Agnes Topiak's R. v. Angulalik in May 1957 (Image: Northwest Territories Courts)
When does a relatively small exhibition of Inuit carvings in a remote northern museum become a case of national intrigue? When those carvings have been concealed for more than a decade due to repeated theft attempts. The Sissons-Morrow collection consists of 21 Inuit carvings that depict significant early criminal and constitutional cases in what is now Nunavut. The collection was started by Justice John Howard Sissons of the N.W.T. Supreme Court, who was given a carving in 1956 by a man he found not guilty of killing his father. Sissons and his successor Justice William Murrow began commissioning local artisans to capture major legal cases in stone, ivory, antler, soapstone and metal.
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