shaman Anarqaq.
Rasmussen
Rasmussen, the son of a Danish missionary and an Inuit woman, dedicated his life to studying and documenting the fascinating but little-known Arctic culture. During his travels in the extreme north of Canada, Rasmussen was particularly struck by the central role the shamanic tradition played in the daily life of the Inuit. He decided therefore to document this fundamental aspect of their culture through the stories and drawings of Anarqaq, an Inuit shaman.
Rasmussen writes in his book “REPORT OF THE FIFTH THULE EXPEDITION 1921–24 — THE DANISH EXPEDITION TO ARCTIC NORTH AMERICA IN CHARGE OF KNUD RASMUSSEN PhD. VOL. VII. NO. 1 — INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF THE IGLOOLIK ESKIMOS”, that when discussing the initial stages of the formation of a shaman, it is said after receiving teaching from a more experienced shaman, the young one must continue to train alone in desolate places.
