Biography

Pat Kane is a photographer based in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. He takes a documentary approach to stories about people and life in Northern Canada with a special focus on issues important to Indigenous people, including the relationship between land and identity. His work has been published widely, including in The Atlantic, The Globe and Mail, National Geographic and The New York Times. His work has been supported by grants from the National Geographic Society and the Royal Canadian Geographic Society. Pat Kane is of Irish-Canadian and Algonquin Anishnaabe ancestry, and is a member of the Timiskaming First Nation (Québec).

Hunt for Healthy Food (2024)

The photographs presented here are from two series, The Hunt for Healthy Food and Brand Loyalty. Using two different aesthetic styles – documentary and Andy Warhol-inspired monochromatic still lives – the photographs speak to questions of food security in the far north. What the photographs show us is how the relationship to food has changed drastically through colonization and forced settlement. In both the Northwest Territories and even more so in Nunavut, many people do not have access to healthy, nutritious food as people have been coerced into relying upon southern food, which needs to be shipped from great distances and is often extremely expensive. For the mainly Indigenous peoples who live in the far north, hunting is not only a matter of access to healthy food, it connects people to the land and wildlife, which nourish the body and mind, and foster cultural identity.