Across the Circumpolar North, crafting has always been more than the pragmatism of making objects. It is a way of learning, a way of remembering, and a way of staying in relationship – with land, materials, ancestors, and community.
By Sylvia Moore, UArctic Chair in Indigenous and Northern Education, Vice-Lead of the UArctic Verdde Indigenous Education Thematic Network, Associate Professor and Founding Faculty, School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland
The Duodji and Ilusivut (Arts and Crafts) as Pedagogy in the Circumpolar North project brought together northern and Indigenous educators and crafters to share their crafts, reflect on their lived cultural knowledge, and consider the ways in which crafting can be a holistic approach to teaching.
Developed in collaboration between the UArctic Chair in Indigenous and Northern Education and the UArctic Verdde Indigenous Education Thematic Network, and funded by the Canadian Global Arctic Leadership Initiative, the project connected participants in virtual monthly gatherings. Together, participants explored how traditional and contemporary crafting practices carry Indigenous knowledges, values, and histories into teaching and learning.
Through dialogue and educator self-study, participants articulated what crafting teaches. Patience. Observation. Responsibility. Problem-solving. Respect for materials. The process of making, many reflected, is a form of thinking – one where hands and mind learn together.
A central element of the project was educator self-study. Participants reflected on their own crafting practices and considered how these experiences shape their teaching identities and pedagogical choices. In this context, self-study becomes a decolonizing methodology – one that centres lived experience, cultural knowledge, and relational accountability. Educators are not only practitioners; they are also scholars of their own practice.
The project unfolded through online seminars, recorded conversations, and graphic recordings that visually captured shared insights. These gatherings created supportive spaces for educators to think together about how crafting can be meaningfully integrated into schools, teacher
education, and community learning. Importantly, the project emphasized that crafting as pedagogy is not about adding activities to an already crowded curriculum. It is about a shift in orientation – recognizing Indigenous ways of knowing as foundational rather than supplementary.
Inuk educator and crafter Ola Andersen said, “with these crafts also came stories … you’re not sitting there in silence,” highlighting the inseparability of crafting and storytelling. Teaching stories arise organically through the act of making, and crafted objects themselves carry memory and narrative.
The project participants also spoke about crafting as a way that knowledge, values, and responsibilities are passed across generations, situating learners within longer lines of continuity. This was reflected in discussions about learning from Elders and other family members.
Crafting was also described as deeply land-based as the materials, techniques, and aesthetics emerge from close relationships with specific environments. “Our artwork is grounded in our environment … it’s important to know our environment and to be observers,” said Alaska educator and crafter Nancy Douglas.
As circumpolar education systems respond to calls for reconciliation, Indigenization, and cultural sustainability, projects like Duodji and Ilusivut offer a grounded path forward. By honouring crafting as pedagogy, educators reaffirm that learning is relational, embodied, and deeply connected to place. In the steady rhythm of hands working with familiar materials, knowledge is not only transmitted – it is lived, remembered, and carried forward.
Photo: Amy Topkok
Thanks to financial support from Arctic governments, UArctic is able to provide funding towards collaborative projects of its members. The funding from Global Affairs Canada is targeted towards Canadian UArctic members, and it supports the development of collaborative partnerships and cooperative projects related to Northern and Indigenous research and education through two funds: the Indigenous and Northern Relationship Development Fund, and the Indigenous and Northern Collaborative Research and Education Engagement Fund.
