animal helping spirits and with a small spirit on his head. Oonark's father—Aglaquarq—used his shamanic powers infrequently but Oonark vividly remembered his helping spirit— Uupitanaisuak. Drum Dance She no longer participated in the drum dance either but she depicted images of the drum dance for example in "Drum Dance" (1970). Shape-shifting was a popular theme seen in Day Spirit (1970). Inuit storytelling Oonark's mother and father and her mother-in-law Naatak, (Natak) were storytellers and these stories are richly represented in Oonark's work, such as the 1970 print entitled "Dream of the Bird Woman", referring to the Kiviuq (Qiviuk), an Inuk who faced dangerous obstacles in his journeys by kayak, which was described by Franz Boas as the most widely known Inuit legend in the circumpolar region. Clothing and tools The knife used by women, the ulu, their clothing, the amauti were recurring themes in her work. People of the Inland (1961) depicts the Back River people. One of her best known works is "Woman" (1970) described as, Birds Bernadette Driscoll explained the presence of birds — in the drawing and print "Dream of the Bird Woman" and in Oonark's other artworks — demonstrated the "symbolic significance of the importance of birds as a symbol of flight and in several instances as a reference to shamanism as in "Angagkok Conjuring Birds (1979) but also as a harbinger of spring and itself a symbol of fecundity and rebirth." Christianity Reverend Alan Whitton was the Anglican minister at Saint Aidan's Church, Baker Lake, from 1963 until 1972. During that time his wife Elizabeth Whitton, befriended Oonark. In 1966 Elizabeth organized a sewing projects with Oonark and others where they produced mittens, parkas, slippers, duffle socks as well as appliqued images from scraps for sale. At Easter in 1968 Elizabeth Whitton asked Oonark to do drawings about their church for their local women's auxiliary magazine. Oonark's drawings included depictions of Reverend Whitton, catechist Thomas Tapatai, local Ihuit parishioners including women with traditional Inuit tattoos and the church exterior. Oonark continued to use these themes in later work, for example in her 1971–1972 wall hanging for Saint Jude's Cathedra1 in Iqaluit and in a 1971–1972 wall hanging of wool and stroud in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario. Oonark described this wall-hanging, In her 1984 essay entitled "Christianity and Inuit Art" and in the 1986 "Jessie Oonark, A Retrospective", Blodgett noted how