Umingmak: Making meaning with qiviut - muskox wool

12/02/2026

Thank you to everyone who came out to spin, dye, weave, needle felt and explore possibilities for making with qiviut. I loved spending time with you all in Tasiujaq, Nunavik.

03/02/2026

03/02/2026

Most luxury fibers arrive in tidy skeins with price tags and brand stories. Qiviut arrives differently. It carries the smell of tundra air, the labor of combing, the patience of sorting, and the hands of people who live alongside muskoxen year after year.

In Nunavik, muskoxen are both opportunity and challenge. Communities have voiced concerns about ecological impacts and caribou interactions, while also exploring muskox as a potential local resource. This tension matters. It reminds us that materials are never neutral. Every fiber sits inside social worlds — governance decisions, Indigenous knowledge, colonial wildlife policies, northern livelihoods, and southern luxury markets.

When we stitch with qiviut, we participate in this web whether we realize it or not. The question is not “Is this fiber beautiful?” (it is). The deeper question is: What relationships does this beauty carry? Who benefits? Who bears risk? What stories travel with the yarn?

Making can become a form of accountability. A slow act of care. A way to hold complexity instead of smoothing it away.

23/01/2026

I join these threads by hand, individuality gets entangled with intention. An alignment of sorts—human, animal, sun, wind, land, culture. Hunting and spinning come together in this transformation, a realization that changes the thread, the story. So far from the Arctic, but I am connected to it through wonder for muskoxen and their hunters. Roving from Qiviut Inc. and Nunavut Qiviut

10/11/2025

Making meaning with qiviut.

10/11/2025

Muskox guard hair protects. Wrinkled and skin thin as paper, I see this hand as a reminder that taking care means honouring how bodies, animal and human, are weathered by the wind, rain and cold ~ nicole

08/11/2025

🧶Spinning and Weaving Workshop

Saturviit is partnering with Nicole Klenk and her team from the University of Toronto to host a special hands-on Qiviut Workshop. The goal is to empower Inuit women to learn how to work with qiviut and discover its potential as an entrepreneurial tool, from clothing-making to creating jewellery pieces. Participants will also have the chance to connect with SED students and explore new business ideas together.

📍 Saturviit Women Centre, 620 Lakeshore, Suite 304, Dorval
📆Friday November 28, 2025 from 2 pm to 5 pm:
📆Saturday November 29, 2025 from 9 am to 12 pm:

🟣Participants who attend on Saturday morning can stay to practice their skills in the afternoon from 1 pm to 4 pm.
📣Only 20 spots available. It is on a first come, first served basis. Please register at [email protected]. You will receive a confirmation email.

The Environmental Science in Society Lab team has created a page for their umingmak community engagement workshops. Participants can get to know who they are, learn from short videos of qiviut making processes, ask questions and follow-up after the workshop. Use the link below: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61582909894191

08/11/2025

We are very much looking forward to this workshop!

🧶Spinning and Weaving Workshop

Saturviit is partnering with Nicole Klenk and her team from the University of Toronto to host a special hands-on Qiviut Workshop. The goal is to empower Inuit women to learn how to work with qiviut and discover its potential as an entrepreneurial tool, from clothing-making to creating jewellery pieces. Participants will also have the chance to connect with SED students and explore new business ideas together.

📍 Saturviit Women Centre, 620 Lakeshore, Suite 304, Dorval
📆Friday November 28, 2025 from 2 pm to 5 pm:
📆Saturday November 29, 2025 from 9 am to 12 pm:

🟣Participants who attend on Saturday morning can stay to practice their skills in the afternoon from 1 pm to 4 pm.
📣Only 20 spots available. It is on a first come, first served basis. Please register at [email protected]. You will receive a confirmation email.

The Environmental Science in Society Lab team has created a page for their umingmak community engagement workshops. Participants can get to know who they are, learn from short videos of qiviut making processes, ask questions and follow-up after the workshop. Use the link below: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61582909894191

29/10/2025

From hand-spun threads to richly dyed yarns, qiviut work continues an ancient practice of making with care. Spinning, knitting, and crocheting link us to animals, land, and seasonal cycles—traditions that contemporary makers are reinventing in beautiful, innovative ways.