Reawakening Our Ancestors' Lines

Revitalizing Inuit Traditional Tattooing

Hovak Johnston, Cora DeVos, Meta Antolin

$39.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Inhabit Media Inc
10 December 2025

The Arts: General & Reference; Social & cultural history; Indigenous peoples

For thousands of years, Inuit women practised the traditional art of tattooing. Created with bone needles and caribou sinew soaked in seal oil or soot, these tattoos were an important tradition for many women, symbols stitched in their skin that connected them to their families and communities. But with the rise of missionaries and residential schools in the North, the tradition of tattooing was almost lost. In 2005, when Angela Hovak Johnston heard that the last Inuk woman tattooed in the traditional way had died, she set out to tattoo herself and learn how to tattoo others. What was at first a personal quest became a project to bring the art of traditional tattooing back to Inuit women across Nunavut, starting in the community of Kugluktuk. Collected in this beautiful book are moving photos and stories from more than two dozen women who participated in Johnston's project. Together, these women are reawakening their ancestors' lines and sharing this knowledge with future generations.

By: Hovak Johnston
Photographs by: Cora DeVos, Meta Antolin
Imprint: Inhabit Media Inc
Country of Publication: Canada
Dimensions: Height: 254mm, Width: 254mm, Spine: 10mm
Weight: 739g
ISBN: 9781772275698
ISBN 10: 1772275697
Pages: 72
Publication Date: 10 December 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Hovak Johnston is an Inuk woman who was raised on the land in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut until she was sent away to school. Using her Inuinnaqtun name given to her at birth is her way of carrying on a past relative's name and the characteristics of that ancestor. Hovak has a deep connection to her culture and traditional arts and skills. Now living in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Hovak does some type of traditional artwork every day, from sewing, soapstone carving, jewellery making, tanning hides, and fleshing and preparing skins to her latest type of art, tattooing.

Reviews for Reawakening Our Ancestors' Lines: Revitalizing Inuit Traditional Tattooing

""This gorgeous photographic essay on the Inuit Tattoo Revitalization Project is a deeply personal and affirming work about learning and preserving traditions—and reclaiming what residential schools tried to destroy.""—School Library Journal “While Johnston’s efforts have been to revitalize the practice, she has also looked to modernize it, encouraging women to find new meaning in the lines they choose for their face, arms and hands.”—Nunatsiaq News