"Shutshishiun" Innu Artwork

“Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change – it can not only move us, it makes us move.” - Ossie Davis Shutshishiun = strength, power in Innu-aimun

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Caribou-Hide Coats

(during colonial contact)

Pishakanekup, creator unknown, c. 1700, held at Canadian Museum of History QC

These pictures are examples of an Innu pishakanekup, a painted caribou-hide coat, arguably one of the most prominent symbols of Innu art, enduring in widespread use from the early 18th century until the mid-20th century. These coats were typically full-length, hooded, thick coats made from multiple carefully prepared caribou skins, designed in pairs, a summer coat with the fur removed and another winter coat with the fur facing inward for warmth. Cut with broad shoulders, wide sleeves, and generous length, these coats were typically designed for mobility while travelling, hunting, and living on the land. Women painstakingly scraped, tanned, and softened the hides, then cut and sewed them into durable, weather-resistant garments; in particular, winter coats were designed to trap air and shed moisture, making them exceptionally functional in the subarctic climate. The caribou itself was central to Innu life, in a way similar to the bison for plains Indigenous peoples, guiding seasonal movement and providing not only food but also the primary materials for these coats and most other clothing, shelter, tools, and thread, making the animal essential to survival and cultural continuity.

Pishakanekup, creator unknown, c. unknown, held at Canadian Museum of History QC

Most notably, many caribou-hide coats were further distinguished and personalised by painted designs applied directly to the hide, using locally available mineral pigments mixed with binders. These vibrant motifs were painted in extensive patterns of red, blue, yellow, and black featuring bands, chevrons, triangles, diamonds, and flowing curvilinear lines, often arranged symmetrically across the chest, back, and sleeves. Rather than being purely decorative, such designs were understood to carry spiritual meaning, frequently inspired by dreams, referencing mythological figures like Caribou Master and other animal spirits, or drawing on the landscapes of Nitassinan. The painted coats were also understood to convey special powers during the hunt and please the Caribou Master, helping maintain respectful relationships with the caribou generally while also ensuring good luck for indivudal hunts.  While everyday use declined with forced settlement and the adoption of manufactured clothing, many contemporary Innu continue to study, recreate, and reinterpret these coats. They also often appear in museums, cultural demonstrations, and occasional contemporary works, standing as prominent material expressions of Innu culture, artistry, and fundamental relationships to caribou.

Painted Caribou-Hide Robe, creator unknown, c. 1920, held at the National Museum of the American Indian

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Katakuashtunanit and Katshishtashkuatet, Canoes

(during colonial contact)

Katakuashtunanit, creator unknown, c. unknown, Musée ilnu de Mashteuiatsh QC

Canoes have long been central to Innu subsistence and their mobile seasonal movements. Traditionally and prior to European contact, Innu travelled frequently by birch-bark canoe, known as katakuashtunanit, in the summer months to fish, hunt, and navigate the rivers and lakes of Nitassinan. These vessels were typically crafted from locally harvested bark and spruce roots so that they were lightweight yet strong. These traditional designs were decorated subtly with functional shaping, balanced proportions, and minimal carved shapes rather than bold motifs, reflecting an aesthetic rooted in utility and reflecting their lifestyle. The canoe pictured above (first picture) is an example of a katakuashtunanit, although neither its creator nor the period of construction is known, and few examples of this style of Innu canoe still exist. It’s on display at the Musée ilnu de Mashteuiatsh on the Pekuakamiulnuatsh Innu First Nation.

Katshishtashkuatet, Pien Penashue, c. 2002, The Rooms NL

As European trade goods became more readily available in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, birch bark was gradually replaced by PVC canvas coverings, metal nails, and painted in green or white, all purchased from Hudson's Bay Company outlets. This gave rise to what Innu builders call the katshishtashkuatet, a hybrid form that retained Innu construction logic (covering of the canoe is assembled first, and the ribs and planking/sheathing are inserted into the shell) while incorporating new materials for durability and strength. Elder canoe-maker Pien Penashue and his apprentices documented this craft style in the early 2000s, passing on techniques and narratives linked to these transitions, and many contemporary makers continue to teach canoe building primarily as an act of cultural preservation. The canoe made by Elder Pien Penashue (second picture) is today held at the The Rooms, a prominent museum in St. Johns, NL.

Katshishtashkuatet under construction, c. 1921

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Footprints (2023)

(contemporary art)

Footprints, Mary Ann Penashue, c. 2023, part of Ninan Nitassinan (Our Land)

Footprints (2023) is an evocative painting by Innu artist Mary Ann Penashue, created as part of her Ninan Nitassinan (Our Land) series shown in 2023. Penashue, born in 1964 on Birch Island near Goose Bay and raised in rural Mud Lake in Labrador, drew deeply on her experience of growing up in nutshimit (the country) with her grandparents, learning Innu traditions, hunting knowledge, and developing a relationship with Nitassinan. In Footprints, layers of white and grey paint depict snow-covered ground, across which the tracks of a caribou appear, followed by the footsteps of a hunter. Embedded among these impressions are a pipe and beads dropped in the snow. Penashue’s work uses acrylic paint on canvas, with layered texture and subtle, natural tones that evoke both the physical winter landscape and the close feeling of her personal connection to the subject matter. Additionally, the bright red, blue, and yellow outer border of the piece further mimics the design motifs of the Caribou-hide coats traditionally worn by Innu hunters.

Mary Anne Penashue

As mentioned previously, in Innu hunting culture, caribou were central to their lifestyle and of deep importance, treated with respect, ceremonies, and spiritual significance; tobacco and beads were traditionally carried by hunters as gifts to attract the spirit of the caribou. In a CBC interview, Penashue explained that the imagery comes from a personal memory: her own grandfather carried beads and a pipe on hunts in hopes of a successful encounter. Her painting seems symbolic of the interwoven paths of humans, animal spirits, and her own memories. In Footprints, she aimed to honor both her grandfather’s presence and the spiritual protocols surrounding the hunt, with Penashue stating in the CBC interview that her paintings are her way to keep the memories of her family, to keep her culture, and to “keep the tradition alive." 

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Dreaming of Caribou (2025)

(contemporary art)

Dreaming of Caribou, Melissa Tremblett, c. 2025, Bonavista NL

Dreaming of Caribou (2025) is a sculptural installation by Melissa Tremblett, a visual artist of Innu and English heritage from Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation in Labrador. Tremblett’s multidisciplinary work spans installation, performance, photography, and traditional art forms such as beadwork and tea doll craft, often grounded in themes related to her Innu heritage, her community, and their history and culture. She was just this month declared ArtsNL's artist of the year, on December 9th.

Light shining through sculpture

Dreaming of Caribou was featured in the 2025 Bonavista Biennale, where it appeared as a physical site-specific structure crafted from plexiglass, aluminum, and wood, giving the work a strong physical presence. The piece draws on previously discussed Innu caribou-hide coat motifs, displayed across the plexiglass in red, blue, and yellow designs that reflect in the sunlight on the ground below. These motifs again emphasise the significance of caribou in Innu culture; the animal is highly respected and central to subsistence, seasonal travel, and ceremony. The caribou, due to this deep connection, is also very much a symbol of the Innu themselves. The piece reimagines these ancestral visual languages in a contemporary sculptural form and literally reflects these important symbols back onto the land around it. By abstracting traditional designs into structural elements and reflecting them back, Tremblett creates a space that invites viewers to consider the caribou and, by extension, the Innu’s continuing the connection and presence on the land, despite colonial displacement. In a CBC News interview on her recent ArtsNL win, Tremblett explained: “In a place like the Bonavista Peninsula, where colonial history has long been celebrated, this felt like beaming a lens of Indigenous culture on the landscape.”

Melissa Tremblett

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Pitashinan, Shot Pouch

(during colonial contact)

Pitashinan, creator unknown, c. 1920-1930, held by the University of Pennsylvania Museum, USA

This is an example (first image) of a pitashinan, also known as a pi’ tecena’n in Naskapi or a shot pouch in English, a crafted pouch to hold a hunter’s ammunition, such as percussion caps and lead shot, on hunting expeditions. Innu pouches were typically constructed of soft hide, with a long strap worn around the neck and pouch draped on the chest so a hunter could quickly access ammunition while loading a rifle, firearms long since becoming widespread in Innu hunting. These pitashinan’s usage reflects the intersection of Indigenous craft traditions with the profound changes in Innu lifestyle brought on by European contact and the fur trade era.

Depiction of Innu at an HBC Trading Post, W. G. R. Hind, c. 1863

This specific pitashinan (first image) was collected in Labrador between 1920 and 1930 by anthropologist Frank G. Speck, and now held at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. The original creator and exact date of creation is unknown. On this hide piece, the flap of the pouch is adorned with a beaded floral motif, and the strap is decorated with diamond and triangular beaded designs, showcasing the Innu’s deep embrace of imported materials and new crafts like beadwork. These motifs can be seen as more than just decorative: they demonstrate how Innu women and hunters integrated traded materials from Europeans/Settlers, such as glass beads and silk thread, into traditional hide-working techniques and modified these utilitarian objects into expressions of identity as they had done for centuries with their painted caribou-hide clothing. Speck noted that as muzzle-loading and cap-lock rifles became central to subsistence hunting, shot pouches like this became “an indispensable part of every hunter’s equipment,” while at the same time flourishing as sites of ornate artistic expression through design. This combination of practical function and decorative complexity captures a moment of cultural change, in which Innu material culture adapted to new resources and craft forms while retaining it's deep roots in a long-standing artistic tradition.

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Modern Innikueu, Modern Innu Tea Dolls

(contemporary art)

Three modern Tea Dolls, created by students from Sheshatshiu Innu School, c. 2023

This image is an example of three modern Innikueu, or tea dolls. Specifically, as detailed in a 2023 CBC article, these tea dolls were created in 2023 by students at the Sheshatshiu Innu School on the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation, under the guidance of Elder Bridget Nuna through a partnership with a local teacher. Contemporary tea dolls, like these, often retain the same basic structure as traditional dolls: soft, minimalist hide bodies with hand-sewn Innu clothing, but are often now made with more commercially available fabrics, more stylised designs, decorative stitching, and brighter color palettes. They are often still made to contain tea too! The Sheshatshiu Innu School’s dolls contained Tetley’s.

Elder Bridget Nuna with students

Since the 80s, the creation of tea dolls has experienced a notable revival, both to honor tradition and to pass on a cultural practice, and respond to economic opportunities in Indigenous arts. Contemporary Elders, artists, and craftmakers, like Elder Nuna, have played a key role in revitalising the tradition by teaching younger generations how to sew these dolls, often through workshops and school programs in communities like that at Sheshatshiu Innu, where these types of traditional skills are being incorporated into education. To many, teaching students how to craft tea dolls is seen as one of many important traditions to pass on: “It's important that they don't lose their culture or traditions, especially the language, and I'm happy that they're trying their best to learn things [in reference to the Tea Dolls] ... It's good to soak in.” Elder Nuna said in the CBC article.

Tea Dolls sold by Gaia Art Gallery near L'Anse aux Meadows, NL

This push to revitalise tea dolls has also been seized on as an economic opportunity, with modern dolls being widely produced for commercial sale at craft fairs, cultural centres, museum shops, and tourist markets, where they are presented as recognisable markers of Innu identity. Selling tea dolls has provided important income and economic benefits, particularly for women, while supporting broader efforts to reintroduce them as part of cultural revitalisation initiatives. In this context, they now operate at a different intersection than as an object of play and practicality; tea dolls operate between tradition and adaptation, becoming a very practical expression of cultural survival and continuity that has adapted to the modern economic system of the Canadian state, for good or ill.

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Innikueu, Innu Tea Dolls

(during colonial contact)

Moosehide Tea Doll, creator unknown, c. 1927, held at Field Museum of Natural History, USA

Innikueu, commonly known as Innu tea dolls, are small, hand-sewn dolls traditionally made by Innu from scraps of cloth or tanned hide, sewn in the shape of a person and stuffed with dried tea, or, alternatively, with soft materials such as moss, fabric remnants, or dried grasses. These dolls were historically made by parents for their children as toys and as storage containers, reflecting everyday life in hunting camps throughout Nitassinan.

Tea Doll, creator unknown, c. unknown, held by the Peenamin McKenzie School

Tea dolls were typically faceless and had minimally detailed bodies, but contrastingly often adorned with highly detailed clothing, carefully sewn miniature versions of traditional Innu caribou-hide coats, ornamented colourful hats, hand-knit stockings, and moccasins. The name “tea doll” derives, obviously, from their use in storing extra reserve tea. Black Tea, bought/traded from European traders, was a valuable, large-volume commodity to the Innu. When family groups travelled among their hunting grounds, all were expected to carry their share of the load, including children. Their share was carried by bringing it inside their doll, holding an extra cache of tea in case the larger supply ran out. A tea doll’s multifunctional purpose, and construction from spare or natural materials, is a strong reflection of the mobility of traditional Innu life, but also a growing integration of European goods into that lifestyle.

Innu girls with their dolls, c. 1931

As tea dolls were produced informally, individually, and for simple family use, using readily available materials and techniques passed down through observation rather than formal instruction, their traditional construction declined following the forced settlement of many Innu communities in the mid-20th century. Although the practice has been revied, which will be explored, few traditionally made tea dolls from the period of the Innu’s traditional lifestyle survive, remaining mainly in memory, museum collections, and archival photographs. This first image on this post is a traditional tea doll made of moosehide (creator unknown) and is held by the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, acquired by anthropologist Frank G. Speck in 1927.

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Little Introduction

Kuei! (Hello!)

This blog will be dedicated to exploring the artwork of the Innu people. The Innu are an Indigenous people of northeastern Canada whose ancestral territory, Nitassinan, spans large areas of the Labrador-Quebec peninsula. The Innu speak Innu-aimun, an Algonquian language, and are often anthropologically divided into the northern Innu (often called Naskapi) and the southern Innu (formerly known as Montagnais, or Mountain People in French). 

Nitassinan

Since time immemorial, the Innu have maintained a semi-nomadic way of life, organised around seasonal hunting movement through the boreal forest and tundra of their territory following the movement of caribou herds and other game. Caribou, in particular, played the central role in their subsistence, spirituality, and social organisation. This lifestyle relied on deep knowledge of land, animals, and waterways, and was guided by passed-down oral traditions and ceremonial practices. These practices affirmed a reciprocal relationships between themselves and Nitassinan; Innu, like other First Nations, believed that they were only able to kill Caribou if the animal had given themselves willingly, and caribou were celebrated after the hunt at a special feast called a 'makushan' where songs were sung to the animal spirits.

Beginning in the seventeenth century, however, sustained contact with European fishers, missionaries, and fur traders gradually eroded these societal systems, introducing Christian conversion, disease, and transition to/dependence on the fur trade. In the mid-20th century, Canadian and provincial government policies forcibly settled most Innu families into permanent communities, undermining traditional mobility, governance, and food systems and contributing to profound social and cultural dislocation. Today, the Innu number roughly 28,000 according to the 2021 census, and communities include the Mushuau Innu First Nation and the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation in Labrador, as well as several First Nations in Quebec, such as Uashat mak Mani-utenam, Matimekush–Lac John, and Pessamit. While these communities flourish in many ways, being beacons for cultural resilience and the Innu community, many also face a rash of issues stemming from the actions of colonisation, including economic stagnation, infrastructure deficiencies like poor housing, and widespread mental health and substance issues.

An Innu Couple, Labrador, c. 1910

Many Innu artistic practices are, naturally, inseparable from their cultural history and ongoing relationship to Nitassinan. Traditionally, artistic expression took the form of decorated utilitarian objects, such as caribou-hide clothing and canoes, featuring beadwork, carving, woven and painted designs. These designs included similar patterns or motifs, commonly referencing spiritual beliefs, such as legendary figures like Caribou Master, or symbols of their landscape. These designs would not typically be “art” in a traditional settler-Canadian sense, but were valued in daily life, ceremony, and in spiritual beliefs surrounding the hunt.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Innu artists have naturally engaged with contemporary art forms and media, including drawing, painting, sculpture, art installations, and film, while often continuing to ground their work in ancestral knowledge and lived experience. Innu art by modern Innu artists frequently focuses on their connection to Nitassinan, or themes of traditional memory and cultural resilience, responding directly to the impacts of forced settlement, resource extraction in their territories, ongoing societal issues, and colonial structures. Innu art on these topics serves to affirm cultural continuity and self-determination, positioning art as another powerful means of storytelling, political expression, and cultural renewal. Through both traditional and contemporary forms, Innu artists assert the enduring presence of their people, their unbroken connection to Nitassinan, and fight back against the legacies of colonisation they still endure.

Left: Tutaueu (Innu Hunter Trading), Mary Ann Penashue

Right: Innu Coat, c. 1820, held by the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA

We’ll explore these themes in the following posts!