Inuit printmaking began in 1955 on an island in Nunavut, Canada. This medium new to the region was introduced by James Houston who had just become the Canadian civil administrator for the Inuit settlement of Cape Dorset. Houston, roughly a decade later, studied sósaku hanaga style block printing in Japan. The influence of Japanese block printing then came back with him to the settlement. Soon after, the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative was created to build an infrastructure that allowed for the sale of Inuit art to collectors in Europe and the United States. This cooperative then organized and encouraged the sale of Inuit art, specifically marketed toward Western markets. This was done by pushing Inuit art into this narrative. The Innuit disliked work done through the Eskimo Co-operative as they were encouraged and pushed into recreating the purity of old life, before modernization. This consists of hunting and sled scenes. Innuit artists felt that modern reality with appliances and electronics were important and good changes for their quality of life. For this reason, despite allowing the Inuit to capitalize on their work, pushing them into monetization took away their freedoms and voices as artists, as well as a people. Their art at this time was the first time their culture and history was presented to the western world. The Inuit did not have the opportunity at this time to tell their story and share their reality.
