Visual Arts
Ashukan (Jean-Pierre Fontaine and Isabelle Courtois)
An Innu chess game

Chess set : Ivory, antler tines, smoked hide, thread, beads, acrylic and wood
An Innu chess game
Ashukan, 2003
Chess set
Ivory, antler tines, smoked hide, thread, beads, acrylic and wood, 15 x 15 x 10 in.
Thumbnail of Innu Thumbnail of Innu devant sa tente Thumbnail of Innu devant une rivière Thumbnail of Aînée fabriquant une raquette Thumbnail of Oie prenant son envol
Thumbnail of Les enseignements de l'aînée, livre d'artiste d'Ashukan Thumbnail of Le jeu d'un Innu, Jeu d'échec d'Ashukan Thumbnail of Chandeliers Thumbnail of Innue en costume Thumbnail of Tête

Caribou, with a very wide range in the north, is the Innus' sacred animal. Caribou is the basis of their forest subsistence: their diet, their garments and moccasins as well as the crafting of traditional tools all depend on bountiful hunts.

Each of the pieces in the chess set was carefully carved from caribou bones. The base of each piece is covered with hide cleaned with tools carved from the animal's tibia, and then tanned and smoked according to the ancestral method.

The struggle waged on the chessboard symbolises the historical encounter between traditional Innu culture and the religion brought by missionaries when Europeans arrived on this continent.
It is important to point out that this struggle actually took place in the past because the Church categorically rejected the beliefs and ritual objects that the Innu had relied on since time immemorial.
These symbols are found on the chess pieces and on their base in caribou hide in the form of primitive paintings.