This chapter describes a series of six drawings entitled You should be a part of us by Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona, made in 2023. Each drawing is on a horizontal piece of paper measuring 25 x 35 cm. There is a tactile version of part of this drawing. It is labeled “4.” This chapter is two minutes long. 
There are six black ink drawings in Kabloona’s series “You should be a part of us,” hung in a row on the gallery wall. In each, bubble letters of text in both Inuktitut and English appear above and below a line drawing of an object from the artist’s home. 
As you progress along the drawings, it reads: When I was growing up, people asked “What are you?” that said “you don’t belong (you’re not part of us.)” In Nunavut, Inuit asked, “Inuugaviit?” that said “Do you belong with us?” (you should be a part of us).
The drawings are of objects used in everyday Inuit life. In the first drawing there is a collection of ulus, or curved women’s knives, used for cooking and sewing. Kabloona has shown the texture of the antler handles using wavy vertical lines. Her qulliq, a gift from her sister, is a stone lamp shaped like a semi-circle. The smoothness of the stone is contrasted with a knobbly texture of a taqqut, a stick made of willow root for adjusting the flames at the base of it. The wick for a quilliq is typically arctic cotton, dried moss and willow fluff. In one drawing, her hands pick apart this wick material, readying it for the qulliq. In another, she threads a needle. Her fingers and wrists have tattoos of fine black lines. This final drawing in the series has the tactile version. Feel the patterns of her tattoos, and the weight she gives the lettering. How do the Inuktitut syllabics feel in comparison to the English letters?
Go to the next chapter to hear about another work by Kabloona.