Teevee, Jamasie

Jamasie Teevee

Cape Dorset

(1910-1985)

“[Jamasie] began to draw in the early 1960s while living in an Inuit Camp on the coastline of southern Baffin Island. During that time, he concentrated primarily on the copper engraving technique, ferrying copper plates back and forth between his campsite and the co-operative in Cape Dorset. Many of his engravings, published in the 1960s and early 1970s, depicted the traditional Inuit camp and hunting activities.

[In the early 1980s], Jamasie … returned to drawing on paper, using graphite and coloured pencils, in addition to felt-tip pens. His drawings [were] executed in precise, simple and uncluttered lines.”

Jamasie was the father of Anirnik Ragee, Parnee Peter, Nicotai Simigak, and Simeonie Teevee, all Cape Dorset sculptors. Jamasie’s wife, Cape Dorset artist Angotigolu Teevee, died in 1967.

Excerpt courtesy Inuit Art Section, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), 1997.