Artist Info
Martha Noah
Martha Ilumigayak Noah was a graphic artist from Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake), NU. Born near Chantry Inlet, NU in 1943, Martha was the first of five children. At the age of ten, Martha’s father died and she and her family made their way to her father’s family camp. By fifteen, Martha attended the newly opened Inuvik Roman Catholic Residential School; she remained at the school for two years before joining her mother in Qamani’tuaq. At the age of twenty, Noah married William Noah, son of acclaimed graphic artist Jessie Oonark, and began her artistic pursuits with support from other artists in Qamani’tuaq.
Working first with drawing and printmaking, Noah also became a skilled carver. Noah participated in the print program in Qamani’tuaq alongside her husband since it first started in 1970 and began combining techniques of stonecut and stencil in 1973. Art has always been a community experience for Noah, she has translated many fellow artist’s drawings into prints, including works by Ada Eeyeetowa, Luke Anguhadluq, Irene Tiktaalaq Avaalaaqiaq, and sister-in-law, Victoria Mamnguqsualuk.
Noah’s techniques have been most recently featured in a print done of one of her husband’s drawings in the 2020 ULAG exihibition Unikkkausivut: Stories from the North.
