Kooyook Poodlat
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Kooyook Poodlat, Head of a shaman in transformation
5 x 8 x 3 in.
This enigmatic carving is unusual in many ways. First, there are records of very few works by Kooyook Poodlat. Second, there are very few women who carved bone. Third, the subject appears to be a shaman in transformation. The Inuit believed that transformations happened through the mouth; hence a number of carvings of shamans with open mouths and protruding tongues. In this case, the tongue is outsized, and is shown as coming out under the lower lip, rather than above the lip, obscuring it.
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