Nunavut artist's tissue box design helping to ‘bring the nuna’ to homes across Canada

Siku Rojas, also known as Yurak, is one of five artists featured on Royale tissue boxes

Urban Inuit living south, can now bring a little bit more of Nunavut into their homes.

“To bring the landscape and bring the nuna to them was kind of a touching thing to be able to do,” Rojas said.

Rojas has two designs featured on the tissue boxes. Both landscapes, one depicts the view from her window in Apex, the other is where she caught her first caribou outside Iqaluit.

The bright, colourful scenes are different from what Rojas says first come to mind for some imagining Inuit art. She said she wants to highlight the diversity of Nunavut landscapes and of Inuit art.

“They're thinking of Kinngait prints and they're thinking of the weaving and pottery, but I'm thinking of the 20-year-old youth who's making comic books in Inuktitut,” she said.

“That's what my art’s always about is just showing that Inuit art is always just Inuk art because you're Inuk. Like, there's no specific look to it and that's the beauty.”

Rojas said Royale reached out to her late last year, having seen her social media, and asked to partner with her. She said she had more or less free reign over the design with the parameters of showcasing the region and using a colour palette that applies to all designs in the series.

In a news release about the campaign, Jennifer Lo, vice president of marketing for Royale, wrote that the designs “celebrate the places, traditions and experiences that help Canadians feel at home while shining a light on the creativity found in communities across the country.”

With files from Carl Cardinal and Kimberly Ivany