So Much To Look Forward To: “Where Are They Now?” With Dr. Krista Ulujuk Zawadski
Late in 2024 Krista Ulujuk Zawadski defended her doctoral dissertation at Carleton University titled “ᐱᖁᑏᑦ ᐃᓅᓯᖓᑦ ᖃᑎᒃᑕᓕᖕᒥᑦ Piqutiit Inuusingat Qatiktalingmit: Cultural and Social Lives of Inuit Piqutingit.” We recently caught up with the newly minted Dr. Zawadski to learn about some of the many projects she has been working on since her graduation.
This year, the Agguaq Collective joined the MakeWay Foundation and hired a Project Director. Together, they are also developing a training workshop focused on processing and sewing sealskins, planned for February 2026. As a member of the Agguaq Collective, Krista has been helping to organize an Inuit clothing gathering planned for 2026, which will bring together Inuit from across Alaska, Greenland, and Canada to study traditional clothing patterns. This October, Agguaq also returned to the McCord Stewart Museum, where member Melissa Attagutsiak created a pattern from an amauti in the museum’s archival collection. A forthcoming article in the Inuit Art Quarterly this winter, written by Krista, will highlight the Agguaq Collective’s work to thread connections across generations of Inuit through pattern making and sewing.
The Agguaq Collective also visited the Winnipeg Art Gallery this year for strategic planning and to spend time in the collections. They plan to link sewing patterns based on garments from the WAG’s holdings back to the makers’ families, many of whom are from Arviat and Pangnirtung.
Since 2019, Krista has served on the Bank of Canada’s Indigenous Advisory Circle, a committee that provides guidance on how Indigenous Peoples in Canada might be represented on future bank notes through symbols, images, patterns, and other forms of visual iconography. The committee has been working on the design of a new $20 bill and has begun work on a new $5 bill featuring Terry Fox.
Some of the Sinaani: Artists at the Edge residency participants. From left to right, Kablusiak, Krista Ulujuk Zawadski, asinnajaq, and Heather Igloliorte.
Laakkuluk Williamson begins a net at the Elder’s Cabin.
In Spring 2025, Dechinta led an art residency in Rankin Inlet hosted by Krista and her family, Sinaani: Artists at the Edge, inviting seven artists and scholars (and three children) for land-based learning activities such as ice fishing, working with seal skins led by Goretti Kakuktinniq, and net making taught by Krista’s mother, Maggie Putulik. They partnered with Parks Nunavut, using Elder’s Cabin as a base, and had support during the week from the multitalented artist, Elder Helen Iguptak, who demonstrated sealskin cleaning and tanning, among other activities. The week concluded with a panel at the Rankin Inlet Visitors Centre, where participants shared reflections on their work and discussed future collaborations. They plan to host a second iteration of the residency in the future. Programming shifted daily in response to conditions—“Weather is boss,” Krista said.
Krista and her mother have also been developing a research project and podcast focused on storytelling and knowledge transfer for specific skills, aimed at filling gaps in knowledge and connecting people across cultures. They have started with researching and creating an instructional resource on nets and the history of net making. Krista is currently taking training on podcast editing. We look forward to listening - and to seeing what Dr. Zawadski does next! With so many exciting initiatives underway and coming up, it seems like she’s just getting started.
Krista is a faculty member at the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning, where she is currently working on course development, including an upcoming course on Indigenous Storytelling and Sovereign Creative Practice in February 2026. She is also planning a sealskin-focused course for April—one of the best months to process seals due to ideal weather conditions.
Helen Iguptak tends the qulliq at the Elder’s Cabin with asinnajaq.
Maggie Putulik teaching asinnajaq how to make nets.