Inuk artist Annie Pootoogook found dead in Ottawa,September 2016

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/annie-pootoogook-obit-1.3776525

[h=3]Police seek public's help retracing movements leading up to her death[/h]

Prominent Inuk artist Annie Pootoogook has been identified as the woman whose body was found in Ottawa's Rideau River earlier this week.

Officials with the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in her hometown, Cape Dorset, Nunavut, confirmed the death of the chalk-and-ink artist, who rose to prominence when she won the Sobey Award in 2006.
Pootoogook, 47, had been living in Ottawa.
Her drawings offered a contemporary take on her culture, where old customs intermingled with modern technology and goods.
Her work is part of the collections at the National Gallery of Canada and the Ontario Gallery of Art and was recently part of an exhibition on Indigenous pop art at Ottawa's Saw Gallery.

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Ottawa police say they are not treating it as a homicide, but the major crimes unit is investigating. Police are hoping to get the public's help in retracing her steps leading up to the discovery of her body on Sept. 19.

A city worker called 911 just before 9 a.m. ET Monday after seeing a body in the river near Bordeleau Park, which sits off King Edward Avenue, Cathcart and Bruyère streets in the Lowertown neighbourhood.
Anyone who saw Pootoogook in the days leading up to Sept. 19 is asked to contact the major crimes unit at 613-236-1222 ext. 5493.

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-work-of-artist-annie-pootoogook/article32036546/

A collection of chalk-and-ink drawings by Inuit artist Annie Pootoogook, winner of the Sobey Award in 2006

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http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...in-retracing-steps-of-inuit-artist-found-dead
Pootoogook’s story is one of a rocket ride to superstardom in the art world, followed by a crash into addiction, life on the street and tragedy.

Originally from Cape Dorset, Nunavut, Pootoogook was considered one of Canada’s most pre-eminent Inuit artists. Her grandmother, Pitseolak Ashoona, also an artist, was the last to grow up in the nomadic Inuit lifestyle. Her mother, Napachie Pootoogook, was also an artist who died in 2002.

Pootoogook began drawing in 1997 and was discovered about 14 years ago by Patricia Feheley of Feheley Fine Arts, a Toronto art gallery that began buying her work through the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in Cape Dorset. Her drawings were a jarring chronicle of modern Inuit life — a family watching Jerry Springer on television, ATM cash machines, scenes of alcoholism and spousal abuse.

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Pootoogook, who has lived in Ottawa since 2007, battled the demons of sexual abuse, alcohol and drugs. By 2012 she had disappeared from view and journalists who attempted to track down the media-shy artist were disappointed. She drew attention again when Citizen reporter Hugh Adami found her pregnant, panhandling and selling drawings for $25 to $30 on the street to pay for cigarettes.

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Annie Pootoogook in 2012, drawing on the sidewalk near the Rideau Centre.

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R.I.P. Ms Pootoogook
:rose::rose::rose:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/annie-pootoogook-investigation-update-1.3780430
'Suspicious elements' of Inuk artist Annie Pootoogook's death draw Ottawa police attention


Gaps remain in timeline leading up to discovery of Pootoogook's body in Rideau River last week

By Kristy Nease, CBC News Posted: Sep 27, 2016

"We're taking a look at suspicious elements of it. It doesn't mean there's foul play right now. It doesn't mean the whole thing is suspicious. There is just something about it that's just not sitting right, so we're going to take a closer look."

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"[There's been] a good, overwhelming public response," Pirt said. "A lot of people liked her, a lot of people came forward trying to be helpful.… The problem is that with her nomadic nature, it's very difficult to pinpoint her last movements.
"The timeline has got some gaps in it and we're just trying to fill that in."
The cause of death is not being released, and police won't say what elements of the case they find suspicious.
Anyone who saw Pootoogook in the days leading up to Sept. 19 is asked to call the major crimes unit at 613-236-1222, ext. 5493. Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling Crime Stoppers toll-free at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts...inuit-artist-anniepootoogook/article32198919/

Dr. Phil, by Annie Pootoogook.

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She always said she could only draw what she had lived, which included scenes of cozy domesticity, of watching Dr. Phil on TV, and of cutting up raw seal on a piece of cardboard on the floor. It also included images of domestic violence, which startled those who looked to Inuit art only for timeless views of wholesome Northern traditions.
“She was drawing out of personal experience, but also out of shared cultural experience,” said Heather Igloliorte, Concordia University Research Chair in Indigenous Art History. That had been a feature of her mother and grandmother’s art too, said Ms. Igloliorte, but Inuit life had changed, and Ms. Pootoogook had been born into a new reality.

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http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa
[h=2]'We're tired of being hurt': Annie Pootoogook honoured at Parliament Hill vigil[/h]

As Ottawa police continue to investigate the suspicious circumstances of Annie Pootoogook's death, the Inuk artist's image was front and centre among photos of missing and murdered Indigenous women Tuesday at a vigil on Parliament Hill. Oct 04,

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Ottawa officer charged after online remarks about death of Inuit artist
October 23, 2016

Snipped...

An Ottawa police officer who publicly speculated that a celebrated Inuit artist may have “got drunk and fell in the river” while his colleagues were still investigating her unsolved death has been charged under the Police Services Act.

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Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...-about-deceased-inuit-artist/article32487338/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/annie-pootoogook-donation-kenojuak-cultural-centre-1.3895791

[h=1]New Kenojuak Cultural Centre gets $100K donation in Annie Pootoogook's memory[/h]
[h=3]'She was a beautiful person on the inside and the outside and touched people, I'm sure, everywhere she went.'[/h] By Elyse Skura, CBC News Posted: Dec 14, 2016

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September 16 2017
https://www.thestar.com/entertainme...n-vivid-display-at-the-mcmichael-gallery.html

[h=1]The death, and life, of Annie Pootoogook on vivid display at the McMichael gallery[/h]She broke ground for a generation of Inuit artists. Her work, and her tragic death last year, helped us see how much more is broken.

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A towering portrait of the late Annie Pootoogook greets the viewer in the entry of 'Cutting Ice,' a commemorative exhibition of the revered Inuit artist's work. Pootoogook was found lifeless in the Ottawa River in September of last year after many years of struggles with substance abuse. (Courtesy McMichael Collection)

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Dec 11 2022 By Cindy Tran rbbm.

OTTAWA - Every day on his way to work in 2016, Veldon Coburn drove past Bordeleau Park, by the edge of the Rideau River near downtown Ottawa.

On a September day that year, while he drove past the park, Coburn heard on the radio that a body had been found in the river.

Days later, he learned that the person found in the river was Annie Pootoogook, a renowned Inuk artist who won the prestigious Sobey Art Award in 2006 and whose work has been shown around the world.

She was also the biological mother of Coburn’s adopted daughter, Napachie, who was four years old at the time.

Despite her success, Pootoogook struggled with homelessness while in Ottawa. Police investigated her death as suspicious, but no charges were ever laid.

This year, Sept. 19 marked the sixth anniversary of Pootoogook’s death. Napachie turned 10 years old the same month. Coburn said that at each anniversary, he wonders if he should be doing more to find answers for his daughter about what happened to her biological mother.

“There’s so many questions left unanswered. What if Napachie starts asking in 10 years, ‘Why didn’t you ask more questions?’” he said.
This anniversary was especially heavy, he said, because it came just days after a 22-year-old Inuk woman was found dead in Ottawa.''


''Police say Savanna Pikuyak moved to the city in early September and responded to an ad on Facebook to rent a room in a three-bedroom townhouse near Algonquin College, where she had just started studying. She was killed Sept. 14.

Her roommate, Nikolas Ibey, 33, has been charged with first-degree murder.

Later in September, the remains of Mary Papatsie were found at a construction site in the city’s Vanier neighbourhood. Her family had declared the 39-year-old missing in 2017.

In a statement, her niece Tracy Sarazin said the family is now looking for “answers and justice,” and they are demanding a thorough investigation into what happened to Papatsie.

All three women moved to Ottawa from the North in search of better opportunities.

CROSS POSTED..