Labradorite

2019
Digital drawing and collage

It was told to me thusly

A powerful angakok wanted the beauty of the northern lights all to himself, so he stole them from the sky and trapped them within the rocks at his home along the coast of Northern Labrador.

Not far from the home of the angakok, also lived a group of people. They noticed right away that the winter night skies became dark, and suffered in despair. Amongst them there lived a great hunter, one who everyone looked to to lead; in hunting, in traveling, and in aspects of the community.

This great hunter knew immediately who was responsible for the northern lights absence, for he had dealt with the angakok before, and knew of his desire to capture the dancing colours for himself.

The hunter grabs his harpoon and takes off in a run, towards the angagoks home.

The hunter tried to convince the angakok to return the northern lights to the night sky to no avail. Determined to bring beauty back to the night sky, the hunter kills the angakok in hopes that his spell of trapping the northern lights in the rocks would die with him.

This doesn’t work.

So the hunter finds the spot where the northern lights are brightest in the rock, calls upon all his strength and drives his harpoon into the stone.

The force of the blow does release some of the northern lights back into the sky, but the dead angakoks magic was so strong that some of the colours stayed steadfast in the rock.

Giving us what we call labradorite today.