Artist Highlight: Derrald Taylor
Derrald Taylor is an artist and carver working from Yellowknife, the capital city of the Northwest Territories. He’s Inuvialuit and from Tuktuuyaqtuuq, where he started as an artist. The work that he does is primarily carving in stone materials like soapstone, but he occasionally uses the same skills and techniques for jewellery.
His journey as an artist has been one he’s followed for much of his life, working with traditional materials and tools, and learning from the knowledge that was passed down to him primarily from his father.
Derrald Taylor in his workshop
“I was introduced to carving by my father in the late ’60s. He taught me the basics just by using hand tools - the only electric thing we had was a drill. From just that he taught me how to work on whalebone, caribou antler, and moose antler. Eventually, he would bring me soapstone, which back then was ordered from the Eastern Arctic.”
That knowledge and those techniques come from the very foundations of making tools for surviving in the Western Arctic. Just as the materials came from the land and animals, so too does Derrald’s inspiration for what he carves and how to still capture the things that are unique to where he is from.
“The animals that I carve are the animals that I see on the land. I do a lot of hunting and travelling in Tuk and I’ll take note of the animals and how they look - being in their surroundings and their own environment. I’ll watch what they do and their movements.”
In the forms and shapes of the Western Arctic’s unique animals, Derrald brings to life a story that comes out of the stone - stories he sees in the animals and how they exist but also stories of how life was. Old stories from when the carving was done with traditional materials and techniques, passed down through art and from elders who remember those times and keep them alive in their carvings.
“When you listen to some of the elders and their stories from long ago, you hear how they lived and what they used to live - the tools and materials and their travels - it’s so different from nowadays. Some of the stories they tell us, we try to put it into the material we carve.”
In the stone, Derrald recreates these scenes - kayak hunters hunting for whales and seals, dog teams hunting polar bears and caribou and muskox. Those come from the stories he’s heard passed down and seen in the work of other artists.
Derrald working on a polar bear carving.
Passing down stories and techniques has always been a communal exercise for Inuvialuit. It’s a way to learn from family and elders and other artists to keep culture alive. For Derrald, receiving this knowledge from so many members of his community drove his journey to keep carving and learning.
“My dad would bring me home the soapstone, and from there I would start playing with it and learning how to carve by watching my dad. I started doing little carvings like my dad was doing. As years went on, I started meeting other carvers, carving beside others and I started carving with my family. I started watching other carvers, and they started helping me learn more about the tools I used, the stone I used, other types of stone and tools.”
Derrald believes Saliqmiut: Tuktuuyaqtuuq Centre for Arts and Culture is an opportunity. A place to provide that same space for learning and sharing. It’s a place to teach other artists and give a new generation the same opportunities he had.
“I was lucky that I met a lot of other artists, elders, and storytellers that I could use to improve all the work that I do. If new artists could have the same chance as I did, I know there would be other carvers that could teach them as well.”
With so much inspiration taken from the people around him, Derrald wants the same for future artists. “I want to show them that if I could do it then they could do it. Just set your mind to it and be patient. Meet other carvers, listen to stories, watch and learn and listen.”
Saliqmiut: Tuktuuyaqtuuq Centre for Arts and Culture will provide a space for artists who are already on their journey of creating art. It will be a place where artists can create and store and display their work with other artists - a thing Derrald knows the value of sitting in his own workshop.
“There are a lot of soapstone carvers that need a place to carve and access to materials. I hope [the centre] helps them out. Not just soapstone carvers - handicrafts, sewing, beadwork, painting, drawings - there are many artists in Tuk that need a place to work and display their work.”
Being able to display work is especially important, as more travellers and tourists come to Tuktuuyaqtuuq and learn the unique voices, culture, and stories of the Inuvialuit. Especially for sharing that history with people outside the community, Saliqmiut: Tuktuuyaqtuuq Centre for Arts and Culture is a place to show Inuvialuit culture.
“There are people who come along to my shop and they have heard about Tuktuuyaqtuuq but they don’t know the background - the culture and what we do. There is lots of culture in Tuk.”
Derrald Taylor is happy to see Saliqmiut: Tuktuuyaqtuuq Centre for Arts and Culture become a place where people can see art from the past and present and let it inspire their work in the future. Learning from other artists was so integral to his journey and this centre is what will define the future of someone else's journey. He’s honoured to be a part of that tradition for someone new.
“I would be really happy and proud if they would display my work there. What I learned, I was taught by the elders and my father up there. It would be a real honour to have my work displayed there.”
Click below to see the final episode of our 8-part Saliqmiut mini-documentary series, Carvings of Our Culture. In it, Derrald Taylor talk about carving as a prominent form of art within the community of Tuktoyaktuk that has long been a traditional and beloved practice.
