Nicholas Flowers is a multidisciplinary artist from Hopedale, Nunatsiavut, NL, where he still lives. He is passionate about carrying on traditional Inuit crafts and heritage through a contemporary and environmentally conscious perspective, which is reflected in his focus on toolmaking, carving and sewing. One of the main values in Flowers’s practice is functionality. “I like to make gifts or practical tools or clothing that can be used here in our region,” [1] he says. He creates traditional tools that can be used on the land and in everyday life, like uluit; kiliutait and saligutet, tools used for scraping sealskin; ulimautet, axes; and savet, knives. He also makes soapstone and steel Kullet and sealskin accessories, like pualok and kamek. “I like them [mediums] all equally, because they all compliment each other,” he says.
Flowers is inspired by his artist family members: late grandmother, sewist and textile artist Andrea Flowers, who taught him how to sew and create sealskin kamek; sisters Vanessa Flowers and Veronica Flowers, who are sewists; and father, Reuben Flowers, who is a skilled woodworker. “They were definitely big influences and still are to this day,” he says.
In 2022, Flowers participated in the Aurniarvik program, an intensive Inuktut second-language certificate, at the Pirurvik Centre in Iqaluit, NU. As part of the program, he participated in some toolmaking workshops, where he created his first ulu, kiliutak and saligutik. Much of his practice since his teenage years has been self-taught, from watching other Nunatsiavummiut artists.
Using local materials is an important part of Flowers’s practice. “I believe simplicity and efficiency can create some of the most useful and quality work,” he says. He uses locally harvested wood—birch, spruce and juniper—that he cuts down himself, locally sourced soapstone, repurposed steel and sealskin that he processes himself. “As an Indigenous artist, I believe that using locally harvested materials can help connect us to nature and deepen our respect and appreciation of the land,” he says.
Outside of his artistic practice, Flowers works as an Inuktitut instructor at Inotsiavik Language and Culture Incorporated, an Inuit-led non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating and teaching Inuttut language and culture, in Hopedale. He also processes sealskin, cleaning and preparing it into materials that can be sewn with. “If I’m not seal hunting, I’ll be in our Inotsiavik garage cleaning sealskin in the traditional way,” he says. His main goal is to continue making practical art and refine his skills so he can apply this more to his job as an Inuktitut instructor, hoping to run some toolmaking workshops, particularly an ulu-making workshop, for youth in his community.